Big 12 power rankings: Utah asserts its position at the top, BYU makes a massive leap

If you’re a fan of one of the two Utah schools in the Big 12, it was a great weekend.
Many other schools in the league might feel a bit envious — Utah controlled its matchup at Oklahoma State, while BYU knocked off Kansas State.
Those two results — plus a must-see finish between Colorado and Baylor — highlighted Big 12 action during the fourth week of the college football season and shook up the latest conference power rankings.
Here’s our look at how the Big 12 stacks up through the fourth week of the 2024 season:
Welcome, Utah, back to the top spot. They’re going to be here awhile, after making Oklahoma State look out of its element for much of the day and shutting down the Cowboys’ offense — especially All-American running back Ollie Gordon II, who never had an impact in the game.
Utah did this without Cam Rising, too — Isaac Wilson is proving he is more than capable leading the offense — and with Connor O’Toole and Karene Reid also out with injuries. Instead, guys like Micah Bernard, Dorian Singer and Elijah Davis came up with clutch plays, and the Utes collected the biggest win of Big 12 play thus far.
Now, it’s time for the revenge game for the Utes. Last year, Arizona beat them in Tucson — and scored on a long TD pass in the final minute to boot. What does Utah have in store for the Wildcats?
Why do the Cyclones get the edge here at the No. 2 spot? Because of the three unbeaten teams behind Utah, they have the next-best win — beating ranked Iowa on the road (had BYU won at Kansas State, this would be a different story). Iowa State dominated Arkansas State in its return from a bye.
There probably won’t be much more to learn about Iowa State this week, as they take on the Big 12′s worst team. The Cyclones don’t potentially face a top 25 Big 12 team until the season’s final weeks, unless a team like UCF or Texas Tech enters the rankings.
Where did that come from? BYU knocked off the top 15 Wildcats, and in the process, the Cougars look like someone who is going to be a factor in the Big 12 race this season.
A 31-point flurry over six and a half minutes of game time broke the game open — during that stretch, BYU turned three Kansas State turnovers into touchdowns, and Parker Kingston’s electric 90-yard punt return for a score dealt the final crushing blow.
Yes, it’s a huge win — but how will BYU respond going forward? The Cougars still haven’t won a road game in Big 12 play since joining the league last year, and Baylor could be a wounded animal this weekend, ready to fight back after a demoralizing loss.
That ended up being a good time for a bye for the Knights — they improved a spot in the power rankings despite being idle. There’s also a fun but challenging set of games coming up for UCF that will show us just how formidable the Knights are.
First up is Deion Sanders’ Buffaloes, which must travel to Orlando in what should be an entertaining matchup. After that, UCF plays at Florida and will also play at Iowa State and home against BYU before the end of October.
Oklahoma State had its chance to give Utah a “Welcome to the Big 12″ moment — but the Utes turned the table and showed the Cowboys, this is their league to lose. Utah’s defense shut down Oklahoma State’s offense until the last few minutes, and the Utes rode a successful offensive day behind true freshman Isaac Wilson to a convincing victory.
Will Oklahoma State’s MIA offense return? The game this weekend against Kansas State carries a lot more weight now — the loser will fall to 0-2 in Big 12 play and face an uphill climb to be a league contender.
Where did that come from? The Wildcats looked nothing like how they did the week before, when Kansas State handed then-ranked Arizona a 31-7 beatdown. It was strange to see such a lopsided loss to the Cougars, who stayed unbeaten with the shocking 29-point win and are clearly outpacing their projected 13th-place finish in the league.
This all sets up a critical game with Oklahoma State this week in a matchup that features two teams expected to contend for the Big 12 championship. At least for Kansas State, the Wildcats get the homefield advantage this time around.
The Red Raiders made sure Arizona State wouldn’t knock them off in the Sun Devils’ inaugural Big 12 conference game — Texas Tech got out to a 14-0 lead after one quarter, and while ASU made it a one-score game several times after that, the Red Raiders found enough offense to fend off the Sun Devils.
There’s a favorable schedule ahead for the Red Raiders — over the next five weeks, they host Cincinnati and Baylor, while also playing at Arizona and TCU. Texas Tech should be favored in most — if not all — of those games, which would set up an interesting November.
Welp, Arizona State’s Big 12 debut didn’t go quite as planned — the Sun Devils fell behind early and never led in falling at Texas Tech. It was a much better effort than ASU showed through much of last year, but the result also shows the Sun Devils still have plenty of work to do.
