I've been inspired by the boys at the Big Ten Blog, and this should be a fun walk-through each week in the new-look Big 12 next season. I'll pick one game a week during the season that I'd attend if it were entirely up to me. I don't make the call, and things change as games are played, of course. But right now, this is how it would look if it were up to me. I'll include road nonconference games, too.
Week 1: West Virginia vs. Marshall
Week 2: Kansas State vs. Miami
Week 3: Texas at Ole Miss
Week 4: Kansas State at Oklahoma
Week 5: Texas at Oklahoma State
Week 6: West Virginia at Texas
Here's what the Week 8 slate in the Big 12 looks like:
Baylor at Texas
Iowa State at Oklahoma State
Oklahoma at Kansas
Texas Tech at TCU
Kansas State at West Virginia
My pick: Kansas State at West Virginia
Kansas State travels to Oklahoma in its fourth game of the season, but the Wildcats should be favored in every other game they play before traveling to Morgantown to face the Mountaineers.
Don't be surprised if this is a showdown of two top-10 teams, and Kansas State gets the first real dose of Big 12 madness inside Milan Puskar Stadium. The Mountaineers host Baylor first before traveling to Texas and Texas Tech, returning home to face Kansas State. Could the Mountaineers be undefeated?
Then, of course, we have the contrasting styles in play and coaching staffs, too. Dana Holgorsen will go head to head with Bill Snyder for the first time as a head coach. Snyder is a bona fide Big 12 legend, with a heck of a team coming back in 2012. Collin Klein and Geno Smith will go head to head, too, and the winner will get a huge boost to his Heisman campaign.
This would be my first-ever game at Mountaineer Field, and it'd be a heck of a start. We'll see if Kansas State and WVU hold it together early in the season to make this the mammoth mid-October showdown it could be.
