The Big 12 came into college football existence in 1996, when Texas, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, and Baylor left the SWC to join forces with Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Iowa State, and Missouri from the Big 8. The conference has been one of the best in college football, but it’s done a terrible job of producing quality NFL quarterbacks. In fact, there have been just 19 quarterbacks to start an NFL game who played in the Big 12:

Baker Mayfield
Patrick Mahomes
Bryce Petty
Landry Jones
Geno Smith
Brandon Weeden
Ryan Tannehill
Robert Griffin
Blaine Gabbert
Sam Bradford
Colt McCoy
Stephen McGee
Josh Freeman
Chase Daniel
Vince Young
Seneca Wallace
Chris Simms
Sage Rosenfels
Koy Detmer

There have been 25 quarterbacks drafted from the Big 12: of the group that have started more than 5 games, only two have a winning record. Young, who managed to have a good record despite not being a good passer, and Mahomes, who is now 8-1. Before 2018, no quarterback from the Big 12 had thrown more TDs than interceptions, had more wins than losses, and started more than 5 games.

There are five former Big 12 quarterbacks who have started a game this season: Mahomes, Mayfield, Tannehill, Gabbert, and Bradford.  Through 8 weeks, there were no Big 12 starting QB matchups (although Gabbert played a bunch against Tannehill in the season opener), but tomorrow, the Browns and Chiefs will play.  This means a revival of sorts of a classic game between Mayfield and Mahomes that featured 12 passing touchdowns and nearly 1300 passing yards.

This will be the first time two teams started Big 12 quarterbacks since week 17 of the 2016 season, a forgettable and meaningless matchup between Landry Jones and RG3.  The most high-octane Big 12 QB game of all time was probably another week 17 game, this time between Geno Smith and Ryan Tannehill in 2014.  The table below shows all matchups where both starting quarterbacks played in the Big 12:

Quarterbacks from the Big 12 have disappointed for over two decades. But Mahomes is changing things, and Mayfield may be on the path to joining him.