The merits of recruiting rankings are debated in every sports bar and around every water cooler in the nation. Athlon continues its look at how each All-Conference team ranked as high school recruits with the first-team All-Big 12 team.

Related: College Football's 2012 All-American Team as Recruits

2012 Offensive All-Big 12 Team as Recruits

College football's bowl season begins on Saturday with the New Mexico Bowl and the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. Here are predictions on the first 14 bowl games. 

Texas Tech is the latest college football program looking for a new coach, as Tommy Tuberville made a surprising decision to bolt to Cincinnati to replace Butch Jones. Tuberville was 20-17 in three seasons with the Red Raiders but never seemed to be a good fit in Lubbock. Texas Tech has experienced only one losing season since 1993, and Tuberville isn’t leaving the cupboard bare for the new coach.

8 Coaches to Replace Tommy Tuberville at Texas Tech

Which bowls should you tune into? Athlon ranks and previews all of the matchups from the must-see to the ones you can avoid. Although Alabama and Notre Dame is clearly the biggest bowl game, with 34 other contests, there are plenty of other quality pairings to watch this postseason.

Ranking the 35 Bowl Games: Must-Watch to Must-Miss

The Big 12 is two years removed from hosting a championship game, but the league’s BCS bid and title will still come down to two teams in the final week.

Kansas State remains in control of its own destiny for the Fiesta Bowl if it defeats Texas, an opponent the Wildcats have handled in each of their last four meetings. After losing to the Wildcats in September, Oklahoma must hope for a Kansas State loss in addition to a Sooners win over TCU.

Rivalry week still has the Bedlam Game at least.

Thanksgiving used to be the traditional home Texas-Texas A&M, but the Aggies’ move to the SEC put a stop to that. Texas will play host to TCU this week, and A&M will face Missouri, another Big 12 defector who won't play its top rival (Kansas) this week.

A chance to coach college football at the top level of the game for a living should make any man on the sideline to be thankful.

Some should be more thankful than others this year, though, to be coaching major college football this season.

Kansas State remains atop the Big 12 power rankings, but the Wildcats are no longer in the driver's seat to play for a national title. Despite the loss to Baylor, Kansas State still maintains an edge for the Big 12 title. Oklahoma survived a shootout win over West Virginia to control the No. 2 spot in the power rankings and remains alive for an at-large spot in the BCS. Oklahoma State is one of the Big 12's hottest teams, crushing Texas Tech 59-21 to move to 7-3 this season.

Kansas State is one win away from clinching a share of the Big 12 championship and a BCS bid, but the Wildcats have greater aspirations. The Wildcats are no longer the underdog in the Big 12 or nationally, rising to No. 1 in the BCS this week. They’ll try to remain in the title game picture with a dangerous (on offense) Baylor team in Waco this week.

Kansas State was a big winner from the Big 12’s Week 11 action. The Wildcats knocked off TCU 23-10 to improve their record to 10-0. But that wasn’t the only bit of good news for Bill Snyder’s team. With Alabama losing to Texas A&M, Kansas State is in position to play for the national title with two more victories. The Wildcats still have some work to do but the road to a BCS Championship appearance is favorable.