Dirty Dozen Rankings - Week 5

Our weekly rankings of all Big 12 teams. The fourth game of the non-conference season has been played for most teams, with others playing their final non-conference game this coming week. The teams are ranked based on where I think  they are right now in the season. Previous weeks rankings are in parenthesis. As always, comments and criticism are welcome.

1. Oklahoma(3): Moved in anticipation of their win over Miami
2. texas(1): I think high schools would have fought harder than the Miners did.
3. Missouri(2): Solid win over Nevada.
4. Oklahoma State(4): It was only Grambling.
5. Kansas(5): Close win over Southern Miss doesn't look so good after USM's loss to UAB.
6. Nebraska(7): Dominatng win over Louisiana-Lafayette was just what they needed.
7. Texas A&M(8): Beat UAB in spectacular fashion, as expected.
8. Texas Tech(6): Dropped because of back-to-back losses.
9. Iowa State(10): Moved up because they already surpassed last season's win total.
10. Baylor(9): Suffered most expensive win in Big 12 season so far, with loss of Griffin to injury.
11. Kansas State(11): Blew out Tennessee Tech. Meh.
12. Colorado(12): Good thing about a bye week is you can't lose to anyone. Can't beat anyone, either.

Notes: Oklahoma moves up after a ye week because I think they'll beat Miami @ Miami after two weeks of preparation. A win over a ranked team gives them a better resume right now than texas, even with texas being undefeated and OU already having one loss on their record...I don't think I have ever seen a Mike Price-coached team shos as little fires or passion or effort as the Miners did against texas last Saturday...Missouri did score a nice win over Nevada, and wins on the road are always tough to come by...Grambling's band put on more of a show at halftime with their tribute to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" than the football team did on the field against Oklahoma State...Kansas struggled a bit with Southern Mississippi, showing that the Jayhawk defense can still be had by a good passing game...I'm still not sure I trust Zac Lee to lead Nebraska to the top of the North division, but it is possible I'm putting too much blame for the Virginia Tech loss on him. He doesn't look like an elite QB to me, though...A&M's win over Alabama-Birmingham while missing two key starters on offense vaults them over a two-loss Texas Tech team.We'll see how far A&M has come (or how far they have to go) after the Southwest Classic this weekend...First the heartbreaking loss to Houston, then Twittergate. Tech will probably put 70 up on New Mexico on Saturday, just to purge the bad feelings of the last two weeks...Paul Rhoads is quietly laying a solid foundation for his program at Iowa State...We're going to find out how good of a coach Art Briles really is after the loss of Robert Griffin. If he can get Baylor to 6 wins with Blake Szymanski at QB, give him the conference coach of the year award right now...Brandon Banks is giving K-State fans at least one thing to cheer about. If they can be competitive with Iowa State on Saturday, that will represent progress...I'm not sure what Colorado spent the off week doing, but judging by their loss to West Virginia, working on run defense wasn't on the agenda.