100 Questions: Ranking Big 12 hoops/football combos

***Yesterday's Question HERE***

In an attempt to pass the time this off-season we're fortunate to have secured the help of scottwildcat from Boscoe's Boys. Scott is going to provide 100 questions about the past, present, future (and who-knows-what) involving Kansas State sports, and I'll do my very best to answer them.

Let's dive in to the 100 Questions.

I didn't cop out on this one, I actually did the research.

Instead of picking a time-frame, I went with entire existence of the Big 12 Conference, starting in 1996 through the completion of the most recent football and basketball seasons.

There are a million different ways this could be judged, but I decided the most apples to apples numbers I could use (and to keep it somewhat simple) were conference standings in both sports.

Since only eight teams - Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech and Texas - have been in the conference for duration of Big 12 play, I ranked those teams finishes within both sports, first through eighth, for every season.

So, in theory, finishing first would give you eight points, while finishing second seven points, and so on.

To give greater credit for winning championships, however, I attached a 12-point value to a conference championship. In that instance, the top team receives 12 points, No. 2 gets seven, No. 3 gets six, and on down the line.

The difference in reward between first and second, then, becomes far greater than second and third.

There were two exceptions to that scoring rule:

1. If the actual Big 12 Champion (Texas A&M in 1998 football, for example) is no longer in the league, I will give the next highest finishing team eight points (K-State, in this example) for finishing higher than all league peers but not the full 12, since a championship wasn't won.

2. League recognized split championships will be awarded with both champions getting 11 points.

I did not recognize ties, however, beyond conference championships and simply used the official league rankings. In the event of ties beyond that, I broke them myself through highest Associated Press ranking and then best overall record.

To rank West Virginia and TCU I simply compared them against each other, going back in and assigning them the same set of values for their Big 12 finishes every year since entering the league.

BIG 12 1996 - 2018 FOOTBALL ONLY RANKINGS

1. Oklahoma 202

2. Texas 152

3. K-State 130

4. Oklahoma State 116

5. Texas Tech 109

6. Baylor 80

7. Iowa State 64

8. Kansas 55

9. TCU 47

10. West Virginia 39

BASKETBALL ONLY RANKINGS

1. Kansas 230

2. Texas 130

3. Oklahoma 117

4. Oklahoma State 100

5. Kansas State 98

6. Iowa State 93

7. Texas Tech 78

8. Baylor 76

9. West Virginia 29

10. TCU 14

The above sections were easy, as they simply took time.

After that, however, I had to make a decision: How do I weigh the value of football success against that of basketball success?

I considered three options: equal for both, double points assigned for football and triple points assigned for football.

If you're a fan of Kansas (and maybe, maybe Iowa State) you'd probably argue for even points. And, sure, some K-State fans care about basketball every bit as much as football, if not more. I may well be a basketball guy.

Generally speaking, however, conference realignment helped make clear the value of football over basketball from a financial, fan-interest perspective. And, I feel confident at least seven (and perhaps as many as nine) of the 10 Big 12 fan bases would value football over basketball, easily.

So, it has to be worth more, but how much? I was tempted to even go triple, but ultimately settled on football results earning twice the points of basketball.

1. Oklahoma 521

2. Texas 434

3. Kansas State 358

4. Kansas 340

5. Oklahoma State 332

6. Texas Tech 296

7. Baylor 236

8. Iowa State 221

9. TCU 108

10. West Virginia 107

Any way you slice it, Oklahoma is the king of the Big 12. Even points, double points, triple points, it doesn't matter - the Sooners are finishing No. 1.

If you were to assign equal points to both sports we'd see a couple of shifts. Kansas would jump from No. 4 to No. 2, inching out Texas for that spot and knocking K-State down to No. 4. You'd also see Iowa State take a one-point edge on Baylor to jump out of the cellar, 157-156.

If you went to the other extreme and gave triple points to football Kansas, again, would be the biggest mover, falling from No. 4 down to No. 6 behind Texas Tech.