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The results are in. The averages are calculated.
With one game left to go in the college football playoff, the conference that gave up the least amount of points per game in the bowl season is the Big 12.
Fewest points allowed per game in bowls by Power5 conference may shock some folks: Big12: 21.5; ACC: 22.3; SEC: 25.4; Pac12: 29.2; B1G: 29.8
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) January 3, 2017
Wait.
No.
That can’t be right.
It has to be a typo.
How can the Big 12 be the best defense in the country in bowl season when they don’t play any defense during the regular season?
Maybe, just maybe, the offenses in the Big 12 are so good that no defense can hold them back.
In the bowl season, the Big 12 teams averaged 29.0 points per game. Let’s see how that compares to the other Power 5 conferences.
- SEC - 26.2 (one game remaining)
- ACC - 30.0 (one game remaining)
- Big 10 - 22.6
- PAC-12 - 21.7
So not only is the Big 12 the best defensive conference in bowl season, they have the second best offense average of all the Power 5 Conferences. But please, tell me more about how the Big 12 doesn’t play defense and as a whole is overrated.
"There's no defense in the Big 12" "The SEC is real football, hard hitting defenses"
— Joel Penfield (@joeliopenfield) January 3, 2017
Can that narrative be put to rest now? https://t.co/GKg2MXNJ9n
2017 sees the return of a lot of major players in the Big 12. What big names have left? Samaje Perine, D’Onta Foreman, and Vincent Taylor are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.
Looking at how the bowl season played out, the Big 12 might very well be the best conference in all of college football next season. Oklahoma State Head Coach Mike Gundy agrees.
“The Big 12 is going to be loaded next year,” Gundy said. “I watched Kansas State last night, and they’ve got everybody back. I’m guessing Texas is gonna be pretty good, OU’s got everybody back, there’s TCU…I’m telling you, this league next year could very well be the best league in the country.”
If what we saw in bowl season is an early indication of what the 2017 Big 12 football season is going to be like, count me in.
The league will have plenty of opportunities to prove itself next season too with a nice line-up of non-conference opponents.
In ’17, Big 12 collectively will face Va Tech, Ohio St, Iowa, Arky, Ariz St, Maryland, Duke, Vandy, Pitt, USC. Gotta win some of em for CFP
— Jake Trotter (@Jake_Trotter) January 3, 2017
Let’s get it going. Bring it on.
But the moral of this story is, the Big 12 gave up the fewest points in bowl season, despite consistently being told that the Big 12 doesn’t play defense. But that ain’t none of my business.
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