Factor No.1 - The immense bias in favor of the SEC/B1G where those conferences are presumed to be the best every year with a huge gap between the T2 and the third and fourth best conferences based on the "eye test," irrespective of what happens on the field, SOS, or what the computer rankings say. This bias carries over into teams that will eventually get into those conferences when the ACC dissolves (Miami, Clemson, and Florida State), giving certain teams in the ACC an undeserved boost. This bias will be there every year, but the challenge this season was that the bias was combined with a lot of parity among the top teams.

Factor No.2 - The preseason media and coaches polls for the B12 were completely wrong in almost every way. The top 5 in the preseason were: #1 Utah (finished second to last w/ two conference wins), #2 K-State (finished middle of the pack at 5-4 in conference), #3 Oklahoma State (finished dead last losing every conference game), #4 Kansas (finished w/ same overall record as Utah), and #5 Arizona (finished same as Utah). Meanwhile the teams that finished with the best records were picked to have bad seasons. Arizona State was picked dead last, BYU was picked to finish 13th, and Colorado was picked to finish 11th. There was not a single team picked to finish in the top five of the league in the preseason that actually finished in the top half of the league by season's end. The low expectations for the teams that were actually the best resulted in teams like BYU and ASU taking longer to climb the rankings than would have been the case had either team been ranked where they finished to begin the season. Also, Utah occupying the top spot in the pre-season and through non-conference play before getting exposed in conference was not a positive because pollsters were wasting the B12's capital on a team that proved to be a complete dumpster fire. The mismatch between expectations and performance cost the B12 a lot of prestige this year, particularly with respect to the "eye test," which as near as I can tell is just an excuse to affirm your own preconceived bias.

Factor No.3 - Kansas taking the first half of the season off and then catching fire to beat almost all of the top B12 teams gave would be contenders a "bad loss." Kansas was expected to be a good team this year and then they went 1-5 through the first half of the season. In fairness, a lot of the teams they lost close games to looked like bad losses early on but were actually not bad at all (ASU, UNLV, and Illinois all finished the season ranked). Kansas lost a lot of nail-biters against teams that were not expected to be good, but they were actually decent programs. Either way, Kansas was a 2-6 football team that then went off on a tear and beat three ranked B12 teams (ISU, BYU, and Colorado) before getting steamrolled by Baylor. Kansas going 3-1 against the top 4 teams in the B12 and 1-4 against everyone else (not to mention their only non-conference win being against Lindenwood) meant that Kansas handed a "bad loss" to every B12 team that could otherwise be considered for a second spot in the playoff.

So, in spite of factors 1 and 2, a loss to Kansas may likely have been the nail in the coffin for the playoff hopes for BYU, ISU, and Colorado. At this point, I just hope our team comes ready to play in whatever Bowl game we end up in so that we carry some momentum into next year and avoid Factor No.2 above. With a bowl win to end the season and what looks like will be a lot of returning talent, we should start the season ranked somewhere in the teens. Even with a respectable loss I could see us starting next year ranked in the #20-25 range and a T5 preseason projection in the B12. Either way, the climb will be a lot more manageable next year if we keep winning a lot of games.