What’s going on in the Big 12 and beyond? I expand and explain every Sunday in Postscripts at Heartland College Sports, your home for independent Big 12 coverage.
This week, I was going to spend much of this space writing about Shehan Jeyarajah’s Texas Tech piece — and I will. But, first, we gotta talk about polls.
ARE Y’ALL HURT?
It was a Friday news dump if there ever was one. Action Network’s Brett McMurphy wrote that the Big 12 was doing away with the preseason media poll for football.
The timing is, well, curious. It comes a year after the media picked Arizona State to finish in dead last and the Sun Devils won the conference.
It also comes the same year after the media picked Utah to finish first in the media poll and, well, didn’t. Same went for Oklahoma State, which was picked third and finished dead last.
There was no rationale given for the decision. So let your conspiracy theories wander. It’s fun. I’ve come up with a few but most of them make me sound like a whack job.
Look, here’s the thing — we who vote in these media polls know that it’s highly likely that the team we pick won’t win. We’re trying to pick the right team, of course. But law of averages suggests that we’ll be wrong. Last year, we were REALLY wrong.
We’re voting on teams that have basically been static for six months and there’s a significant amount of recency bias because what they did last season is fresh in your head. Who, objectively, would have picked an Arizona State team coming off a 3-9 season in 2023 to win their league in the first year? No one. Same with Utah. If one didn’t vote them at the top, the Utes were close to it.
Look, if this is about avoiding the paperwork, then I get it. The Big Ten doesn’t do a media poll, either (which I only learned about because of this).
But if it’s about someone in the league being butt-hurt about last year, then that’s pretty weak.
THE TAO OF TECH
A couple of weeks ago in this space I wrote about Texas Tech’s stunning softball transfer class and the pearl-clutching, “barbarians at the gate” reaction that most of the country had to little ol’ Texas Tech pulling a group of players that could help them finish the job next year with a little help from NIL money.
Earlier this week, CBS Sports’ Shehan Jeyarajah blew my piece out of the water.
Jeyarajah’s piece, called “West Texas boom: Inside Texas Tech’s bold all-in bet on NIL and the billionaire landman responsible” is a master class in what a journalist can do with time, resources and trust with interview subjects.
In the business we call it enterprise reporting or long-form. It’s the kind of writing and journalism we all want to do when we get out of school but rarely get to do now because there is a 24/7/365 beast we must feed in this business.
Jeyarajah did a terrific job laying out what Texas Tech did this offseason, led by Cody Campbell and the Matador Club collective, to lure as much talent as possible in the transfer portal in a one-time-only moment before the House settlement ushered in a revenue-sharing cap.
It’s an exceptional piece. It’s 24 minutes that is well worth your time. It also lays out the pressure on coach Joey McGuire shoulders this upcoming season.
By the way, who’s taking Tech first in the media poll? I kid, I kid …
BIG 12 HOCKEY BABY!
Ok, the Big 12 doesn’t sponsor hockey. But, a Big 12 school plays NCAA hockey, and if you don’t follow the sport you would never guess it was Arizona State.
The Sun Devils started as a club hockey team but eventually made the jump to NCAA sponsored sports.
During Friday’s NHL Draft, the Sun Devils made history.
Cullen Potter may wait and go back to ASU. But that’s a great look for the Sun Devils hockey program.
How many schools does the Big 12 need for a hockey league? I’d be up for covering that.
THE VIBES
Here’s nearly a minute of LSU star Flau’jae Johnson and Iowa State star Audi Crooks singing as Crooks plays the piano.
The vibes, as the kids like to say, are immaculate.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
