"The Big 12 doesn’t play defense" is a stereotype that isn’t getting any easier to overcome or squash, no matter how well the league's teams fared in bowl games. But we can be smarter about how we judge the effectiveness of Big 12 defenses.

At the start of the season, I began tracking Big 12 defenses by focusing on better metrics than points per game and yards per game. Yards per play is better than per game, but I didn’t care about yardage this season. Yards don’t always win the game. Teams that won the yardage margin went 34-11 in Big 12 play this season.

Big 12 defenses are better judged by their ability to keep points off the board and get their offense back on the field. This season, I went through every box score in the Big 12 in search of a simple stat: Defensive stops. Did you give up points on a drive or did you not?

I logged every drive this season and counted up every time a Big 12 defense forced a punt, a takeaway or a turnover on downs. (One note on the accounting: I did not count the end-of-half drives when an offense was running out the clock and not trying to score.)

Here were the results for the 2016 season, along with each team’s points allowed per drive rate.

Stop rates for Big 12 defenses: 2016 season pic.twitter.com/z2WpxMl7pI — Max Olson (@max_olson) January 5, 2017

As you can see, Kansas State and Oklahoma State practically tied for first place. How close was it? K-State got stops on 68.7 percent of its drives and Oklahoma State ended up at 68.6 percent. West Virginia is right behind them at 67.7 percent, and gave up the fewest points per drive in the conference.

You'll notice Baylor finished No. 4 in these standings, which is interesting because the top 10 looks way different when we review the stop-rate results in Big 12 play.

Stop rates for Big 12 defenses: 2016 season (conference games) pic.twitter.com/kE229wdWMl — Max Olson (@max_olson) January 5, 2017

The Big 12’s most effective defense in conference play: West Virginia. Tony Gibson's group gave up touchdowns on only 23 of 112 drives against Big 12 offenses. That’s pretty darn impressive. You’ll notice TCU and Texas improved on defense during league play, too.

Why did Baylor drop so far? The Bears' defense had stops on 84 percent of its drives in four non-conference games and allowed only 0.8 points per drive. To Baylor's credit, one of those teams was a 10-win Boise State squad in the Motel 6 Cactus Bowl. But in Big 12 play, Baylor recorded stops on 56 percent of drives and gave up 2.8 points per drive.

As expected, Texas Tech’s defense ranked dead last in the league. The Red Raiders gave up scores on 79 drives and had stops on 77 this season. Their defense gave up 12 more touchdowns than 2-10 Kansas. Can't get much worse than that.

One obvious result that needs to be addressed is Oklahoma going 9-0 in Big 12 play despite having the conference's No. 6-ranked defense in these metrics. The Sooners overcame slightly-above-average results on defense by having one of the most prolific and efficient offenses we’ve ever seen in this conference.

Oklahoma's offense scored on 50 percent of all drives this season, the highest rate among all Power 5 teams. The Sooners scored on 53 percent of their drives in conference play. In the past decade, only three Big 12 teams have topped that: the Oklahoma, Texas Tech and Missouri offenses of 2008.

There’s one more thing that should be acknowledged with these numbers, and that's how the Big 12’s best defenses rank nationally. Short answer: not great. According to ESPN Stats & Info, the stop rates for Kansas State, Oklahoma State and West Virginia would rank 31st, 38th and 43rd in FBS, respectively. The Mountaineers' best-in-the-conference points per drive rate ranks 35th in the country.

Alabama has the best stop rate in FBS at 83 percent. Clemson and Ohio State are also in the top five at 79 percent. Washington finished at 77 percent. And no Big 12 team hit 70 percent.

That could be considered valid evidence for why Oklahoma's defense (at 62 percent) was problematic for the College Football Playoff committee. And closing that perception gap isn’t going to get any easier in 2017 as offenses keep innovating.

But let this also be a testament to how difficult it is to play elite defense in the Big 12. Everybody’s putting up lots of yards and explosive plays. The best are finding ways to get stops.