The Big 12 North division is in chaos. After the fourth week of conference play, Kansas State leads the North, and Iowa State is only one game behind them. Who would have thought?
What was once considered a three-team showdown between Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri has quickly proved to be just the opposite.
Missouri's early schedule has put them in an 0-3 hole and in last place of the North. Nebraska's offense has failed to show up to any game not scheduled against a Sun Belt Conference opponent, and Kansas has looked like anything but the favorite some pegged them as at the start of the season.
With the entire division up in the air, the possibility of taking on one of several tough South division teams in the Big 12 Championship game could fall to any one of the six North teams.
Not even the coaches of the North teams truly know where they stand in the division. Kansas head coach Mark Mangino believes all they can do for now is focus on themselves.
"For us, personally, we can't worry about what other people are doing," Mangino said. "We have to focus on ourselves and improve and keep after it. How it plays out in the end, we'll see."
Even with the increased focus on his own team, Mangino has tried to figure out why a team can look unbeatable one week and terrible the next.
"I can't figure it out. I sat down yesterday and thought about it, and I realized it's for better minds than my own," Mangino said. "Teams don't execute like they should one week, and then they do the next. What I've learned from all this is, you better line up ready to play on Saturday, or you'll get beat."
Mangino's Jayhawks did get beat, and beat badly. KU lost 35-13 to Oklahoma on Saturday and will now look to rebound at Texas Tech.
Kansas' blowout loss wasn't the only beat down of the weekend. Missouri dropped its third straight game 41-7 to Texas.
Missouri currently sits at the bottom of the North. Tiger head coach Gary Pinkel said he knew they would have a rough patch at some point in the season, and now it's about how his team will respond.
"You never know what you're gonna go through in a season," Pinkel said. "I told our players at the beginning of the season that we were going to go through some adversity, and now it's just about how we deal with it. Now we have a sense of urgency and know we have to start playing better. I think our kids are OK, they just need to see it as it is and realize there are still a lot of opportunities."
The last of the original three favorites in the North to go down was Nebraska. A week after a surprise loss to Texas Tech, the Cornhuskers had eight turnovers in a 9-7 loss to Iowa State.
The loss to the Red Raiders had already sent the Husker fan base into a near panic, and after yet another bad outing by the Nebraska offense, many are calling for a change, particularly at the quarterback position.
Nebraska coach Bo Pelini doesn't seem ready to satisfy the outcry just yet.
"(Zac Lee) graded out pretty well," Pelini said. "He did some good things, and he did some things he needs to fix. He did some things that he and us would want to have back. He's just got to keep working and keep improving in certain areas."
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