Big 12 Roundtable - Rise of the North

by Seth C on Oct 3, 2007 6:20 AM CDT in Football Comment 0 comments

Thanks to Clone Chronicles for this week's questions for the Big 12 Round Table. Let's go.

Were Saturday's games a sign that the Big 12 North may be on its way back?

Yes, it is. Teams from the South can no longer count on the teams they play from the North as sure-fire victories (there were times in the recent past that Kansas and Colorado were thought as "easy" wins) and that's no longer the case. Perhaps the most interesting thing to watch is that teams seemed to have caught up to Nebraska, or Nebraska has let other teams catch up to them. Either way, the gap between Nebraska and the rest of the conference (sans Iowa State) has significantly closed the talent gap.

How seriously do we take the hot starts at Mizzou and Kansas?

I like Missouri's start a little better than Kansas', merely because Missouri has had a decent non-conference schedule (Illinois, Mississippi, Western Michigan and Illinois State) whereas Kansas has creamed their opponents, but their opponents haven't necessarily been world-beaters (Central Michigan, SE La., Toledo and Florida International). How will we sort all of this out? It starts this weekend as Kansas faces Kansas State on Saturday and Nebraska meets Missouri.

Pick one team from the opposite division that you truly hate, and say why; follow this up by picking another team from the opposite division that you don't mind pulling for, and say why.

I'm pretty neutral for most of the North teams. I hated Kansas State because they had Coach Huggins, and now that he's gone, I'm not sure if that hatred will remain. Thus, for no other reason than Coach Huggins used to coach the Wildcats, Kansas State.

I'd love for Baylor to have success against Horn and Soldier, because it would mean even better writing (I'm not sure that's possible) from the fine folks at Bear Meat.

The NCAA has enacted a rule allowing you to bring back one senior that graduated last year to play for your team for the rest of the season. Would you do it? And if so, who?

My initial thought was to take Joel Filani, but after thinking about the defensive problems we've had this year, give me Keyunta Dawson. Of course, now that I'm really starting to think about it, would Dek Blake and Chris Hudler (perhaps Hudler because he had a little more size), make the defensive line a little more formidable? I'm so confused. Give me Dawson, because he's the most talented. Final answer.

Conference Power Rankings.