B-12 Recruiting & Predictinng

0If you like offense this is where you need to set the TV dial & VCR recorder. In the B-12. eight of the ten teams scored between 380 (31.6 PPG) to 632 (52.6 PPG) points last season, the remaining 2 teams, Baylor & Kansas, while struggling to score, had no issues allowing points, these teams gave up 952 points (39.6 PPG) in 2017 … so no D = O! Either way / any-which-way, in the B-12 it is always about offense!

The B-12 has not had divisions since their realignment in 2011 and until 2017, they had not played a championship game since 2010, when OU (South Division) beat Nebraska (North division), 23-20! The B-12 is the only Power 5 Conference where a round-robin (every team in the league plays every other team) is scheduled during the regular season and then the top two teams meet for a second time.

Let’s take a close look at B-12 recruiting and see its impact, in isolation (forget, for now, coaching, player development, returning starters, and other factors) on success on the field. Let’s take a look where B-12 teams rank over the past four years (2015 through 2018) in Average Recruiting Rank (ARR) and see where they finished in the 2017 standings and the relationship between those finishes and where the recruiting numbers predicted these teams should finish in 2018!

Conference Standings in 2017    /     Projected Standing based on ARR (listed after team)

1. Oklahoma 8-1                                1. Texas (9)
2. TCU 7-2                                         2. Oklahoma (11)
3. Oklahoma State 6-3                       3. TCU (29)
4. West Virginia 5-4                           4. Baylor (34)
5. Texas 5-4                                      5. Oklahoma State (35)
6. Kansas State 5-4                           6. West Virginia (41)
7. Iowa State 5-4                              7. Texas Tech (48)
8. Texas Tech 3-6                              8. Iowa State (55)
9. Baylor 1-8                                     9. Kansas State (63)
10. Kansas 0-9                                  10. Kansas (66)

• Oklahoma slightly overachieved, the ARR states the Sooners should have finished 2nd in the B-12 behind Texas.
• TCU finished 2nd in the B-12, losing twice to OU in 2017, regular season, 38-20 and in the B-12 Championship Game, 41-17. Please note to distance between the teams ARR OU 11 & TCU 29
• Oklahoma State recruiting numbers suggested a 5th place finish in the B-12, yet the Cowpokes were 3rd. The ARR #’s suggested that Texas (ARR says the Horns should have won the B-12)  and Baylor, who won one game and finished 9th, should have won 6 and finished 4th!
• West Virginia tied for 4th place, winning 5 games and sharing 4th with Texas, K-State, & Iowa State. A slight overachievement, as the ARR predicted a 4-5 record in the B-12 and a 6th place finish.
• Texas is the #1 recruiting football team in the B-12 and one, if not, the number one underachieving program in the nation. A 4th place tie in the B-12 simply will not cut it in the Texas football community. Most preseason previews have the Longhorns 2nd to Oklahoma in the B-12 and given their respective ARR’s (Tx 9th & OU 11th) it should come to the Red River Rivalry outcome. Texas fans demand the B-12 Championship come down to the OU game and then, win it! The ARR number, say those Horn fans are right!
• Kansas State’s Bill Synder has something in common with Budweiser … that is, the Budweiser Song … “When you Bud (in this case, when U say Bill) you’ve said it all!” The Wildcats by their ARR number should have been 1-8, not 5-4 as they were in 2017. Bill Synder … enough said!
• Iowa State, according to their ARR status, the Cyclones should have gone 2-7 in B-12 play, not 5-4 as they did in 2017, and they certainly should not have beaten OU, 38-31 and TCU, 14-7. The challenge for Matty Campbell and his staff is how to turn these victories on the playing fields into wins in the living rooms! Jimmy’s & Joe’s over X’s & O’s
• Texas Tech finished, 3-6, exactly as their ARR predicted, however, how they got their was not according Hoyle. They lost ISU, 31-13 & Kansas State, 42-35 in OT, by their respective ARR numbers, the Red Raiders should have won these games. That said, they beat Texas, 27-23 (probably saves Coach Kingsbury’s job) and Baylor, 38-24, two teams that should have beaten.
• Baylor should have gone 6-3 based on their existing roster, yet, they won 1 game in 2017, beating only Kansas, 38-9, to finish 1-8 in B-12 play. Baylor’s Coach, Matty Rhule, inherited a mess, 2nd only to the Penn State disaster. A template exists for Rhule and his staff to repair the damage done in Waco! They need only look to what Bill O’Brian and James Franklin did @ PSU, in rebuilding the relationship between community and the program.
• Kansas, like Texas Tech, played and won games as the ARR predicted, bad & one. The only team the Jayhawks beat in 2017, was SE Missouri, 38-16, an FCS program from the Ohio Valley Conference and a team that Kansas would have a better roster then, 85 scholarships in the FBS to 63 scholarship in the FCS! Kansas has the lowest ARR number of any P5 program, 66 0f 66, (remember ND & BYU are in our count) assessed by SCFP!