The conference welcomed four middling P12 programs this year, and two of them finished at the very top of the Big 12 standings in their very first season. These were mediocre teams in a conference most of CB has made fun of for many years. And instantly they find success in the Big 12.

Also consider that Iowa St. has never had a 10-win season … until this season, when the new version of the Big 12 was rolled out.

The conference certainly has a bunch of good teams and is strong in that regard. But it has no truly great teams this year. This makes it difficult to build a great playoff resume when things come down to “tiebreakers” for a few remaining at-large spots and you need some signature wins to point to.

Our signature win is SMU, which is an ACC team, which underscores the idea that the conference has a lot of good teams but no great team.

So, if the Big 12 gets only one CFP spot this year, I’ll understand why and won’t have a problem with it. Others will insist that it’s SEC bias, as if all P4 conferences are equally yoked. But they aren’t.

For example, 3-loss Bama will likely get in before we do. That’s frustrating on paper but they have wins against Georgia, South Carolina, and Missouri, while our best three wins are SMU, Kansas St (soon to be unranked), and ???. Frankly, even SMU is a bit of a question mark because they didn’t play Clemson or Miami in ACC play.

My point is that the playoff committee wants teams that have demonstrated the ability to win against top teams, and the Big 12 didn’t offer many chances for us to demonstrate that. That’s not BYU’s fault, but it is a commentary on the conference.

We can complain about bias yada yada yada, but honest observers will acknowledge that this is a limitation of the Big 12 in its current form.