Last year Oklahoma St was not the second-best team in the Big 12 but had the best schedule and they landed in the Big 12 title game. With the Power Four conferences going to as many as 18 team leagues, who you play and who you miss is even more important.
Today we look at the Big 12 conference. The Big Twelve plays a 9 game schedule which means some teams have five home games and four conference road games while the other half has only four home games and five Big Twelve road games. Arizona, UCF, Texas Tech, Iowa St, TCU, BYU, Colorado and West Virginia.
The next category to look at is conference records from last year. Luckily both the Pac 12 and Big 12 played 9 conference games so the numbers were even for the leagues and each teams foes added up to 81 games. Normally when I do this, I can add up the wins and the losses and they should equal. The totals add up to 567-729 43.8% so you may think I did the math wrong but keep in mind the Big Twelve lost Texas and Oklahoma which were 8-1 and 7-2 in league play. The four Pac 12 teams brought over had records of 7-2, 5-4, 2-7 and 1-8 so a combined 15-21! I mentioned in yesterday’s blog that the Big Ten all faced teams with winning conference records and I expected the opposite for the Big 12.
In this category West Virginia faces the toughest schedule at 42-39 for their opponents conference records with only two other teams facing foes that combined for over 50% in Colorado and Arizona St whose foes were 41-40 in league play last year. At the opposite end of the spectrum, four teams faced foes that combined for under 40% conference wins last year. Those four fortunate teams are Oklahoma St, Kansas St, Kansas and the big winner Arizona whose foes this year combined for a conference record of 29-52 last year or 35.8%.
The above category has some flaws. For example, in the Big Ten Washington last year was 9-0 and in the national title game. This year due to the coaching change and graduation have just a shell of the team returning and lose their head coach.
I have the chart color coded. Now, you may disagree with my ratings, but I have all my preliminary numbers done as the portal is closed and almost all good players have signed that were out there. I have put the teams in three colors.
The top level of teams are the super powers. I list those teams in RED for you do not want to play them. That top level category in no particular order is Oklahoma St, Arizona, Iowa St, Utah and Kansas St.
The next level is in Blue and they are teams that look like bowl teams or bowl caliber teams for this year.
The bottom level is Green for teams that you want to draw. In my preliminary rankings right now the bottom 3 teams in the Big 12 are BYU, Arizona St and Houston and those teams are in Green.
Five teams draw 4 of the top 5 teams and they are West Virginia, Colorado, Arizona St, BYU and Houston. Four teams draw all 3 green teams and they are Arizona, Kansas, Kansas St and Utah. Look at Arizona’s schedule as they are the only team in the Big 12 that faces just one of the top level teams. Only two teams do not play any GREEN teams and they are the two teams that face the toughest schedules in the Big 12 in West Virginia and Colorado.
Here is the chart and here is how I grade this year’s CONFERENCE schedules, keep in mind non-conference games are not included in this strength of schedule.
I know many of you order the magazine in advance so that you can be the FIRST in the country to receive one. When you sign up for the VIP deal you will receive your magazine well before it hits Barnes and Nobles on July 4th.
When you purchase the VIP deal you get the magazine before it hits the bookstores, the digital magazine for FREE, 4 weeks of my Inside the Pressbox newsletter for FREE, and my FCS magazine for FREE as well. That is over $200 worth of football info for just $39.95 right now. CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS.
VIP members get the magazine before anyone else, and they are mailed on the FIFO basis so the first to sign up for the offer get the magazine shipped first. We are still on DAY ONE shipments if you sign up right now. CLICK HERE TO ORDER. If you wait, you may get day TWO or day 3 and in future months the price will go up and the bonus offers will decrease so the deal is the best right now. As mentioned we mail the middle of June, two day express so you will have it weeks before it hits the nation’s #1 Book Store Barnes and Noble on July 4th!
The VIP digital bonus was even better than expected last year as all VIP members had access to the magazine two days after we sent it to the press and were reading it for a full week before it was even printed (3 weeks before it hit the newsstand). Also, we did not open access to the digital magazine to anyone but VIP members for a full week after that! All VIP members had two full weeks of EXCLUSIVE ACCESS to the digital version!
The VIP DEAL gets you FOUR free issues of my Inside the Pressbox Newsletter which sells for $20 per issue. The newsletter gives you my personal analysis of every game for the weekend and also supplies you with my computer’s forecast for each game projecting each team’s rush yards, pass yards and points. It comes with 4 Free College Issues, but you can call the office and change that to 2 Free College and two Free NFL if you like.
The VIP DEAL also will get you my 2024 Phil Steele FCS magazine (digital only) FREE and this is a $25 value! Last year there were 117 games between FCS and FBS teams and you can become an instant expert on all 130 FCS teams getting the magazine in much the same format as the FBS magazine. Keep in mind most states have legalized gambling and they post numbers on FCS vs FCS games, and you will have remarkable line value on these games being an expert while the majority of folks know very little about the FCS teams.
This year I have added a SUPER VIP deal. The price is just $30 more or basically the cost of one magazine mailed to you. In the SUPER VIP you get TWO magazines and also access to Phil Steele Plus ($99) for a FULL year thru the Super Bowl! If you are thinking of subscribing to Phil Steele Plus again for 2024, just get the SUPER VIP deal and save $30 plus get two magazines and all the other bonuses. I may stop this offer soon. To get the SUPER VIP membership CLICK HERE
Click here to pre-order magazine. You can also order by calling 1-866-918-7711.
