The Big 12 played two Power Four non-conference games in Week 3 that ended in very different fashions. West Virginia came away with an eye-opening 38-27 victory against a ranked Virginia team in Charlotte while Colorado suffered a brutal 41-7 loss at Northwestern.

Cincinnati is 3-0 for the first time since 2021, when the Bearcats — then in the American Conference — were the only non-power conference team ever to make the four-team version of the College Football Playoff. That was also the last time the Bearcats were 4-0, going 13-0 before losing to Alabama in a CFP semifinal.