Andy Mitts and Kyle Davis discuss whether the Jayhawks are legitimately one of the best teams in the Big 12 Conference.
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00:00 They look like outside of Oklahoma and Texas, probably the best team in the Big 12 right
00:04 now, which is a little weird, you know, coming to this point.
00:06 But you know, do you think this is more a sign of how far Kansas has come or a sign
00:12 of how difficult it's been for the rest of the Big 12 this year?
00:16 I think it's both.
00:17 I think it's I think it's well, this is the you know, this is also the first first year
00:21 where we don't have the completely balanced schedules.
00:26 And so it's still you know, I know this is something that every other conference is just
00:29 used to.
00:30 But the Big 12, one of the great things that it's been over the past decade is you can
00:34 say, hey, this is your true best teams because literally everyone goes head to head.
00:38 And here are the results.
00:40 But I do think that, you know, obviously, it's a down time right now.
00:44 You know, TCU is not as good as it was before.
00:47 Iowa State's been struggling.
00:48 K-State is clearly not what it was a couple years ago.
00:51 But it's also that, I mean, Kansas is really good.
00:55 Again, and this is not a fluke.
00:57 And if you look at some of the teams that played like, you know, I think you can look
01:02 at Oklahoma State and even where they are.
01:04 And they just they have three wins.
01:05 But outside of Friday night, they were not impressive.
01:08 It was Central Arkansas and it was one in five Arizona State and even West Virginia.
01:13 You know, yes, they lost to Penn State.
01:15 They beat Pittsburgh.
01:16 OK, that's all right.
01:17 And they played Texas Tech and TCU.
01:19 Texas Tech looks better now that they're a little healthier.
01:21 I know there's been this is also a weird one to figure out so far through about five weeks
01:25 because there's been so many injuries at quarterback and key players.
01:30 I mean, like Baylor, Texas Tech, TCU, obviously Kansas.
01:34 Like there's been so many guys who have been having to shuffle in quarterbacks at UCF is
01:37 one of them.
01:38 It seems like half the league has been struggling with really bad injuries, which also makes
01:42 it tough.
01:43 But you have to look at KU's spot and feel really good about where it's at in terms of
01:50 the conference moving forward and just the potential of what you have here.
01:55 West Virginia still has to play Oklahoma.
01:57 They miss Texas outright.
02:00 Oklahoma has a pretty favorable schedule up to this point.
02:04 So I don't know.
02:05 You know, Kansas, I think you still have to consider them as maybe a contender to make
02:09 the big 12 championship game, even if it doesn't.
02:12 You look at the schedule now and where the big 12 and how things have shaped up, maybe
02:17 compared to where we thought certain teams were going to be at the beginning of the year,
02:21 like where you thought.
02:24 Obviously K-State and some of the others that you still have left to play.
02:27 And Kansas is probably going to be favored and should be favored in all but the Oklahoma
02:33 game.
02:34 Maybe the K-State game is kind of a pick them, but you might get a little bit of a home field
02:38 advantage there.
02:39 But yeah, the big 12 is wide open.
02:41 And honestly, even more than this year, when you look at the two best teams right now are
02:45 leaving after next year, the big 12 is wide open for next year, too.
02:48 And the year after that, I mean, if Lance Leipold can get this thing going, it's going
02:53 to be up there for a while because, yeah, West Virginia is 2-0 in the conference.
02:57 But you know, they have played Texas Tech and TCU.
03:01 It's not really a huge point.
03:03 They still have to play.
03:04 They still have to play BYU.
03:05 They have to play Oklahoma.
03:06 They have to play Baylor.
03:07 So I'd be surprised if they, you know, that might be a little bit of a fluky scheduling
03:12 to this point.
03:13 I mean, Texas Tech is a dangerous team, but they just lost so much early in the year that
03:17 I don't think that's going to be hard for them to come back.
03:19 And they still have Texas and KU and K-State.
03:22 So that's really tough.
03:23 So yeah, this is a wonky year in the big 12, but also Kansas is taking full advantage.
03:29 And it's also just a testament to, I think we're not used to it to this point, to where
03:33 we're still kind of like, oh, did something weird happen?
03:35 The KU's up here.
03:36 But no, it's also just that they, like we, I mean, you watch as much big 12 football
03:40 as anybody.
03:41 I watch as much as I can.
03:43 You look at these teams and it's like, wait a second, that's not anything fluky.
03:45 It's just like Kansas is good.
03:47 They have a roster and they have a scheme and they have the overall just program now
03:53 to say they can compete with basically anybody in this league outside of maybe Texas and
03:59 Oklahoma.
04:00 If this is the KU team, the one that played against UCF is the one that shows up against
04:03 Oklahoma.
04:04 It is going to be a close game.
04:05 It's going to be a very entertaining game.
04:06 And Kansas has a shot to pull it out.
04:08 I think as of right now, no matter what, you still have to think that Oklahoma is going
04:11 to be the favorite in that game after what they did to Texas.
04:14 But this is not a Kansas team that fluked their way into some big wins early last year.
04:20 You might have thought that they got very lucky with the schedule.
04:22 And this year you probably could have made that argument up until probably a couple of
04:26 weeks ago.
04:28 But you know, the way that they beat UCF, just super dominant, the way that they beat,
04:33 you know, BYU was pretty dominant as well.
04:35 And then you go on the road with some really weird circumstances against Texas.
04:39 Like this is a Kansas team had one weird game due to injury issues.
04:42 Other than that, they've been a very solid, very good team.