College football rankings 2021: Projected Week 13 AP Top 25 after Oregon gets steamrolled, Alabama survives and Ohio State shines

8. Baylor Bears

If you had told most people that Baylor would lose starting quarterback Gerry Bohannon relatively early on the road against Kansas State, most fans would’ve assumed that Dave Aranda’s Bears suffered a tough and ill-timed loss. But credit to the second-year head coach and his team for weathering that storm to come up with a gritty 20-10 win in Manhattan on Saturday.

Baylor certainly didn’t earn any style points for their win on Saturday but they remain very much in play for the Big 12 Championship Game. If Oklahoma State can hold serve and win in Bedlam next week and the Bears can take care of Texas Tech, then Aranda will have put together an improbable and highly impressive run to the conference championship game and a chance at revenge against the Pokes.

7. Oklahoma State Cowboys

On one hand, Oklahoma State traveled to Lubbock and one of the most consistently underrated and dominant defensive units in the country completely shut down Texas Tech. That part of the equation looks great for the Cowboys. What looks less great, however, is the fact that the Pokes offense, after hanging 60+ on TCU last week, put forth a disappearing act as they struggled to put points on the board.

It’s going to be fascinating to see how Bedlam plays out next week. Oklahoma is imperfect but so too is Oklahoma State, even if it’s been less obvious than with the Sooners. But if their offense fails to show up in Stillwater next week, it could be a big blow to a now very real College Football Playoff opportunity for this team.