West Virginia officially christened its new home in the Big 12 with a 70-63 shootout victory over Baylor last Saturday. While last week was the first conference game of the year, playing at Texas is truly a “Welcome to the Big 12” moment. The Mountaineers last met the Longhorns in 1956 and their last game in the state of Texas came in the 1984 Bluebonnet Bowl.

College football's Week 6 slate is filled with plenty of intriguing games, starting in the SEC with Florida-LSU and Georgia-South Carolina. These two match-ups will play a key role in determining the SEC division winners. Ohio State and Nebraska both won close games last week and meet in Columbus this Saturday. West Virginia won its Big 12 opener against Baylor, but the stakes are even higher against Texas on Saturday night.

Top Storylines to Watch in Week 6

The SEC is college football's top conference but the Big 12 isn't far behind. The Big 12 could have nine bowl teams this season and the battle to win the conference will be one of the tightest races in the nation. Kansas State fired the first shot in the title picture, winning at Oklahoma on Sept. 22. With Oklahoma taking on Texas Tech and West Virginia visiting Texas this Saturday, the Big 12 will have some separation after Week 6.

The Heisman Trophy isn’t the only award worth watching on a weekly basis. The Lombardi, Outland, Davey O’Brien and Biletnikoff races are all worth watching and debating as the season goes along.

Throughout the season, we’ll keep an eye on all the prominent position trophies through college football in addition to the Heisman.

If you’re looking for our thoughts on that other trophy, check our weekly Heisman poll.

The Big 12 title race is going to be a track meet, so it seems. A week after two games involving West Virginia, Baylor, Texas and Oklahoma State combined for 210 total points, the league’s best offense (West Virginia) faces what most thought would be the league’s best defense (Texas).

The Longhorns will try to score a victory for defense this week, but that’s going to be a tall order against Geno Smith in his first Big 12 road game.

With the halfway point of the 2012 college football season approaching, it's time to take a look at some of the top freshmen performers so far this season. For the purpose of this article, Athlon included true and redshirt freshman, with an emphasis on the offensive and defensive performers. Quarterbacks grabbed three of the top five spots, as UCLA's Brett Hundley barely edges Texas A&M's Johnny Manziel for No. 1.
 

Week 5 provided plenty of excitement in the Big 12. West Virginia and Baylor met for a 70-63 shootout in Morgantown, while Texas and Oklahoma State matched up for a thriller in Stillwater. The Longhorns rank as Athlon's No. 1 team, but the top three aren't separated by much. 

Post-Week 5 Big 12 Power Rankings

What was supposed to be a ho-hum week of college football turned out to be an explosion of offense. The day began with a relatively low-scoring first quarter from Baylor and West Virginia with “only” 28 points and ended with a 133-point binge.

Quarterbacks Geno Smith and Nick Florence combined for 1,237 passing yards in the highest-scoring game in regulation in five seasons.