I’ve owned Heartland College Sports for over 10 years. And I’ve written thousands and thousands of stories for the website. However, I’ve never had a dedicated Monday column for you. It only seems appropriate to start now and play off of Monday, Mundo and Musings. So here we go with another weekly edition of, Mundo’s Monday Big 12 Musings.
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Deion Sanders is Cancer Free
Colorado football coach Deion Sanders announced during a press conference on Monday that he has been battling cancer this off-season. He had successful surgery to remove his bladder and is now cancer free, according to his physicans.
The rumors around Sanders were that he might have been dealing with a condition that could have resulted in something much worse, something that might have ended his coaching career. But thankfully, that is not the case.
Colorado football fans, and frankly all of the Big 12 Conference, can breath a sigh of relief. Like it or not, Deion Sanders is the biggest star in the Big 12, and may be the biggest star in college football right now. So as we pray for Deion’s health, it’s also great news for the future of the CU Football program, and the Big 12 Conference.
Now, we can get back to talking about ball… great news, Coach Prime!
Big 12 Closing College Football Recruiting Gap
As we wrote about on Sunday, the Big 12 football programs in Texas are doing a better job than ever in recruiting in-state talent. Baylor, Texas Tech, and Houston, in particular, are getting some big recruiting wins over the likes of Texas and Texas A&M.
Each program has four and five-star talent in their 2026 classes, and they’re from Texas. Historically, those players would have preferred to end up at Texas or Texas A&M. But instead, they’re looking at other options. The build up of NIL at these programs is helping too.
This is another reason why the Big 12 Conference should not, and can not, settle for a 4+4+2+2 model in the College Football Playoff, and must fight for 5+11. The Big 12 can find itself with multiple teams competing nationally beyond the current, traditional, “blue blood” model that presently exists. The Big Ten wants to lock in its guaranteed four teams, because they know they are most vulnerable, while the SEC wants 5+11, but knowing it will try to jam in the most at-large teams possible.
The latter benefits the Big 12 as it keeps recruiting better. But the Big 12 also needs to start winning on the field in key non-conference games, plus in the College Football Playoff.
The CBS Sports Coaching Rankings are Similar to Mine
Two weeks ago, I ranked all the Big 12 football coaches.
Then, CBS Sports did its list this week.
Here is mine.
- Matt Campbell, Iowa State
- Lance Leipold, Kansas
- Kyle Whittingham, Utah
- Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State
- Chris Klieman, Kansas State
- Willie Fritz, Houston
- Kalani Sitake, BYU
- Rich Rodriguez, West Virginia
- Deion Sanders, Colorado
- Kenny Dillingham, Arizona State
- Dave Aranda, Baylor
- Sonny Dykes, TCU
- Joey McGuire, Texas Tech
- Brent Brennan, Arizona
- Scott Frost, UCF
- Scott Satterfield, Cincinnati
Here is CBS’ list.
- Matt Campbell, Iowa State
- Kyle Whittingham, Utah
- Chris Klieman, Kansas State
- Lance Leipold, Kansas
- Kenny Dillingham, Arizona State
- Kalani Sitake, BYU
- Deion Sanders, Colorado
- Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State
- Sonny Dykes, TCU
- Dave Aranda, Baylor
- Willie Fritz, Houston
- Rich Rodriguez, West Virginia
- Joey McGuire, Texas Tech
- Scott Satterfield, Cincinnati
- Scott Frost, UCF
- Brent Brennan, Arizona
The Top 5 and the Bottom 5 are fairly similar. They like Dillingham more than me, I just need to see it more than once for a guy who has been a head coach for two years. I also think the CBS list totally disrespected Mike Gundy, who has done incredible work over two decades, despite a 2024 disaster.
But overall, the lists have more similarities than differences, so make of this what you want.
