IMO, when assessing blame, Baylor needs to look in the mirror for this very reason.
I've been railing against them and their soft non-conference schedule for the last few years. I knew it would come back to bite them in the ass.
I found it funny that when making the media rounds today, Art Briles tried to drop the excuse that non-conference schedules are put together year's in advance. While that's true, Baylor still loads their future schedule with nothing but cupcakes. They have no intention of changing their formula so they don't get to use the excuse that the schedule was made 5 years ago. Hell, this past spring they threw Incarnate Word (what?) on their schedule for the 2019 season. You telling me they couldn't find a N. Carolina State or Tennessee caliber team to put on the schedule? They definitely could but they're too chickenshit. Texas, Oklahoma St, TCU, Oklahoma, WV, etc. constantly schedule home & homes with good teams from the power 5 conferences so no excuse for Baylor to continue to load up on cupcakes.
Matter of fact I think Baylor is the only team in the Big 12 who is terrified to play a quality non-conference opponent.
Here's a quick look at Baylor's upcoming non-conference opponents.
2015: at SMU, Lamar, Rice
2016: Northwestern State, SMU, at Rice
2017: Liberty, UTSA, at Duke
2018: Duke, at UTSA
2019: Incornate Word, UTSA, at Rice
Nothing but absolute trash.
They've given themselves no room for error.