Once thought to be a mirror of the most recent football season, albeit without as much national prestige, the answer is no longer so clear cut.  Right now, the north leads in head-to-head games by a count of 8-7 and has compiled a much more impressive resume to go along with that record, highlighted mostly by a couple wins in Austin. My inclination is still to lean towards the south, but an argument can surely be made for either side at this point.  So that’s what we’ll do. 

South

Oklahoma (8-0). 5-0 against the south. 3-0 against the north, with all three being decided late. 

Baylor (3-4).  2-3 against the south. 1-2 against the north, with the win coming in Manhattan. 

Oklahoma State (3-4).  2-3 against the south. 1-1 against the north with their win coming in Lincoln and loss coming at home to Missouri.

Take out OU’s three games and in twelve chances against the north, the rest of the south has only come up with four wins.  Two were at home and two on the road, but only one was over a top half north team when Baylor beat K-State. 

North 

Kansas (7-0). 5-0 against the north. 2-0 against the south, with both wins by double-digits. 

Missouri (6-2). 2-2 against the north. 4-0 against the south.  Missouri probably makes the strongest argument of anyone as they’ve been mediocre in the north, but handled the south; particularly impressive were the wins in Stillwater and Austin. 

KSU (4-4).  3-2 against the north. 1-2 against the south.  Like their conference season so far, they’ve either been good or bad.  Bad was the blowout loss at home to Baylor.  Good was the win in Austin.  But I guess mediocre factors in with the close home loss to Oklahoma. 

Colorado (1-6). 1-5 against the north. 0-1 against the south with the loss by 8 in Lubbock.

Take out Kansas’ two games and in 13 chances, the North has come up with a six wins.  Even more impressive is that four have come on the road; two in Austin, one in Stillwater and the other in Lubbock.

So with all of that said, why am I leaning towards the South? In short, the bottom.  Whereas the north has two bottom feeders in ISU and Colorado, the south only has one in Tech.  And without clear superiority from the rest (which the north doesn’t have at all), it’s tough to discount the impact of having four “easy” games as opposed to two.  But that aside, the northern teams have certainly been fairing much better against the south than expected and Ames can be a tough place to win (ask Oklahoma), so it’s still a debate worth having. 

What are your thoughts? How much stock do you put into the 2nd and 3rd best teams from the north winning at Texas (2nd best south)? What about Baylor dominating in Manhattan? Or Oklahoma beating everyone, but (excluding Baylor) never dominating? No matter which you favor, it’s clear that what was once considered a huge disparity should no longer be looked at that way.