2026 College Football Preview Part XXII- Big 12

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Welcome Back!

Today I continue my conference previews. These previews will attempt to predict how each conference finishes, but realize that doing so is extremely difficult, especially since no conference has a balanced schedule. Also, whatever the conferences come up with in the form of tiebreakers will make a huge difference, as all but the Sun Belt have done away with divisions. In addition, these predictions aren't my personal opinion; they are the result of the formula/model/statistical analysis/whatever. I will sometimes mention my thoughts in the narratives below the predictions. Also, the formula for my predictions here is different than for my Power Rankings. In other words, for a particular conference, one team may appear higher than another team here, but be ranked behind that same team in the PR.

The list of records for 3-years, 6-years, and 10 years are conference records only, and do not include any results for the conference championship games. You will notice that the teams haven't all played the same number of games, especially when considering they should have. This is because that teams played a varied number of games in 2020, and that sometimes games get cancelled (see Virginia in 2022, for example). In the case of teams switching conferences, I counted the record from their previous conference. Independent teams joining a conference were counted with their full record (UMass last year), but FCS teams moving up enter with 0-0 records.

In case you are interested, I get all of my information from various sources. I use the 4 main preview magazines (Phil Steele, Lindy's, Athlon, and Sporting News), but I also use many different websites, including (but not limited to): Google, Winsipedia, sports-reference.com, ESPN.com, TeamRankings.com, NCAA.com, and, of course, individual school websites.

I don't have a staff- it's just me- so all of the research is my own from these various sources (it doesn't help when they contradict each other...), so any mistakes are mine. I also don't have an editor/proofreader, so you are likely to find several (many? I hope not) typos, such as commas where periods should be (or vice versa), a misspelled or missing word, doubled words ("the the" in the middle of a sentence, for example), etc. 

Finally, feel free to leave a comment. Interacting is much of the fun! Of course, if you know me personally, feel free to just text. I'll get that a lot quicker.

So, on with the previews!


Big 12


3-Year History


Texas Tech 19-8/.704/1st

Iowa St 18-9/.667/2nd

BYU 17-10/.630/3rd

Kansas St 16-11/.593/4th

Arizona 15-12/.556/5th

Arizona St 15-12/.556/5th

TCU 14-13/.519/7th

Utah 14-13/.519/7th

West Virginia 13-14/.481/9th

Kansas 12-15/.444/10th

Baylor 11-16/.407/11th

Houston 11-16/.407/11th

Cincinnati 9-18/.333/13th

Colorado 9-18/.333/13th

UCF 7-20/.259/15th

Oklahoma St 7-20/.259/15th



6-Year History


BYU 46-19/.708/1st

Utah 32-178/.640/2nd

ISU 32-22/.593/3rd

Cincy 29-20/.592/4th

KSU 31-23/.574/5th

TCU 31-23/.574/5th

Houston 29-22/.569/7th

TTU 30-24/.556/8th

ASU 25-24/.510/9th

Okla St 25-29/.463/10th

WVU 24-29/.453/11th

UCF 23-28/.451/12th

Bay 24-30/.444/13th

Ariz 19-31/.380/14th

Colo 16-33/.327/15th

Kansas 16-37/.302/16th



10-Year History


Utah 54-32/.628/1st

BYU 73-44/.624/2nd

UCF 49-34/.598/3rd

Cincy 45-36/.556/4th

KSU 50-40/.556/4th

ISU 50-40/.556/4th

Houston 46-37/.554/7th

TCU 49-41/.544/8th

OSU 46-44/.511/9th

WVU 45-44/.506/10th

ASU 42-43/.494/11th

TTU 41-49/.456/12th

Baylor 40-50/.444/13th

Colo 31-54/.365/14th

Ariz 31-55/.360/15th

Kansas 19-70/.213/16th


Predicted Finish:


  1. Texas Tech

  2. BYU

  3. Houston

  4. Utah

  5. Arizona

  6. TCU

  7. Arizona State

  8. Kansas State

  9. Cincinnati

  10. Oklahoma State

  11. Baylor

  12. West Virginia

  13. Kansas

  14. Iowa State

  15. UCF

  16. Colorado


Conference Champion: Texas Tech


Chances to make the playoff: Guaranteed. The winner of the Big 12 CG is almost always going to be one of the 5 highest rated champions, and so will be awarded an automatic berth. The real question is whether the conference can get an at-large team in the CFP. BYU has gone 23-4 the last 2 seasons, and won both bowl games, but hasn’t sniffed the CFP. However, if the Cougars upset Notre Dame in South Bend, then that could be the impetus to get them in, even if they don’t win the Big 12. They just better not stumble elsewhere. 


Don’t be surprised if… the opponent against Texas Tech in the CG comes down to tiebreakers, as BYU and Houston don’t play each other, and Arizona plays only Utah (of the top contenders). There could be as many as 3 teams tied at 8-1 or 7-2 in 2nd place.


I’m not convinced… Colorado, Iowa State, and Kansas will all finish in the bottom quarter. I think it’s more likely they finish somewhere in the 9-12 range, and maybe one or 2 of them get into the top half.



Make sure you come back tomorrow as I continue my previews!


Until next time, may you and your loved ones be blessed! 

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