COMMENTARY
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Tony Gibson says Baylor is playing like the No. 1 team in the nation. A West Virginia sportswriter and 12 other AP pollsters even voted the Bears such.
They may as well congratulate Daytona for having a beach.
Baylor ultimately could prove to be as fast, furious and fantastic as these bloated final scores indicate, but the evidence is beyond circumstantial so far. Want to know how West Virginia could have started 5-0? By playing Baylor’s schedule, that’s how.
Gibson gets a pass because he has to say great things about this week’s opponent—it’s compulsory coachspeak. Hell, he managed to compliment Maryland.
But the adoration being afforded No. 2 Baylor by pollsters and analysts is a might excessive for a team with a strength of schedule ranked No. 124 by Jeff Sagarin. If the Bears wind up burning through the Big 12’s better teams, they will have earned some love. So far they’ve only proved they can show up.
The only opponent worthy of even a second glance, Texas Tech, was the eighth-place pick in the Big 12 and a team Baylor had the good fortune to catch coming off that miracle-tip loss to TCU.
The Bears’ other four victims (with season records and snark attached) would make a lot of teams look invincible:
• SMU (1-5): Mustangs have dropped 16 of 18, including last month’s loss to FCS James Madison.
• Lamar (3-2): Picked to finish in the bottom half of the Southland Conference, the FCS Cardinals were tied with Baylor at 21-all late in the first half. Though in fairness to the Bears, they were probably looking ahead to …
• Rice (3-3): Not even the best bunch of Owls in college football this season. Not by a long shot.
• Kansas (0-5): The Jayhawks are everybody’s Washington Generals.
By all means, let’s cast a No. 1 vote for the team capable of shredding that schedule. Maybe next year Art Briles will dare to risk a game against Stephenville High.
Take a guess at the number of Power 5 opponents scheduled by Baylor since 2010. (Answer: Zero.) Now guess the number of Power 5 opponents scheduled for the next seven years. (Answer: Two, thanks to a home-and-home against Duke.)
It’s so easy to chide Baylor for its ludicrous lineup of patsies that I nearly choked on my recorder two years ago upon hearing Briles jab other programs for “scheduling automatic wins.” He really said this. Right before Baylor played home games vs. Wofford, Buffalo and Louisiana-Monroe.
It hurts the Big 12’s already-soft reputation to see one of its elite teams wading through such pushovers. Except in the minds of those 13 AP voters, who are persuaded by gaudy numbers more than the opponents who allowed them.