Enjoy it now, Big 12

By Chris Dufresne - Los Angeles Times     Oct 1, 2008

The Big 12 should suspend the season temporarily and take a giant group photo, because there may never be a week like this again.

The conference has the nation’s top-ranked team, Oklahoma, four schools ranked in the top seven, six teams ranked in the top 25 and nine quarterbacks ranked in the top 20 of this week’s NCAA pass-efficiency statistics.

Oklahoma on top is nothing new, as the Sooners ascended to No. 1 in the Associated Press media poll this week for a record 96th time.

Sooners’ Coach Bob Stoops cautioned that things can change quickly in the rankings game.

“Our guys know who’s lost and how they’ve lost,” Stoops said of a weekend in which four top-10 schools were defeated. “So in the end, we’ll certainly discuss it to some degree, but they know. Everybody understands that if you’re not at your best, and you don’t play at your best, and play foolishly, you’re going to lose.”

The Big 12 has a few more days to bask in glory before cannibalism in conference play starts to wreak havoc with the top 25.

“It’s where you end up in January,” Gary Pinkel, coach of No. 4 Missouri, said. ” … I just want to be somewhere in it at the end of the year.”

This is the best overall week in the history of the Big 12 Conference, which was formed in 1996, when you add up the number of points that league schools received in the Associated Press poll.

And how about Big 12 quarterbacks?

David Johnson of Tulsa, a Conference USA school, leads the nation in passing, but the next four positions are occupied by Big 12 quarterbacks: Colt McCoy (Texas), Sam Bradford (Oklahoma), Chase Daniel (Missouri) and Zac Robinson (Oklahoma State).

Josh Freeman of Kansas State checks in at No. 8, with Baylor’s Robert Griffin at No. 10.

It’s a tough crowd when you consider Graham Harrell, Texas Tech’s record-setting quarterback, ranks 20th nationally but only ninth in his own conference.

Nothing this good lasts two weeks, let alone forever. The Big 12 might be able to hold this smiley-faced pose for another week as all six ranked schools play conference schools that are not ranked.

After that, the real scrum begins. Big 12 schools will start to beat each other’s rankings, just like that other dominant conference out there.

Enjoy “now” while it lasts.

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30732Enjoy it now, Big 12