K-State, Utah, Baylor, and Zona not playing OOC P4 games really hurt the Big 12
this season. The conference could have really used a handful of additional OOC wins, but the fact that these programs played each other in non-counting OOC games is going to hurt the Big 12's chances of getting additional teams into the playoff. There just aren't enough good OOC wins for the Big 12 to speak of, even though it is a very good and competitive conference from top to bottom. I get that there were logistical reasons for the exception, but it still hurts.
The Big 12 went 5-9 against OOC P4 opponents. If K-State, Utah, Baylor, and Arizona, who were all good teams at the start of the season (or they were supposed to be at least) had gone 2-2 or 3-1, then the Big 12 would be looking much better at this point in the season.
As it stands, the only ranked OOC win for the entire conference is BYU's win over SMU. The next best OOC win is probably K-State's win over Tulane (who is #28 in the AP Poll).
The Big 12's OOC wins this season have been:
- BYU over SMU (18-15)
- Iowa State over Iowa (20-19)
- Oklahoma State over Arkansas (39-31)
- Arizona State over Mississippi State (30-23)
- TCU over Stanford (34-27)
Then there are a lot of close losses:
- Kansas lost to Illinois (23-17)
- WV lost to Pitt (38-34)
- Cincinnati lost to Pitt (28-27)
- Houston lost to OU (16-12)
- UCF lost to Florida (24-13)
And there were a handful of blowouts:
- Colorado blown out by Nebraska (28-10)
- West Virginia lost to Penn State (34-12)
- Texas Tech lost to Washington State (37-16)
- TCU lost to SMU (66-42)