We welcome you to a Big 12 roundtable, this time about the state of the conference. It's being hosted by Crimson and Cream Machine, who (surprise! surprise!) has the only great team in the Big 12.

The state of the conference right now is Oklahoma, where the Sooners are destroying everything in their path and the 'Pokes' Mike Gundy is defending his childrun against a media gone wild! And what's making the news in Texas? Dead Pigs in Waco!

The Big 12 conference has only four unbeaten teams left and has endured numerous embarrassing performances on television. State where you  believe the Big 12 ranks among the BCS conferences.

• SEC
• PAC-10
• Big 10
• Big East
• Big 12
• ACC

A hint if you're planning to start your own blog. Whenever you get questions about conference rankings, always rank the SEC first because if you don't some guy from Mississippi, Alabama or Georgia (the three states voted most likely to kill someone for a stupid reason) will find you and hurt you. It doesn't really matter if they're the best, just say they're the best for all time and leave it at that. You'd think they'd worry about things, like, oh, say education, but if they are, they don't get all worked up about it, so you can leave the academic rankings for the Big 10. If you don't do that, some Northwestern alum will talk to you so long you'll wish for death.

After the SEC is the Pac-10, and I'm going to rank both the Big 10 and Big East ahead of the Big 12 at this time. Other than Oklahoma, there isn't a real good team in this conference. Maybe at the end of the season we'll do better in the bowls, but we collectively sucked in non-conference games. The defenses are weak, and with the exception of Oklahoma, no one in the conference can run the ball. Say all you want about high-powered passing offenses, if you can't run the ball, you don't win the Big 12.

What has been the conference’s best victory and worst defeat so far this season?

Let's see, best conference win. Nebraska over USC? No. Oklahoma State over Georgia? Troy? No. Texas over Rice or Central Florida? Colorado over Florida State? Kansas State over Auburn? No. Kansas over some high school teams - I thought that was outlawed. Are you sensing a trend? The Big 12 mostly beat up on a bunch of underlings who got paid for the beating, but then we didn't match up very well with anyone our own size. That would be the definition of a bully, wouldn't it?

The best win was Iowa State's win over Iowa because no one expected it. Our bottom feeder beat up on your underachivers. A close second is Oklahoma's win over Miami, but only because Miami is a school that everyone wants to lose.

Worst defeat...... Iowa State losing to Northern Iowa, making UNI the kings of Iowa. Where will the billboards be and what will they say this year? Iowegians everywhere should be worried.

Who is the worst coached team in the conference?

During the off-season I wrote a bit about which Big 12 coaches were most likely to be fired, and from the way things look right now, I'd say Coach Fran has taken the lead. The Aggies have mastered mediocrity above all else, which isn't a bad thing unless your fan base is expecting greatness.

Otherwise, next off-season the conference should take their defensive coaches and put their names in a hat and draw names until everyone has a full staff.

With the regular season already a third of the way over, which players received too much hype in late August and which players didn’t receive enough?

Too Much

• Bobby 'Boo Hoo' Reid has to be at the top of this list. Okie State is mediocre, he's lost his starting job, and his coach has to throw a tantrum at a press conference to defend him. That's too bad because he's one player that I was looking forward to seeing this season.
• Colt McCoy. Great name, though, which is why he got so much pub.
• The three-headed monster of the Aggies. Goodson, Lane, McGhee. They are not doing well.

Notice that no one hyped the north too much?

Not Enough

• Michael Crabtree, receiver, Texas Tech. In four games, 775 yards, leading the Big 12 in receiving. At this pace, that's over 3,000 yards in a season, and 44 touchdowns.
• Jordon Dizon, linebacker, Colorado, leading the Big 12 in tackles. His name is not "Pig" so no one noticed him.
• Sam Bradford, freshman quarterback, Oklahoma. Blah blah blah blah blah Sooners.

Conference Power Rankings. The best part of the roundtable is voicing how we believe the conference teams rank each week, from top to bottom. So, go ahead, let us know who’s up and who’s down in your book this week.

Oklahoma
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Everyone else

This is America - does anyone care who's second? Much less 12th? The only thing that can stop the Sooners is another used car scandal. Care to bet on those odds?