Surprising early-season losses may keep Big 12 from sending more than one team to CFP

AP Sports Writer

Big 12 football figured to seem a tad strange without Texas and Oklahoma hanging around the top of the league standings after the Longhorns and Sooners defected to the Southeastern Conference.

No one, however, could have forecast some of the early-season surprises that could wind up affecting whether the Big 12 will be able to land more than one berth in the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff.

No. 18 Utah (4-1, 1-1 Big 12), No. 20 Kansas State (4-1, 1-1) and Oklahoma State (3-2, 0-2) — the three teams considered preseason favorites in the expanded 16-team Big 12 — didn’t even make it into October without a league loss.

Some of the damage has been inflicted on one another.

Oklahoma State, which tumbled out of the Top 25 this week, lost to Utah 22-19 at home and Kansas State 42-20 on the road.

Kansas State was blown out on the road 38-9 by No. 17 BYU, while Utah fell by double digits at home to Arizona 23-10.

That leaves unbeaten BYU (5-0), improved Colorado and Texas Tech atop the conference standings at 2-0 in league play.

No. 16 Iowa State, the Big 12’s only other unbeaten team, Arizona and West Virginia are 1-0.

Granted there’s a long way to go. But, it’s already looking like in an expanded CFP field, there may be only one playoff team from the Big 12.

What if

How would the top of the standings look if not for Baylor losing in heartbreak fashion the past two weeks. The Bears were one play away from winning at Colorado before the Buffaloes tied the game on a Hail Mary pass and then won 38-31 in overtime. Last week, they had two chances to beat BYU before falling to the Cougars 34-28 at home.

Scoreless

Houston (1-4, 0-2), a team once known for having prolific offenses that routinely scored 50, 60, sometimes even 70 points, has been shut out in its first two Big 12 games of the season by Cincinnati (34-0) and Iowa State (20-0).

Picking up steam

Coach Deion Sanders has Colorado, one of four newcomers to the Big 12 this season, off to a promising start. The Buffaloes have won three straight following a road loss to Nebraska and matched their win total from all of a last season when they went on the road last week and trounced UCF 48-21. The Buffaloes wore down the Knights with a balanced offense. Colorado’s defense was impressive, too, limiting UCF’s potent rushing attack to less than half the nation-leading 375.7 yards per game the Knights were averaging on the ground.

“I feel like we’re trending in the right direction. … I love where we are as a program,” Sanders said. “Could we be better? Of course. But I know we’re trending in the right direction.”

Missed opportunity

UCF (3-1, 1-1) is in its second season in the Big 12. The Knights hosted FOX television’s “Big Noon Kickoff” pregame show on campus for the first time and welcomed the opportunity to showcase the program’s progress on a national stage against Colorado.

At 1-1, coach Gus Malzahn’s team is very much in the conference race. There will be chances to make some noise down the stretch.

The Knights play at Iowa State on Oct. 19. They host BYU on Oct. 26 and Utah on Nov. 29.

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