The Big 12 is exploring selling the conference’s naming rights to Allstate and taking on an investment from a private equity firm. Football can’t get here fast enough.
Thanks, as always, for your submissions for the Big 12 mailbag. Let’s dive right in.
Note: Submitted questions lightly edited for length and clarity.
There’s been a lot of talk of how much production Oklahoma State is bringing back, but it seems like no one has them higher than fourth in the conference. Experience and continuity feel more significant than ever in college sports, so is this more a statement on the strength of the Big 12 or is a team returning key pieces off a 10-win season (with a proven coach) just being undervalued? — Sam K.
The Cowboys are definitely undervalued. BetMGM recently dropped its Big 12 championship odds and Oklahoma State was seventh (!), despite returning 21 starters and 85 percent of its production, which is third-most nationally according to Bill Connelly’s SP+. That mark is also highest among teams that finished in the AP top 20 last year.
I’m not sure why the Pokes aren’t a more popular pick to win the league. The program has been one of the most consistent in the country in the Mike Gundy era. Maybe some believe the ceiling on seventh-year quarterback Alan Bowman will hold the team back — he threw for 15 touchdowns and 14 interceptions last year. There’s certainly more hype around the other contenders’ quarterbacks (Cam Rising, Noah Fifita, Jalon Daniels, Avery Johnson). Maybe there’s still skepticism after their slow start last season and the pounding they took from SEC-bound Texas in the Big 12 title game.
But experience matters. So does stability. Having Doak Walker Award winner Ollie Gordon II back is huge. What I know for certain is that we’ll find out early in the conference schedule how legit this team is. The Pokes have Utah, Kansas State and West Virginia to open up Big 12 play. To me, Oklahoma State is an easy top-three pick in the preseason Big 12 rankings. — Sam Khan
Who is going to start the Iowa State hype train? — Zach B.
I’ve already reserved my seat, Zach.
Iowa State became my Big 12 dark horse candidate while researching my post-spring power rankings. It returns nearly every significant contributor from a season ago, ranking tops in the FBS in returning production, just ahead of Oklahoma State.
Last year, it felt as if Rocco Becht was hastily and unfairly thrust into the starting quarterback role after the gambling saga, but Becht blossomed over the course of his redshirt freshman season and became one of the more promising young QBs in the country, throwing for 3,000-plus yards and 23 touchdowns on 63 percent completion. All five starters on the offensive line and the top three receivers are back, as is running back Abu Sama III, who rushed for 7.3 yards per carry as a true freshman. The Cyclones also had the best defense in the Big 12 in 2023 in terms of yards per play (5.2), returning defensive backs Jeremiah Cooper and Beau Freyler and adding edge rusher Kenard Snyder in the portal.
The schedule tilts in ISU’s favor, too. No Arizona or Oklahoma State. Kansas State, UCF and Texas Tech visit Ames. Big 12 play opens against Houston and Baylor. Even with a nonconference Cy-Hawk rivalry against Iowa, a 4-1 start seems very plausible before making an Oct. 12 trip to West Virginia. I think the Clones will enter their final stretch at Utah and home against K-State with a shot to make the conference title game. — Justin Williams
How do you think the new teams from the Pac-12 will do? — Raj C.
Utah and Arizona are both in the preseason conversation for potential league champions. I’m a little leery to heap too much expectation on Arizona with a new coach, but it has arguably the best top-end talent in the league between Fifita, Tetairoa McMillan, Tacario Davis and Jonah Savaiinaea. I don’t see Colorado as a conference contender but I think they can get to a bowl game. I do have Arizona State near the bottom this season, and suspect the rebuild in Tempe will take a couple of years, but I like how Kenny Dillingham is going about it and am optimistic about him as a coach long-term. — Williams
Do you believe the Big 12 football championship game should remain in Arlington, Texas, or is the time right to move it around with the influx of teams from the West? — Timothy D.
Last year, the conference extended its current contract with AT&T Stadium through the 2030 season, so it appears it’ll stay put for the foreseeable future.
As a native Texan, I’m biased and I like it where it is. It’s an excellent facility that does a good job of hosting and is in a metro area with two major airports. And the state of Texas has been an integral part of the Big 12 since its inception and will continue to be with four of the schools located there.
But I can see the argument for another location, like Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, where Big 12 media days will be held next month. That’s a newer venue in an attractive location that’s also accustomed to big events and it makes sense with the new western flank of the league. Kansas City — which has long hosted the Big 12 basketball tournament — would also be a good option, but I wonder how open league officials would be to having the conference title game at an outdoor venue. Domed or retractable roof stadiums seem to be the preferred choice for power conference title games these days.
