Year after year, the Big 12 remains one of the most entertaining leagues in college football. Sure, many will point the finger at the league's explosive offenses (cynics then pointing their fingers at the Big 12's lack of elite defenses), but it's even more than that. It's a parity and cyclical nature of the league.

Not buying it? Over the last five seasons, every team except one has won eight games in a season. And a whopping seven Big 12 schools have put together conference records of 7-2 or better. That means that within a Big 12 season, (relatively) anything can happen. And that's what makes coming up with a list of the Big 12's most important games more challenging: Not only are the league standings difficult to project, we could have a vastly different idea of what those standings will look like just a few games into the season.

The slight twist? We picked at least one game featuring every team in the Big 12. So while some of the league's most important games will involve teams pushing for the Big 12 title, or to help them climb the ranks nationally, others could be important for a team to make a bowl game, or even just to hold onto their current coach.