The Big 12 takes a step up in competition in Week 2 and has several opportunities for ranked wins against Power Four foes on national stages.

It wasn’t a bad opening week for the league. TCU’s ugly loss to North Carolina wasn’t a good tone setter, and neither was Oklahoma State’s deflating defeat against Tulsa. But Colorado pulled out a thrilling win at Georgia Tech, Cincinnati handled business against Boston College and the upper half of the conference scorched lesser opponents as expected.

There’s more meat on the bone this week, though. The first Big 12 game of the season kicks off Saturday, and there are seven Power Four matchups and a pair of top-15 road games.

Game of the Week

Arizona (1-0) at No. 15 BYU (1-0), Saturday, 2:30 p.m. CT, FOX

The first conference game of the season will be played in Provo this weekend, and it’s a good one. Last week, BYU crushed Utah Tech, 63-7, and Arizona cruised past Northern Arizona, 35-7.

Arizona is a sneaky contender in the Big 12, and the Wildcats took the Cougars to the brink last year in a double-overtime loss. Meanwhile, BYU is a certified contender that made the Big 12 title game a season ago and went 12-2.

The winner will have an early hand up in the race to Arlington, with Arizona having a chance to prove itself and BYU having the opportunity to show it’s still at the top of the pecking order. Not to mention, this game features firepower at quarterback with BYU’s Bear Bachmeier and Arizona’s Noah Fifita.

Spread: BYU -7.5

The undercard

Arizona State (1-0) at No. 10 Texas A&M (1-0), Saturday, 11 a.m. CT, ABC

Going on the road to Kyle Field is certainly no easy task, but the Sun Devils have a chance to earn a top-10 win against one of the SEC’s best.

The jury is still out on these teams, though. The Sun Devils smacked Morgan State, 70-7, and the Aggies rolled over Missouri State, 50-0, so neither have been tested yet.

A&M’s loaded defense allowed only 67 yards in Week 1, and quarterback Marcel Reed returns after taking the Aggies to the College Football Playoff a year ago. Arizona State took a slight dip after a 2024 CFP appearance, going 8-5, but they found a spark with Kentucky transfer QB Cutter Boley, who threw for 387 yards and six touchdowns in the opener.

Spread: Texas A&M -14.5

Week 2 buffet, featuring rivalries

The Big 12 slate this week also features a pair of nonconference rivalry games.

On Friday night, Kansas hosts No. 23 Missouri in the 122nd edition of the Border War. This rivalry was played annually from 1891-2011, until is was paused when Missouri left the Big 12 for the SEC.

The game resumed last season – a 42-31 Missouri win – and now KU looks to end a four-game skid to the Tigers, dating to 2008, before the series is paused again until 2031.

Iowa State opened the Jimmy Rogers era with a 38-10 win against Southeast Missouri State, and now the new head coach goes immediately into the most important game on his calendar. The Cyclones travel to No. 21 Iowa for the Cy-Hawk rivalry at 6:30 p.m. Saturday.

Some other intriguing Big 12 matchups Saturday include Oklahoma State hosting No. 6 Oregon, Kansas State hosting Washington State, UCF traveling to Pittsburgh and No. 20 Utah hosting Arkansas.

Are the Buffs kinda back?

Just as Colorado looked dead in the water after scoring seven points in 59 minutes of play, the Buffaloes drove 75 yards in 1:03 and scored a touchdown with 37 seconds remaining to stun Georgia Tech, 14-13.

The Buffs outgained GT and won the first-down, turnover, penalty and time-of-possession battles. They really controlled the game and found a way to win at the end in gutsy fashion.

How good is Georgia Tech? We’ll see. Same for Colorado. But a road win against a quality ACC program is a great start.

The Cowboys are not kinda back

Oklahoma State was a popular darkhorse pick in the Big 12 after bringing in head coach Eric Morris, the top end of North Texas’ high-powered offense and more than 90 new players.

Then Saturday happened.

The Cowboys’ offseason of hype hit a brick wall of reality as Tulsa defeated OSU, 24-10, to claim back-to-back wins against OSU for the first time since 1951-52.

Maybe the Cowboys figure things out, and perhaps expecting them to seamlessly mesh and succeed right away after turning the program completely over in a few months was too much to ask. Still, it was an underwhelming performance as the Cowboys drop to 1-21 in their past 22 games as they enter a matchup with No. 6 Oregon.

Source: Yahoo Sports