Welcome to Tuesday Takes, where I give you four takes from the Big 12. It was a jam-packed week full of exciting news, but there were several things that caught my attention over the last few days.
New Quarterbacks
Over the last few days, there has been a ton of movement in the portal since it opened on Friday. Of course, most of the attention is on the quarterback position as there are several big-time signal callers in the portal. Recently, former Cincinnati quarterback Brendan Sorsby announced he was heading to Texas Tech while Oklahoma State brought in Drew Mestemaker from North Texas.
On top of that, Iowa State got Jaylen Raynor from Arkansas State and UCF was able to get James Madison quarterback Alonza Barnett III. Even TCU was able to replace Josh Hoover with Havard’s Jaden Craig. With the portal still open, I expect to have a few more quarterbacks signing with Big 12 schools but it’s going to be exciting to see these guys in action at their new school.
Down Goes Kansas
I don’t normally dive into basketball here, but I felt the need to after opening weekend in the Big 12. While there were a few surprises this past weekend, none were bigger than UCF taking down Kansas. What’s crazy is that this isn’t the first time that it’s happened because it did two years ago when the Knights beat the Jayhawks in Orlando.
Now that UCF team didn’t make the tournament at all since they finished 7-11 in Big 12 play that season. I get that it’s still early in the season, but the Knights took a big step in the right direction on Saturday and hopefully they can build off it.
Texas Tech Will Be Back
The Orange Bowl went about as well as my Geometry tests from back in the day which were total disasters. Even to this day, I still don’t get it. However, I still believe that Texas Tech can be the premier program in the Big 12. They have shown that they are committed to using their resources to go all in on football.
Less than a week after their loss to Oregon, Texas Tech already found their quarterback with Brendan Sorsby. Plus, they were also to get All-Big 12 caliber linebacker Austin Romaine from Kansas State along with a few others. Keep in mind that everything that happened this season for Tech was a first.
From winning a Big 12 title to going to the playoff game, they had never been there before. Now they know what that feeling is like, and I expected the Red Raiders to be right in the playoff conversation once again in 2026. I am telling you right now that this program isn’t going anywhere but up.
We Need More Games on Campus
One thing that bothered me during the quarterfinals of the college football playoff is the fact that we don’t have more games on campus. I love the opening round of the playoff because the atmospheres you see are incredible and it’s what makes college football so special.
It’s crazy to me that a team like Indiana, who locked up the one seed can’t even get a single home game. Instead, they must go to Pasadena and Atlanta before getting to Miami for the national championship game. Even Oregon head coach Dan Lanning said that their game against Texas Tech should have been in Lubbock instead of Miami.
Do we really need all these bowl games involved in the playoff every single year? If you want to include them in the semifinals, that’s fine but we don’t need to be playing quarterfinal games in these random NFL stadiums. Put those games on campus and give these top seeds what they have earned.
