by Don Borst, Special to FOXSports.com

Comment

The Big 12 stacks up nicely with the SEC by almost every measure, and as we get into the meat of the season, the showdown games in the heartland look like the most entertaining matchups in the country.

Sure, we all look forward to the LSU-Alabama slugfest, and the bloodletting that will be Georgia-Florida, but for pure entertainment and great football — as well as following the bouncing ball all the way to the BCS Championship Game — the latter half of the season is all about the Big 12: Texas-Oklahoma (this Saturday, Oct. 11), Missouri-Texas (Oct. 18), Texas-Texas Tech (Nov. 1), Oklahoma-Texas Tech (Nov. 22) ... and, of course, the Big 12 title game (Oklahoma-Missouri?).

The perfect storm of quarterbacks in the Big 12 continues to grow into near-mythic proportions: Consider that eight guys have a better passing efficiency rating than the SEC's best — Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow.

Eight!

The top five passers in the Big 12 have completed 73 percent of their passes for 306 yards a game, with a 6-to-1 TD-to-interception ratio (77 TDs, 13 interceptions) and a ridiculous 10.5 yards per pass attempt.

That's largely why Big 12 offenses are scoring two touchdowns a game more than their SEC counterparts (39-26). And that's not just because of soft schedules that the Big 12 teams have played so far. The SEC has similar non-league slates.

Unfortunately, these two conferences rarely face each other in the regular season (only Texas whipping Arkansas this year) or in the bowls. There are only two scheduled bowl matchups; last year, they split the two bowl meetings.

Although a Big 12 or SEC team has reached the BCS championship game in eight of the 10 years it has existed (the Big 12 has won it twice, the SEC three times), they have met only at the end of the 2003 season, when LSU beat Oklahoma, 21-14. And that one, by all accounts, was a very flawed Oklahoma team, with an injured quarterback and a last-game loss that the computers inexplicably did not weigh significantly.

And that's why we're already starting to look forward to a Big 12-SEC matchup in Miami on Jan. 8.

And what we continued to learn Saturday is that it appears to be increasingly likely.

Picking a Big 12-SEC Fantasy series

Just for grins, here's how I'd break down a fantasy series between the Big 12 and SEC — played at neutral sites, of course:

• Oklahoma vs. Alabama — Advantage Big 12
• Missouri vs. LSU — Advantage Big 12
• Texas vs. Georgia — Pick 'em
• Texas Tech vs. Florida — Pick 'em
• Oklahoma State vs. Vanderbilt — Advantage Big 12
• Kansas vs. Auburn — Advantage Big 12
• Nebraska vs. Kentucky — Pick 'em
• Colorado vs. Tennessee — Pick 'em
• Kansas State vs. Arkansas — Advantage Big 12
• Iowa State vs. Ole Miss — Advantage SEC
• Texas A&M vs. South Carolina — Advantage SEC
• Baylor vs. Miss State — Pick 'em

Pryor arrives

Make no mistake that Terrelle Pryor's performance in Camp Randall Stadium on Saturday marks Ohio State's resurgence as a contender in the Big Ten race. Not that they had fallen out of the race (after all, they're still unbeaten in league play), but with Pryor at the helm, we can envision the Buckeyes beating everybody in the Big Ten. Yes, possibly even Penn State.

Certainly Penn State has been the most impressive team in the league, and Illinois is perhaps the most exciting, and Michigan State has shown a resourcefulness and toughness that will make the Spartans a factor before it's all over.

But now with Jim Tressel clearly establishing Pryor as the Buckeyes' go-to guy — right down to a splendid option run to win the game in that wild environment on the road — they can zero in and go about their business.

That Oct. 25 home game against Penn State is the game of the season in the Big Ten.

Bucky gets badgered

Wisconsin, with its fourth-quarter pratfall against Michigan and its inability to make the key plays against Ohio State, has become one of the most disappointing teams in the country — almost like Michigan's 2007 team.

Bucky can make some considerable hay when it hosts Penn State this week, but it appears that the well-balanced Nittany Lions will not slow down to play the Badgers' game.

Still, Wisconsin no longer can make a reasonable run at the Big Ten title (mathematically, yes, but it's extremely remote), and so now they're playing for the Alamo Bowl or something along those lines. This game is cruel.

Other candidates for the "most disappointing team" so far: Auburn, Arizona State, West Virginia.

Vandy is dandy

Yes, give it up for Vanderbilt and its first 5-0 start since 1943.

The Commodores deserve all the attention they can get, as Bobby Johnson has done one of the great rebuilding jobs in the country, much like those we've seen in recent years from Bill Snyder at Kansas State, the whole Gary Barnett-Randy Walker-Pat Fitzgerald thing at Northwestern, Jim Grobe at Wake Forest, Mark Mangino at Kansas, Dennis Erickson-Mike Riley at Oregon State and Greg Schiano at Rutgers.

But now let's see him and his team finish the job. They are unbeaten, play a sensational brand of defense and are sitting atop the SEC East ahead of Georgia and Florida.

