1. Oklahoma (1-0, last week: 1): The Sooners had Saturday off after toasting Tulsa last week, but there will be plenty of talk about Oklahoma this week, when they travel to Tallahassee to face Florida State, with ESPN College GameDay in tow.
2. Oklahoma State (2-0, LW: 3): Oklahoma State hops over Texas A&M by way of a dominant Thursday night performance against a decent Arizona team. The offense is clicking, and the defense was strong for most of the night. The showdown on Sept. 24 between the Cowboys and Aggies is shaping up to be epic.
3. Texas A&M (1-0, LW: 2): The Aggies didn't punch their ticket to the SEC during the bye week as they would have liked, but get back to playing football next week with Idaho heading to College Station.
4. Baylor (1-0, LW: 5): Baylor got to bask in its win over TCU for an extra week and slide up in the polls, but the Bears get back to business this week. Stephen F. Austin is next on the schedule for Baylor, which looks headed to a 5-0 start before a trip to Kyle Field to face A&M on Oct. 15.
5. Texas (2-0, LW: 6): The Longhorns are not an excellent team. This is obvious. Last year, Texas was an OK team that thought it was still great. This year it's a pretty good team armed with the knowledge that it's not great. That could pay off with a couple extra wins that people don't expect. The defense is loaded, and if the offense becomes functional like it was in the second half, Texas could be sneakily dangerous.
6. Missouri (1-1, LW: 4): Let's be clear about what Missouri did on Friday night: The Tigers lost to a top 20 team in overtime on the road in one of the most hyped games in the Arizona State's history. It also did it with a quarterback making his first start on the road. All things considered, not a bad loss for Mizzou and no reason for a big fall in the power rankings.
7. Iowa State (2-0, LW: 10): Iowa State hops over Texas Tech with a huge win over rival Iowa. How good is Iowa? We'll see, but Iowa State is showing some promise and may have joined the second tier of Big 12 teams from 4-8 that could be interchangeable from week to week.
8. Texas Tech (1-0, LW: 7): No offense here, Red Raiders. When your only outing is a game against an FCS team, and you trailed at the half, I'm going to give Iowa State more credit for its nonconference schedule while the Red Raiders rack up wins against cupcakes. Show me something. Or beat Iowa State.
9. Kansas (2-0, LW: 8): I'll be clear here: Kansas didn't fall, it was leapfrogged by Iowa State. Kansas proved itself a bit with a win over Northern Illinois, but the gap between these two teams was enormous entering last week.
10. Kansas State (1-0, LW: 9): Kansas State didn't benefit with a poorly timed off week. The Wildcats may be better than this, but for now, they're a team whose only bullet point on its r?sum? is a 10-7 win over FCS Eastern Kentucky in which a touchdown in the final minutes rescued what would have been an embarrassing loss. The defense has more speed this year, but the offense has to be better.
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