Big 12 football’s non-conference games were a topic of conversation in the off-season. Maybe every off-season. Kansas State coach Chris Klieman can’t testify to the latter; this is his first season.
But the league coaches talked about the importance of winning non-conference games against fellow Power 5 Conference schools. Then over last weekend, some Big 12 teams did just that. Kansas State won at Mississippi State 31-24. TCU won 34-13 at Purdue. Oklahoma won 48-14 at UCLA. Kansas won 48-24 at Boston College. And West Virginia beat North Carolina State 44-27. The Big 12 went 5-2 against Power 5 foes and now has the best record (6-4) in intra-Power 5 play.