The Big 12 Conference football landscape has reloaded, opting for depth across the board with the additions of Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Arizona State.
But where does the Texas Tech football team figure into this new-look league? We’ll let the preseason power rankings decide that for us.
A full preseason poll will come out of the Big 12 Media Days event, scheduled for July 9-10 in Las Vegas.
1. Oklahoma State Cowboys
Behind all-American running back Ollie Gordon, the Cowboys also return quarterback Alan Bowman and a pair of highly productive receivers in Brennan Presley and Rashod Owens, plus all five starting offensive linemen. The offense alone could be worthy of the playoff.
2. Utah Utes
Cam Rising’s return at QB should have the Utes offense humming at a level unseen last season. Utah also has a defense stacked with returning starters to provide a successful first year in the Big 12.
3. Kansas State Wildcats
Avery Johnson takes over at quarterback for the Wildcats, which adds another element to an offense that was 10th in the country in scoring last season. Coupled with one of the best defenses in the conference last year, K-State is a threat.
4. Arizona Wildcats
The wild card in the conference. Arizona came out of nowhere to pull off a 10-win season and down Oklahoma in the Alamo Bowl in 2023, but lost head coach Jedd Fisch to Washington. Still, the Wildcats return breakout performers Noah Fifita and Tetairoa McMillan as a dynamic quarterback-receiver tandem.
5. Kansas Jayhawks
Kansas has been pretty solid without him, but much of the Jayhawks’ potential rests on quarterback Jalon Daniels staying healthy. Keeping Daniels on the field, to go with running back Devin Neal, would add another layer to a dominant offense which was fourth in country in scoring in 2023.
6. Iowa State Cyclones
The Cyclones hovered around “how good are you, really?” territory after beating Oklahoma State last year. Rocco Becht took the suspension of Hunter Dekkers (gambling investigation) and established himself as a good egg to have at QB (3,120 yards, 23 TDs).
7. West Virginia Mountaineers
Neal Brown might have had the hottest seat in the country last year and it led to a 9-4 campaign for the Mountaineers. Bringing back dual threat QB Garrett Green and most of last year’s production in rushing and receiving is an intriguing prospect.
8. Texas Tech Red Raiders
The Red Raiders are reloading on offense, mostly through the transfer portal, but return the league’s second-leading rusher in Tahj Brooks. Tech hasn’t had a season uninterrupted by injury for a QB in about a decade, so all eyes are on Behren Morton.
9. Colorado Buffaloes
Coach Prime (this will be the only time I call him that) has Shadeur Sanders at quarterback, Travis Hunter at receiver and defensive back and. …? Ninth is probably too high here, but we’ll see.
10. UCF Knights
The Knights bring back running back RJ Harvey and also hit the transfer portal to bring in Arkansas transfer K.J. Jefferson to man the QB position. UCF is once again an interesting team at least worth keeping an eye on.
11. TCU Horned Frogs
Coming off their appearance in the College Football Playoff championship game, the Horned Frogs went splat all over the 2023 season, starting with that opening loss to Colorado. Sonny Dykes’ team needs a rebound, but the schedule makes that really tough.
12. Baylor Bears
Few teams in the country had a worse downfall than Baylor, which puts Dave Aranda directly in the bull’s-eye. Many saw the Bears being a threat at the top but a 3-9 record and losing each of its last five games has Baylor treading water.
13. BYU Cougars
The Cougars’ only conference wins in 2023 came against Texas Tech’s third-string true freshman QB and Cincinnati, which had one win in Big 12 games.
14. Houston Cougars
Quarterback Donovan Smith has generated some 2025 NFL Draft buzz entering Willie Fritz’s first year in Houston. Winning more than two games in Big 12 play would help that stock.
15. Arizona State Sun Devils
Just a brutal year for Kenny Dillingham and the Sun Devils last season and there’s no easy solution to turn it around other than to just play the games and see what happens.
16. Cincinnati Bearcats
Usually the old saying is, “There’s nowhere to go but up,’ but the Bearcats finished dead last in the Big 12 last season, and now there are 16 teams in the conference, so that’s not exactly true for Scott Satterfield’s crew this year.