Daily Bullets (Sept. 8): OSU in the Polls, Don’t Give Up Texas

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OSU Bullets

• OSU was the first team just outside the top-25 in the AP poll, fell a spot in the Coaches Poll

• This TulsaWorld piece draws out what appear to be similarities in bad luck between 2020 and 2021 seasons of Cowboy Football

• Mike Gundy honed in on a big factor in OSU’s success that has to be weighed in any realignment conversation: being able to recruit as many Texas kids as possible.

“I don’t mind telling you that we recruited a lot (in Texas), and I think that if we have schools in that state that are tied in with us in whatever we do, I think it’s beneficial for this school,” OSU football coach Mike Gundy said Monday. “… I don’t want to lose that.”

[PFB]

That’s something to chew on. OSU is five hours closer to DFW than Nebraska is but a marginal decrease in Texas players would directly correlate with less wins, right?

• What Mike Gundy said in his weekly radio show

• “Around Stillwater” reports are the best – Spencer Sanders is *reportedly* not in isolation anymore

• So fun for the fall to be back and OSU playing on Saturdays.

Non-OSU Bullets

• Thinking wisely about a 40-hour workweek (faith-based)

• Be on the lookout for formal applications from the four Big 12 expansion candidates

• Lots of great details here in “Will the Big 12 remain a Power 5 conference?” This quote below was particularly interesting:

I looked up the Sagarin Ranking and F+ ranking for each remaining Big 12 school, as well as the rankings for a variety of potential Big 12 expansion candidates, and the entire Pac-12. The conventional wisdom is that a Big12+ would be substantially worse than the Pac-12…but recent history doesn’t really suggest that’s true.

In 2020, 2019 and 2018, the Big 12 posted a higher average Sagarin ranking than the Pac-12, with the four expansion teams, or by themselves (in 2017, the Pac-12’s ranking was better). The same trend was true with F+, and I suspect it would be true if you used SP+, or Massey, or any number of opponent and/or pace adjusted metrics.

Taking Texas and Oklahoma out of the Big 12 unquestionably makes it a worse football conference. But the remaining eight, plus these four new teams, based on the last few seasons, would be a peer to the Pac-12, and honestly, to the not-Clemson ACC. The idea that there is a massive gap is not really supported by recent performance.

[Extra Points]