Justin Blackmon and the NFL Draft

Justin Blackmon appears to be leaving Oklahoma State for the NFL draft. Blackmon could have left after last season when he caught 111 passes and 20 touchdowns as a redshirt sophomore. He followed that with 113 receptions for 1,336 yards and 15 touchdowns this season as Oklahoma State won the Big 12.

Blackmon will be facing Andrew Luck and the Stanford Cardinals in the Fiesta Bowl. Both teams are 11-1.

Ranking the Big 12 Bowl Games

1.
Tostitos Fiesta Bowl
No. 3 Oklahoma State vs No. 4 Stanford
This just has to be No. 1

2.
Valero Alamo Bowl
No. 12 Baylor vs Washington
I want to see the impact RG3 makes in this game.

3.
AT&T Cotton Bowl
No. 8 Kansas State vs No. 6 Arkansas
Many would rank this No. 2, but these are lesser-publicized teams. That matters.

4.
Insight Bowl
No. 14 Oklahoma vs Iowa
If Iowa was ranked higher, I would have moved this to No. 3. They have upset potential.

5.
Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas
Texas A&M vs Northwestern
Northwestern is fun to watch, but Texas has home state advantage.

6.
Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl
No. 24 Texas vs California
Texas will be healthy.

7.
New Era Pinstripe Bowl
Iowa State vs Rutgers
Yankee Stadium is the perfect place to watch Iowa State stretch their offense.

8.
AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl
Missouri vs North Carolina
No comment.

Now... you know I love Big 12 football, but I'm definitely a baseball guy. With the recent addition to WVU to the Big 12, we have to consider what this means for Big 12 baseball.

All of WVU's athletics appear to be a good fit for the Big 12 (except for the non-existent soccer program in the Big 12), with the possible exception for their baseball program. WVU is far down the interest rankings for most fans. Entering the big 12 will be a challenge that is the toughest on Greg Van Zank and the baseball program at WVU. WVU hasn't qualified for the NCAA tournament since 1996 (when I was 6 years old) and the Big East was not nearly as strong as the Big 12 has been in recent years.

Here are how the rankings shook out at the end of last season:

#7 Texas
#21 TCU
#30 Oklahoma
#31 Baylor
#44 Oklahoma State
#50 Texas Tech
#51 Kansas State
#74 Missouri *
#106 Kansas
#151 West Virginia

*only relevant if they stay

WVU baseball will enter as the lowest ranked team by far and, aside from Kansas, every other team in the league was ranked at least 100 spots higher. Yikes.

There will be no other athletic program coming in that has to overcome that kind of challenge.

WVU to Big 12

It finally appears to be happening: West Virginia has had one foot out of the door with its athletic program in the Big East and not it seems they are abandoning ship and swimming over to the Big 12.

By making the move, WVU will be leaving a doomed conference and entering one with more Bowl stability as well as a shared interest in basketball. WVU's stadium size is appropriate for the Big 12 conference, whereas WVU may have been undersized had they gone to the SEC or Big Ten.

Because there are two sides to every story, there are negative aspects to WVU's move. While the Big 12 is a decent conference, they certainly aren't the ACC or SEC, from a geographically standpoint anyway. Travel for fans will not be easy in the Big 12. Further, there is the potential for future conference movement (ingress and egress) for the Big 12. Who knows what will happen in the future? Finally, success in the Big 12 could prove to be more difficult.

What are your thoughts?

Baylor Highest Ranked for Big 12 in Coaches poll

The preseason coaches poll was released Thursday afternoon and it featured no Big 12 teams in the top-10.

Baylor was No. 12, Kansas No. 13, Texas A&M No. 19 and Missouri No. 25.

North Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio State, Connecticut and Syracuse made up the coaches' poll's top five.

Big 12 Conference Changes

The Big 12 appears to be losing Missouri to the SEC in the next couple of days, but appears to already have a replacement in mind. The target team to replace the Tigers is West Virginia.

According to sources in the Big 12 and the Big East, the Big 12 expansion will hold at 10 teams for the time being. Though Missouri will leave for the SEC next season, West Virginia will not be available to the Big 12 until 2014.

The Big East is expected to offer invitations to Boise State, Southern Methodist, Houston, Central Florida, Air Force and Navy over the next several days.

Baylor and Texas A&M Battle of Hostility

Robert Griffin III. AKA Robert Griffin !!!

He is a major reason why No. 20 Baylor heads into Saturday's showdown against No. @! Texas A&M as Texas' top-ranked team.

The Bears are sitting at 4-1 while Texas A&M is at 3-2.

The last time Baylor headed into a game as the state's highest-ranked college football team, it was 1991 and we were in the cyber boom.

Both teams are definitely preparing for a hostile environment. While A&M's move from conference to conference remained in limbo, a maroon billboard with white lettering surfaced in Waco, "Thou shalt not covet they neighbor's conference deal." College Station merchants began selling a T-shirt with the slogan: "It sucks to BU." The BU appeared in Baylor school colors.

Wow I can't wait to watch the game and see what happens!