Can Big 12 Bounce Back After Getting Bowled Over in Postseason?

College Football Spring Storylines 2009 looks at the key developments and big news from spring ball.

The Big 12 stood up and challenged the SEC for the title of One Conference to Rule Them All in 2008. They didn't exactly succeed, but the conference gave us a lot of great football last season.

However, that was then and this is now. The postseason was not entirely successful for the conference, with a 4-3 overall record in bowl games. How will that carry over into this fall? Who's on the rise? Who's hitting the skids? We'll talk about the big stories after the jump.

1. Can the North recover its mojo? Last season the South and its endless parade of top-flight quarterbacks soaked up most of the limelight. Missouri was ranked as high as second in the coaches' poll but the Tigers fell hard after consecutive losses to Oklahoma State and Texas. Kansas was ranked early but had a similar retreat, and no other North team was ranked at all. Still, three North schools made the postseason, and they all won their games. Nebraska is clearly on the rise, but what about the rest of the division?

2. Will the South pick up where it left off? Of the four South teams that went to bowl games, only one won. That was Texas, which beat Ohio State in a game that wasn't quite as close as the score indicated, but wasn't the rout many predicted. Oklahoma State got blown up by Oregon, however, and Texas Tech was humbled by a little-regarded Ole Miss squad. Not only that, but Oklahoma fell well short of Florida in the BCS National Championship. Can these squads return to dominance, or will the lack of success get in their heads? And is it all due to ... well, that's the third question.

3. Can anybody in this league play defense? 20th. Four places behind Northern Illinois. That's where Texas finished in total defense last season. It was by far the best showing for any Big 12 defense. The runner-up was Oklahoma, at 57th. Three of the ten lowest-ranked defenses last season were from the Big 12. That's no way to build a dominant conference. If the Big 12 can't stop playing matador defense, it could go the way of the other Big conferences (East and Ten) and slide into irrelevance.

4. Who will fill these shoes? The Big 12 had an embarrassment of riches at quarterback last season. Texas's Colt McCoy and Oklahoma's Sam Bradford return this season, but it the league's defenses don't gel, will there be enough offensive firepower to keep more than just the Sooners and the Longhorns among the elite?

5. Bill Snyder? Seriously? I mean, I hope it works for K-State, but wow.