If they win at least two more, they'll go bowling for the first time since 1982 — and with Mississippi State and Duke among their next three games, we can rest assured that Vandy should be bowl-eligible. But to get lasting respect, it's going to take eight or nine victories, which means beating a couple of these guys still on the slate: Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee, Wake Forest.

They can, but they'll have to come up with more offense than they have shown so far.

Path is clear for Longhorns

Texas is only the third-ranked team in the Big 12, but the Longhorns have their chance to move up, and fast.

They have the daunting task of facing Oklahoma and Missouri on back-to-back Saturdays. But if Colt McCoy keeps doing what he's doing, don't put it past them to emerge as the No. 1 team when the first BCS rankings first come out on Oct. 19.

Great start

Rarely has a team started a game with a more impressive first play against that Missouri offense.

Chase Daniel takes the snap, fires over the middle to Macklin, and — boom! — safety Ricky Thenarse takes Macklin right off the ball with a big hit. Count it a drop or a breakup or whatever you want, but the fact is, the Cornhuskers had come to play, and they showed from the first snap they weren't going to be cowed by the reputation of these guys.

One play later, there goes Macklin, taking a third-and-5 pass 58 yards for a touchdown, and so 59 seconds into the game, Missouri was back doing its thing.

The most impressive stat in that 52-17 win for Missouri? Oh, name anything on offense you'd like, Daniel is playing as well as any quarterback has ever played this game. But the most impressive stat was that the Tigers held NU to 7 yards of rushing offense in the first half. This Missouri team is the real thing.

Players wanted

If you have a year of college football eligibility remaining, get on a flight to Pullman. Or, a flight to Seattle, then a connection to Spokane, then rent a car to Pullman.

Every once in a while, frustrated coaches will hold tryouts for a place kicker. You know, don't spend a scholarship, but anybody can do it ... right? But at Washington State, there's a different opportunity.

Here's your chance to play quarterback!

Coach Paul Wulff is holding open tryouts Monday because the Cougars have had so many injuries that they have one healthy quarterback on the roster (Marshall Lobbestael), other than redshirting freshman J.T. Levenseller.

BCS-buster update

The hype around that BYU-Utah game continues to grow, and if they can both keep it up, it's almost certain a Fiesta Bowl bid will be at stake.

Utah's comeback victory over Oregon State was stunning, not only in the way the Utes rallied for 11 points in the last two minutes, but also when you recognize that this was the same Oregon State team that handled USC and rejected the Trojans' comeback efforts in the fourth quarter. And BYU ... well, the Cougars are getting the respect of voters right now, and that's nothing but good for Utah, which will continue to climb behind the Y until the two get a chance to meet in Salt Lake on Nov. 22.

Back from the abyss

This doesn't happen very often.

When a team hasn't been to a bowl game in a decade, then slips to a 2-6 start, and then falls behind in the fourth quarter, 41-26 ... the hot seat generally turns into an open flame. But at Arizona, that's just when things turned around.

Last year, "who will replace Mike Stoops" was the talk in Tucson, when suddenly the Wildcats became a good football team. They outscored Washington in the final 12 minutes, 22-0, to score an unlikely 48-41 victory, and promptly won three of their last four games. And they have pushed that into a strong start this season, and incredibly, Stoops is looking like a strong candidate for Pac-10 Coach of the Year honors.

Arizona's embarrassingly easy 48-14 rout of Washington on Saturday means the Cats are 7-2 since that gut-check moment in Husky Stadium. Remarkably, Stoops' 4-1 team now has to be considered a real player in the Pac-10. And with a rugged rushing defense, this could actually be the second-best team in the league.

And into the abyss

On the other side of the Arizona success story are the Washington Huskies, who seemed to be on the rise last year before that crushing loss to the Wildcats. Since then, things have gone so bad that a growing concern is whether they'll be able to recruit the kind of high-profile coach the program thinks it warrants to replace Tyrone Willingham.

Yes, the 11-30 Willingham remains coach by contract only. The longest losing streak in the country (seven) and an average weekly deficit of 24 points (42-18) begins to beg the question of whether the administration will wait until the season is over to stop the bleeding. The team is so bad offensively that it looks like an SEC team without the defense.

Watch for a Brinks truck to back into the Husky Stadium tunnel at the end of the season and drive to places like Columbia, Mo., Boise, Idaho and perhaps Salt Lake City, Utah, to see if it can get any takers.

Games to watch this week

There are other games beyond the one being played at the Texas state fair — you just won't hear much about them, because of all the hype surrounding that one. Here's that one and 10 more:

• Clemson at Wake Forest, Thursday
• Texas vs. Oklahoma
• Utah at Wyoming
• Vanderbilt vs. Mississippi State
• Nebraska at Texas Tech
• Notre Dame at North Carolina
• New Mexico at BYU
• LSU at Florida
• Oklahoma State at Missouri
• Boise State at Southern Miss
• Penn State at Wisconsin