Personally, a Big 12 championship game at Arrowhead Stadium sounds awesome to me. But there’s also an NFL schedule to work around. For now, it’s all moot, since it’s locked into JerryWorld. — Khan
In your recent “one word for each team” podcast, you used the word “stabilized” for Cincinnati. What makes you believe that this year is going to go any different than last year? — Paul G.
When Scott Satterfield took over a Cincinnati program last spring that was coming off of nine wins in 2022 and a College Football Playoff run in 2021, he made a decision to disrupt as little as possible. He told me recently that was a mistake. Between a move from the AAC to the Big 12, the staff and roster turnover that comes with a coaching change in the portal era, and the general shift in culture, an overhaul was inevitable. He feels he would have been better off establishing more of his influence right away, even for a program coming off its best stretch in school history under Luke Fickell.
Satterfield leaned into that cultural reset this offseason, culling the roster of poor fits and adding more than 45 new players via the high-school ranks and transfer portal. The two biggest on-field issues last year, when the Bearcats finished 3-9 and dead last in the Big 12, were bad quarterback play and allowing too many deep shots against busted coverage. The team addressed both, bringing in Indiana transfer Brendan Sorsby at quarterback and a handful of transfers in the secondary, as well as hiring former Iowa State linebackers coach Tyson Veidt as defensive coordinator. Hence “stabilized,” at least compared to Year 1.
But stability doesn’t ensure success. Satterfield believes the overall talent has upgraded from last season; the challenge now is translating those adjustments into wins. It’s a manageable schedule on paper: no Utah, Arizona or Oklahoma State, and Houston and Arizona State at home. If Cincinnati can beat Pitt in Nippert Stadium in Week 2, there’s a path to a 4-0 start, which would feel significant after winning three all of last year. Regardless, the main task for Satterfield and the Bearcats in 2024 is to show clear signs of progress. Getting to a bowl game and building some momentum for year three isn’t a given, but it does seem attainable. — Williams
What would be a successful season for TCU? — Matthew H.
Eight or more wins seems like a great bounce back from last year’s disappointing 5-7. Getting there requires a winning conference record, which isn’t easy, given the Horned Frogs’ slate (Houston, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State and Arizona at home; Kansas, Utah, Baylor, Cincinnati on the road). The talent is there. The intangibles that were present in 2022 but missing last year — leadership, a strong culture, chemistry — have to return. — Khan
Save for occasional, short-lived peaks of success, Kansas football has been terrible pretty much forever. But it’s peaking at the perfect time, with realignment creating a power vacuum in the conference. Fast-forward five years: Is it more likely KU sustains its success or regresses to the mean? — Dan M.
I think the realignment power vacuum Dan references is legit and what makes the Big 12 such a fascinating football conference moving forward. All 16 schools can reasonably believe they will have a chance to compete for conference titles — if not this season then in a big-picture, near-future sense. That parity is unique compared to the other power conferences.
In terms of Kansas’s five-year outlook, that depends on whether Lance Leipold is still there. If Leipold sticks around, I expect the Jayhawks will remain relevant in the Big 12. He’s a proven program-builder, and having the right head coach in place remains vital, even in the NIL/transfer portal era. Kansas has proven its commitment to that mission, inking Leipold to a recent contract extension through 2029 that pays him more than $7 million a year. Combined with a $450 million renovation to its football facilities and seven-year extension for athletic director Travis Goff (who hired Leipold and has been a strong supporter of football), KU’s investment is obvious.
Kansas remains a basketball school, an identity that isn’t likely to change. But the infrastructure that identity provides in terms of fan and NIL support should continue to benefit football as well. A Leipold departure wouldn’t automatically doom the Jayhawks, but keeping him in place helps the current trajectory. He is the main reason why I’m bullish on Kansas in the new Big 12. — Williams
How good will Micah Hudson be this year? — James G.
I asked Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire about Hudson recently. He gushed over the five-star receiver recruit: “I coached four receivers in high school that had great college careers and got drafted in the NFL, and he’s better than all four of ‘em. I expect him to play, if not start. I expect him to play a lot for us this year.”
McGuire also cited Hudson’s maturity and approach as reasons for optimism. The things I hear about Hudson remind me of what I heard around Texas A&M circles before Christian Kirk’s true freshman season in 2015. Kirk caught 80 passes for over 1,000 yards and was a special teams dynamo in his debut. That might be shooting a bit high, but it wouldn’t shock me if Hudson approached that type of production. — Khan
Name the best position groups in the league. — Robert P.
It’s tough to fully gauge with so much offseason roster shuffling, though I do like the wideouts for Iowa State and Colorado and the offensive lines for Oklahoma State and West Virginia. The conference as a whole, however, is absolutely stacked at running back. There are eight returning 1,000-yard rushers, headlined by Gordon at Oklahoma State, plus a duo at West Virginia that combined for more than 1,600 yards together. The Big 12 is gonna run the damn ball this season. — Williams
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.