Welcome back to ODB for the first Daily Bears Report of 2012! Because of a relatively busy schedule yesterday afternoon and my son's nurse calling in sick, I was unable to put up my normal post of links. Hopefully you guys weren't inconvenienced by it too much. Looking at the feeds, though, it doesn't seem like we actually missed all that much worthwhile news.*
*I'm not going to talk about the Cowboys or the Mavericks because both are dead to me right now, particularly the Cowboys. I'm seriously considering renouncing my fandom for whichever team drafts RG3 unless it is the Redskins. Because screw the Redskins.
A few interesting things happened this weekend that are worth taking a look at, though.
- First, after what had to be the worst case of deja vu ever for Aggie fans, A&M was able to pull off the victory Saturday morning/afternoon against Northwestern, giving the Big XII another bowl victory this season over a B1G team. That victory brought the Big XII's overall bowl record to 5-0 (wins by Baylor, OU, UT, Mizzou, and A&M). Sadly, Iowa State could not continue the Big XII's positive bowl momentum, falling in the Pinstripe Bowl to Rutgers on Saturday afternoon.
- So far in this bowl season, the Big XII (5-1) has victories over teams from the Pac12 (Washington and Cal), the B1G (Northwestern and Iowa), and the ACC (UNC) with games against Stanford (Pac12) and the SEC (Arkansas) remaining. I think OSU takes care of business tonight, but Kansas State does not in the Cotton Bowl even though I really want them to.
- David Ubben noted the Big XII's early success in the bowls and ponders what that success means for the conference.
- Also, as I covered last night, a huge story unfolding for Baylor yesterday and in the coming week is the possible declaration of Robert Griffin III for the NFL Draft. In case you didn't read what I posted last night, I talked a bit about how in the space of 18 hours or so we received wildly conflicting stories about whether the decision was already made. It seems the mainstream sports media picked up on the first and only the first report from Chris Mortensen and didn't really even notice the second. I'm going to assume it is laziness and not that THEY HATE BAYLOR!!! Because they probably don't.
Moving to today's news, stories abound this morning that would probably be of interest to Baylor fans, led (arguably) by the fact that our first men's conference basketball game is tonight against Texas A&M in Waco. Texas A&M is having a rough time of late, and KenPom has them as the 90th-best team in the country while Baylor is 12th. A few links about Baylor and Big XII MBB:
- Conference Power Rankings: Big 12 - College Basketball Nation Blog - ESPN
- NCAA College Basketball Preview - Texas A&M Aggies at Baylor Bears - Jan 02, 2012 - CBSSports.com- Off to the best start in school history, Baylor is getting ready to begin conference play.
- Texas A&M-Baylor Preview - College Basketball - Rivals.com- Off to the best start in school history, Baylor is getting ready to begin conference play. The sixth-ranked Bears will try to remain one of four unbeaten teams in Division I on Monday night in their Big 12 opener at home against Texas A&M. Baylor has started 13-0 for the first time by matching the longest win streak in school history set in 1946.
- Baylor barely team to beat | KUsports.com
- Weekly walkthrough: Big 12 offers plenty of must-see games - NCAA Basketball - Sporting News
- Blair Kerkhoff’s Big 12 Preview - KansasCity.com- The Big 12 schedule has arrived, earlier than ever and will be longer than ever, and not exactly as envisioned when the season started in November. The Big 12 is home to two of the nation’s four undefeated teams, and Baylor’s fast start isn’t a shock. Missouri’s is.
Another topic of interest is the continuation of the Big XII's bowl schedule with the Fiesta Bowl tonight between OSU and Stanford. The Fiesta is the Big XII's sole BCS bowl this year (because the Sugar decided to abandon all reason and employ an indefensible selection strategy by taking Virginia Tech), and a matchup between the #3 and #4 teams in the country will be important to the conference's standing relative to its peers. Oklahoma State obviously wants to play well to validate its claims that it should have been in the NCG, since a win over Stanford and Andrew Luck would arguably be a better victory than any on Alabama's schedule. Hopefully OSU hasn't been distracted by what they feel should have been.
- Video: Fiesta Bowl Sunday wrap - Big 12 Blog - ESPN- Kevin Gemmell, Ivan Maisel and David Ubben preview the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl featuring Stanford and Oklahoma State.
- 2012 Fiesta Bowl preview - College Football Nation Blog - ESPN
- Oklahoma State, Stanford must rely on offense in Fiesta Bowl - Andy Staples - SI.com- No. 3 Oklahoma State (11-1) vs. No. 4 Stanford (11-1) Jan. 2, 8:30 p.m. ET (ESPN)
- Fiesta Bowl: Oklahoma, Stanford seek big finish to 2011-12 season- Oklahoma State is in the conversation to finish second or even first in the final Associated Press college football poll, and Stanford believes it should be too.
- Your guide to the bowl games - The Washington Post- From noon until around midnight, there will be plenty of college football to watch, even if it’s not New Year’s Day and the BCS title game is still a week away.
- A story that I haven't seen get as much play as I would have expected, and that is Mike Gundy's contract negotiations. How OSU justifies not just giving him what he wants is beyond me. The guy has done more for OSU football than anyone not named Boone Pickens. Smells like pride to me.