Underrated rivalries in Big 12 football, based on the 16 years of the conference's existence.
Oklahoma -Texas Tech: The Red Raiders have played well against the Sooners in Lubbock and have one of only 4 wins in Norman during the Stoops era.
Texas - Texas Tech: They haven't been as successful against Texas, but the win over #1 Texas in 2008 was huge. Obviously this game has a lot of history.
Oklahoma State - Texas: The Longhorns are 14-3 now against the Cowboys in Big 12 play. That doesn't tell the full story though. Texas has made a habit of overcoming first half deficits against OSU, sometimes huge deficits. In 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2007 Texas trailed at the half only to come back and win. Of those games only 2007 was close, and only 2003 was close at half time. 1998, 2002, 2008 and 2012 were all decided, in Texas' favopoint 5 points or less (based on my memory anyway).
Oklahoma State - Texas Tech: In Big 12 play Tech leads the series 9-7. The home team has won almost every contest since Les Miles and Mike Leach took over these programs in 2000. Many of the games responsible for the Big 12's offensive reputation happened in this series. The Cowboys only two wins in Lubbock since WW2 have come in the last two seasons. Tech fans have accused Oklahoma State of trying to copy their traditions. Everything from the mascot, guns and the horse were suppoedly "Xeroxed" from Tech, and to top it off OSU hired Dana Holgorsen as OC in 2010.
Kansas State - Texas: Nobody has a better record against Texas in the Big 12 than Bill Snyder. He consistently gets his JUCO's to outperform
, out smart and out work the 5-stars Texas puts on the field.
Kansas State - Oklahoma: Stoops was an assistant at K-State under Snyder. The Wildcats upset the Sooners in Big 12 championship in 2003 (2004?), and there have been a lot of hard fought games between the two programs ever since Snyder was first hired. Prior to that I believe no team have suffered as many consecutive losses to another than K-State against OU.
There were a few others like these before the conference shakeup. I always enjoyed OSU vs A&M and Missouri for instance, and most of the old North division had an underrated rivalry with Nebraska. Nebraska hated both Texas and Texas A&M and seemed to blame them, rather than Osborne's retirement, for their fall from the pinnacle of the sport.
Baylor is only 1-15 against Oklahoma State. That one win came in Gundy's first year. They were the only employer that has ever fired him (1995 or 96). As such they've always accused him of running up the score. I don't know how much truth there is to that, but all 6 of his wins against them have been lopsided.
You could say the same thing about basketball between Oklahoma, Oklahma State, Texas and Kansas. For the first half of the conference's existence those four schools stood head and shoulders above the rest nearly every year. From 1996-2004 they all reached the Final Four. Iowa State and Texas Tech had some good years in there as well. Kansas State and Baylor were consistently bad teams before they hired Drew and Huggins in the Big 12 era. We have a better basketball conference today than at any point During the first 14 years of the Big 12 even with the two Oklahoma schools struggling. Of the three programs we lost only Missouri mattered, and that program has yet to reach a Final Four.
