It’s no secret that the Big 12 Conference is the deepest league in college football this season, and determining the league’s winner is a bit of a nightmare at this point in the offseason.
That didn’t stop 247Sports’ Brad Crawford from taking a stab at it, and he elected to roll with Matt Campbell and the Iowa State Cyclones to advance to the 2025 College Football Playoff.
Crawford kept things pretty vague when discussing his pick, saying, “Who’s your pick to win the Big 12 this season? Your pick is as good as any. That’s the toughest Power 4 race to call in the preseason, given the wealth of candidates at the top.”
Iowa State enters the 2025 season fresh off its first 10-win season in program history, with an overall record of 11-3. They fell to Arizona State in the Big 12 Championship Game, but were able to rinse the bad taste out of their mouths with a 42-41 win over No. 13 Miami in the Pop-Tarts Bowl.
This fall, the group will be tasked with replacing two of the Big 12’s best wideouts, Jaylin Noel and Jayden Higgins, who will depart for the NFL after posting 1,000-yard seasons in 2024.
Can the program get it done? With star quarterback Rocco Becht at the helm, anything is possible.
Iowa State is currently listed with the eighth-best odds to win a Big 12 title in 2025 by DraftKings Sportsbook. To kick off the season, it will face off against the co-favorites, Kansas State, in Dublin, Ireland.