There are some winnable games — like hosting Kansas and Houston — mixed in with some difficult top 25 matchups for Arizona State over the next month. If the Sun Devils can head into November with a couple more wins, they’ll be in a solid position to qualify for the postseason.
The shimmer on the Wildcats’ hopes to be a factor in the conference race took a sizable hit two weeks ago, when Arizona lost big to Kansas State in a matchup that didn’t count in the Big 12 standings. Questions surround the team under first-year coach Brent Brennan, though there’s enough talent in Tucson to impact the league race.
There’s some unfortunate luck for Arizona, though, that its next game comes on the road against the league favorite, Utah. Surely the Utes remember getting beat handily by the Wildcats last year, which included a long TD pass in the final minute.
Colorado sure knows how to deliver a thriller — thanks to a Hail Mary followed by a game-winning touchdown in overtime, the Buffaloes rallied to beat Baylor in a loss that could have sunk Colorado in its league opener. Instead, Shedeur Sanders’ 43-yard touchdown to LaJohntay Wester made SportsCenter’s top play of the day, and the Buffaloes improved to 3-1.
We’ll learn more about how competitive the Buffaloes will be in the Big 12 race over the next few weeks. Following this weekend’s game at UCF, Colorado takes a bye before hosting Kansas State and playing at Arizona.
One week after the Mountaineers blew a 10-point fourth-quarter lead, West Virginia looked like it was headed straight away to a 1-3 record. Then the Mountaineers engineered their own fourth-quarter comeback, rallying from down 11 with 5:39 to play with two late touchdown drives — that included the game-winner on a 15-yard TD pass with 26 seconds to play.
After an up and down first month of the season, now is a good time for the Mountaineers to have a bye. The upcoming schedule is brutal — West Virginia will play three teams currently ranked in October, but at least Iowa State and Kansas State have to visit Morgantown.
With Cincinnati’s first Big 12 home win — the shutout victory over Houston, which came in its second year in the league — the Bearcats have already matched their win total from last year. Cincinnati, under transfer quarterback Brendan Sorsby, has shown it has a strong enough offense to compete.
The schedule for the next month, though, is tough for a program trying to turn things around after a 3-9 campaign last year. Three of their next four games are on the road — at Texas Tech, UCF and Colorado, all three teams who’ve shown they’re capable of finishing in the upper half of the Big 12.
It’s panic time in Fort Worth — the Horned Frogs have lost two straight, after rival SMU blitzed TCU in what is now a Power Four matchup. The Mustangs had at least a three-score lead at the end of every quarter, and TCU gave up five turnovers.
Now, the Horned Frogs will have to bounce back on the road against an equally desperate Kansas squad. Who will get the much-needed shot of momentum a win can bring?
That was a gut punch for Baylor Nation — the Bears looked like they had wrapped up a road win to open conference play, but Shedeur Sanders’ Hail Mary on the final play of regulation wiped out the Baylor lead, then it lost in overtime. It feels like Dave Aranda is losing his grip on a season where he is squarely on the hot seat, even when the Bears are still 2-2 on the year.
Can Baylor rebound to knock off the now-ranked Cougars? BYU is coming off its wild 38-9 win over Kansas State, though the Cougars are still looking for their first road win in league play after joining the Big 12 last year. It’s a critical game for both schools.
All the good vibes and positive expectations for Kansas going into the 2024 season are seemingly gone after the Jayhawks lose for the third straight game — and quarterback Jalon Daniels continued to struggle with turnovers. This time, Kansas couldn’t hold onto an 11-point lead in the fourth quarter and fell to West Virginia in the Big 12 opener for both schools.
Can a visit from TCU this weekend be the elixir to winning again? The Horned Frogs have lost two straight in painful fashion, and the loser of Saturday’s game will fall to 0-2 in league play. There’s winnable games for the Jayhawks over the next few weeks — including games at Arizona State and home against Houston — but they need to turn things around now.
Houston’s offense was absent in a shutout loss to Cincinnati, one of the other Big 12 teams that not much was expected from this season. The Cougars turned over the ball three times, reached the red zone just two times — that included a missed field goal — and put up only 233 total yards.
When could the Cougars’ next win come? It might be awhile. Houston’s next three home games all come against teams currently ranked in the top 25, and they play back-to-back road games at TCU and Kansas — though both of these schools have underwhelmed as well.