Over the last couple of years, the Big 12 has developed the reputation of a conference with high scoring offenses and a poor defense that is unable to be successful when a team from the conference makes the playoffs. This year that reputation has stayed and may have gotten worse, after three weeks have gone by only one undefeated team remains at that is Oklahoma State. A mainstay Oklahoma is 0-2 in conference play and 1-2 on the year, and their new QB Spencer Rattler has struggled incredibly. Another team that has struggled is Texas who is 2-1 and their only win was by seven points to a mediocre Texas Tech team. Texas was supposed to be the second-best team in the conference and a top ten team in the country but has not looked good at all. Which begs the question: what is wrong with the Big 12?

To start when teams make it to playoffs they usually lose and in bad fashion due to the inability to play high-level defense, but that has not been a problem in conferences for teams like Oklahoma and Texas. But this year it has been because for Oklahoma for the first time they do not have a veteran college quarterback and it has shown through the first games. For example in the two losses, they have had Spencer Rattler has thrown 4 picks. They also do not have the same weapons because over the last two years they have had two first-round receivers and nobody this year has been able to step up and fill that role. Because of this for the first time since 2016 Oklahoma is unranked and headed to play another disappointing team in Texas this weekend, who have had troubles of their own. Texas consistently has high expectations and usually fails to reach them but this year this inability to reach expectations has shown itself more because of how bad the conference, in general, has been. Sam Ehlinger has been the starter there for 3 years and has been pretty good but this year has just been really inefficient, he threw 36 passes and only completed 17 in their loss, and it has hurt this team. Texas should really be 1-2 because their second win was a 14 point comeback with under 2 minutes left. It is looking less and less likely that a team from the Big 12 will make the playoffs, especially with a reduced season schedule.