I don’t know that it really needs to be said at this point but these are unprecedented times. The season isn’t what we expected 6 months ago, or even one month ago, and might not turn out as planned even now. It will, however, at this point, at least get underway. In the spirit of moving forward and looking toward more precedented times, we look at the Big 12 football landscape, one of the few remaining pillars of normalcy in a strange new world.

Speaking of pillars, Oklahoma will once again hold up the Big 12 as the strongest team but I do think this will be Lincoln Riley’s toughest coaching job yet. There are plenty of questions in Norman, but you can't really pick against the Sooners until they fall off the top of the mountain. The Texas Longhorns are ranked as a preseason top 15 team and this time it seems like they deserve it. Oklahoma State and Iowa State are once again knocking at the door asking the Sooners and the Longhorns if they can sit at the big boy's table.

Beyond those four schools, I don’t see any real surprises happening this season. Could Texas Tech or Kansas State punch up a few times and win 7 games? Sure. Can they contend for a Big 12 championship? I don’t think either team is ready. Baylor is a bit of a dark horse, but a first-time head coach replacing most of his defensive starters and an inconsistent quarterback seem to stack the odds against Baylor repeating their 2019 success.

There are people that are high on Texas Christian. Smart People. I don’t understand that. They will stink. That leaves West Virginia and Kansas at the bottom, which is, coincidentally, where they belong.

Over the next week, as we inch closer to the start date of September 12th, we will expand on each team with a detailed preview of all ten teams in the Big 12.

For now, here are my initial power rankings for the Big 12.

Big 12 Power Rankings:

  1. OU

  2. OkState

  3. Texas

  4. Iowa State

  5. Baylor

  6. KState

  7. Texas Tech

  8. TCU

  9. West Virginia

  10. Kansas

Keep reading with a game by game breakdown of each game on the Texas Tech schedule along with the percentage chance that Texas Tech has to win that game according to the ESPN FPI:

ESPN: Texas Tech Football's Odds to Win Their 2020 Games

Here are the top 5 position battles I'm looking forward to in the next few weeks:

Top 5 Defensive Position Battles at Texas Tech in 2020

And the top 5 position battles on the offensive side of the ball:

Texas Tech Offensive Position Battles

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