The Big 12 is crazy this year. Each week, fans come into the week of play with expectations of who will win and who will lose.

Invariably, those expectations come crashing down as the favored team is upset.

For Iowa State this year, only two of its five Big 12 games could have been considered upsets, and neither one was a big shocker.

The Cyclones entered their game against Missouri as seven-point underdogs. While the game was played at Columbia, this still seemed a bit much.

Well, the Cyclones left Missouri with a 24-21 win, which in turn led to the oddsmakers installing ISU as a slight favorite over Colorado.

Well, the Cyclones could not handle the unfamiliar role of the favorite, and fell to the Buffs, 16-12.

Iowa State’s next opponent, Texas Tech, is another story altogether. It opened the season at Arizona State. Both teams were in or around the top 25 at the start of the year, and the game was expected to be competitive.

ASU, however, didn’t cooperate with that hypothesis and blew out the Red Raiders, 31-13. Tech’s star back, Ricky Williams, went down with an injury in that game and didn’t return for the rest of the year.

After beating Southwestern Louisiana, Tech was expected to go to 2-1 when it faced North Texas, a Division I weak sister.

Despite the fact that the game was played at Jones Stadium in Lubbock, the Red Raiders fell to a 21-14 defeat.

So, the loss of Williams was expected to leave the Raiders out of the race in the Big 12, and after the loss to mighty North Texas, the team might just be cellar dwellers. Oh well, there’s always next year.

Then Texas A&M came to town. Tech, huge underdogs to the No. 5 team in the country, shocked the Aggies with a 21-19 win. Counting out the Red Raiders? Not so fast, Chachi.

Tech then traveled to Oklahoma State, a mediocre team at best that was very beatable. To continue the trend, Tech was pummeled to the tune of 41-21.

Then into Lubbock came Colorado behind quarterback Mike Moschetti, who had been on fire in his last three games. The Texas Tech pass defense had struggled, and this one was expected to go to the Buffs.

WRONG! Texas Tech, 31-10. Not even close.

After a rare expected win over hapless Baylor, another struggling team was the opponent for Texas Tech, the Missouri Tigers.

Missouri came into the game losers of three games in a row, including embarrassing losses at home to Iowa State, which hadn’t won a road game since 1991, and at Kansas.

The Jayhawks were 0-3 in the conference and even were blown out by San Diego State. Missouri then lost 21-0.

So, the Tigers were a broken team when they faced suddenly hot Texas Tech. Yep, you guessed it, Tigers in a romp, 34-7.

And now comes this weekend. ISU comes in with a record of 4-4. They are only 1-4 in the conference, but three of the four losses came to upper division teams by a total of 14 points.

The one team they have played this year with equal talent is Missouri. Despite being outgained, the Cyclones went on the road and won, 24-21.

The Red Raiders are 4-4 as well, including a 3-2 mark in conference play. They seem to be of about equal talent as the Cyclones.

This should be a close game decided in the fourth quarter. But anyone who tells you after the outcome that this game was an easy call, they are a damn liar.

With the fact that I have absolutely no clue what is going to happen this week abundantly clear, I am going to go ahead and make a prediction.

Iowa State 24, Texas Tech 21. Give or take 30 on either side.