After preparing for three quarterbacks against Connecticut and two against Texas, ISU defensive coordinator Wally Burnham only has to worry about one starting quarterback when Iowa State plays Baylor on Saturday.

Unfortunately for Burnham and the defensive staff, that quarterback has shown this season that he is one of the toughest in the nation to prepare for. 6’2 and 220 lb. senior Robert Griffin III leads the nation in passer rating (230.3), completion percentage (82.3 percent) and passing touchdowns (18) while throwing only one interception.

“He’s a great, great athlete standing back there, and the thing that he’s got, he’s got great touch,” Burnham said during a teleconference on Monday. “He knows where he wants to go with the ball and he does a good job of getting it there. He can take something off the ball, he can drill it in there. He’s got all the throws.”

Known throughout his first three years primarily for his speed — he broke the Texas high school state records in the 110- and 300-meter hurdles — Griffin has developed into a much more lethal passer in his senior season. While watching film on Monday morning, Burnham was impressed as he saw Griffin launch a ball 65 yards downfield off his back foot to the outstretched hands of a Baylor receiver.

“I can’t remember the last time I saw a guy like this, and the thing about it looks like he’s just throwing to a spot and letting those wide receivers run under the football. So that’s a deadly combination for any defense to have to face,” Burnham said.

The initial attention around the Bears’ offense goes straight to Griffin but the Baylor offense isn’t just a one-man show. Griffin’s primary target, senior receiver Kendall Wright, leads the Big 12 in receptions, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns and the 6’0 and 240 lb. running back Terrance Ganaway averages just over five yards per carry.

“They’ve got a lot of options, they’ve got a lot of weapons, and we better have a lot of bullets in our guns too to try and stay with them,” Burnham said.

Big 12 BOD votes to equally distribute TV revenue, activates expansion committee

Nine days after the Southeastern Conference announced that current Big 12 school Texas A&M will be joining the SEC next July, the Big 12 board of directors took another step in insuring the long-term stability of the conference.

The Big 12 Conference Board of Directors voted unanimously on Sunday to adopt the position to equally distribute all conference related distributable revenue to Tier I and II football television, men’s basketball television and NCAA men’s basketball tournament revenues. Tier I revenue includes appearances on nationally televised networks such as CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox while Tier II includes all cable football, ESPN basketball and Big 12 network games produced by ESPN Regional.

The decision to equally distribute TV revenues among the conference schools will now be up to each individual school, which must commit a grant of rights to the conference for at least six years.

“Each institution has its own protocol and policies so each institution has to go through some institutional procedure to get this grant of rights approved,” said interim Big 12 commissioner Chuck Neinas on a Big 12 teleconference on Monday.

Also announced on Monday was the activation of the Big 12’s five-member expansion committee, which will be in charge of finding another university or universities to join the conference. The committee includes committee chairman and Kansas State president Kirk Schulz, Oklahoma State president Burns Hargis, Missouri chancellor Brady Deaton, Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds and Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castigliano.

“We’ve been encouraged by the amount of interest that has been generated from other institutions, I’m not going to name them, showing interest in the Big 12 conference,” Neinas said.

Neinas said that there is still no unanimous decision on how many teams the conference would like to add but that the committee will start meeting sometime this week.