College Football 2010: Conference Preview - Big 12 | Thebigtip

College Football 2010:

Conference Preview: Big 12

With this season’s College Football season just around the corner, I take a look at the big six Conferences (PAC-10, SEC, Big 10, Big 12, Big East and the ACC). Today I look at the Big 12 in what appears to be a very close race.

Texas return as the current Big 12 champions after surviving a very near scare against Nebraska in the Big 12 Championship game needing a last second field goal to give them a 12-10 win which sent them to the BCS National Championship Game. Unfortunately for the Texans, they lost star QB Colt McCoy in the 1st Quarter and despite a heroic performance from back-up QB Garrett Gilbert, the Longhorns fell just short losing 37-32 to the Crimson Tide.

Nebraska, despite a very narrow loss to Texas in the Big 12 Championship Game still ended the 2009/10 season a 10 win team having thrashed the Arizona Wildcats 33-0 in the Holiday Bowl. The Cornhuskers pride themselves on strong D, and if they can overcome their unpredictable QB Zac Lee, they could very well make a National Championship run.

The Oklahoma Sooners are coming off an indifferent 2009/10 season. They lost star QB Sam Bradford early in the season (and with that any hope of returning to a BCS Bowl) but with the loss of Bradford, they discovered Landry Jones who got great experience last season filling in the QB role. Going into this season, it’s probably a good thing that Jones had some vital QB experience last season. The Sooners will be hoping to improve on their 8 wins last season too.

Prediction: In the Big 12 North, Nebraska has it’s name written all over it. Like Florida in the SEC East, there really isn’t a team capable of knocking the Cornhuskers off their perch. In the Big 12 South, it’ll probably come down to the game in Dallas between the Longhorns and Sooners, with Oklahoma for me coming out on top. The last time a team other than Texas or Oklahoma won the Big 12 South was in 1998, when Texas A&M won the Division. Again, I can’t see anyone troubling the Longhorns or Sooners. In the Big 12 Championship Game, I like the Cornhuskers to get the job done over the Sooners. Their defence is fantastic, very stingy and I don’t think the Sooner offence will be able to overcome it, much like the Longhorns struggled with it last season. Whether or not the Cornhuskers can get to the BCS National Championship Game though is another thing.