The Big 12 Conference just passed the halfway point of the season, and the league race is really taking shape. Three teams remain undefeated both in Big 12 play and overall and are in the Associated Press Top 10 this week. Two other teams absorbed their first Big 12 loss of the season but are still in the race. The rest are in full-on chase mode.

So, who’s stock went up and who’s stock went down? Let’s look at the big movers across the league.

Stock Up

BYU Cougars

The BYU Cougars beat the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at home on Saturday, 28-24. Yes, the ending was controversial (someone still looking for that extra second?). But, remember this — the Cougars went into that game without their best running back, LJ Martin, due to injury. It was BYU’s second game without him. The emergence of Preston Rex at running back in this game might have been the most important development. Less reliance on quarterback Bear Bachmeier in the run game is a good thing.

BYU showed its toughness and resilience in this game. It also gathered a great “chip” when it comes to proving their worthiness for the College Football Playoff, whether they win the league or not.

Houston Cougars

Hey, in case you’re wondering, Conner Weigman can throw the football, too. As much as head coach Willie Fritz wants to run the ball, he trusted his fifth-year quarterback to sling it against Oklahoma State, and he threw for 343 yards and five touchdowns in a 35-32 win.

The game was a coming out party of sorts for him. I don’t think anyone outside of the Big 12 knew he had that kind of arm. It will come in handy this week against Utah. College Gameday will be in town. Fritz gets a chance to show off his program and it’s a well-deserved one. They have momentum and a chance to shake up the Big 12 race.

Texas Tech Red Raiders

So … guess Texas Tech figured out the offense during the bye week. The Red Raiders went off for 53 points against Arizona State, scoring 43 of those points in the first half. Quarterback Will Hammond looked more comfortable. The offense looked more efficient. Tech did all of that without running back Cameron Dickey, who is out with a high ankle sprain.

The defense has been great all season. At times it’s been elite. If this is the Red Raiders’ offense moving forward, well good luck to the rest of y’all. It’s the sort of offensive explosion Tech has been waiting for against a power conference team.

Stock Down

Oklahoma State Cowboys

I’m not down on Oklahoma State as a whole. But the loss to Houston exposed some things, especially defensively. The secondary had its worst game of the season. Weigman torched them in part because of how porous that unit was. The defensive gave up more than 500 yards. Head coach Eric Morris will do some soul searching this week. The Houston game showed this defense has little margin for error.

That said, the offensive scored 32 points and scored points on four of their final five possessions of the game. Led quarterback Drew Mestemaker, that side of the ball is going to keep the Cowboys in every game they play the remainder of the season.

Baylor Bears

So … the Bears barely lose to Auburn to start the season, win four straight games, get a bye week and then get the Revivalry at home against TCU and … you do that? Six points? SIX POINTS? That’s six points more than I had and I didn’t even play. I felt like Baylor lost twice.

There was a clear path for the Bears to get to 6-0 before having to end the season with BYU, Texas Tech and Houston. Maybe Baylor still would have been 6-3 anyway. But head coach Dave Aranda could have had Baylor undefeated in league play in November and his team let it slip.

So are we back on hot seat watch or no?

Arizona State Sun Devils

That was a rough watch against Texas Tech. Arizona State made a move at quarterback, replacing Cutter Boley with Mikey Keene in the second half. That tells you everything about where the Sun Devils are at right now. The offense is sputtering. The defense is yielding points. They’ve beaten on power conference team — Kansas, which was in London.

I was wrong about this team. I thought Arizona State had a chance to contend in this league. That no longer looks to be the case.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The final eight men’s and women’s basketball teams spoke to the media during Big 12 Basketball Media Days on Wednesday.

TCU, Arizona, UCF, BYU, Oklahoma State, West Virginia, Houston and Kansas State were in attendance. BYU head coach Kevin Young was not in attendance due to an illness.

The Big 12 men’s and women’s basketball seasons starts on Nov. 2.

Here are five takeaways from the second day in KC.

Tommy Lloyd’s Frustration

Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd is frustrated with the NCAA over five-for-five eligibility. During his time with the media on Wednesday and he made it clear that he’s in favor of the Class of 2022 players being eligible for an additional season in 2026-27. He has one of those players, forward RJ Godfrey.

He’s a Class of 2022 player who played two years at Clemson, another at Georgia and then another at Clemson. He is part of a case in a Georgia court seeking an injunction to allow him to play a fifth year. He was initially granted the injunction, but it has since been stayed on an NCAA appeal.

So, for now, Godfrey can’t play. But there are plenty of other players in the Big 12 that are in Godfrey’s position who are eligible via injunction. That’s where Lloyd’s frustration lies.

“One question I’d have to get when you bring up R.J. in specific is there’s international players getting eligible now that are older than him, a ‘fifth-year’ of eligibility because they didn’t go to college,” Lloyd said. “They played four years pro, but they’re getting eligible now. Somebody has to explain to me how logically this all makes sense.”

The Wildcats are the defending Big 12 regular-season and tournament champions and made the NCAA Final Four last season. Lloyd is hoping for a return trip and believes Godfrey can help.

“R.J. is going to help put all the pieces in the right place,” he said. “I hope and pray we get to see it.”

Audi’s an Okie

For three years, Audi Crooks was a star at Iowa State. She’ll be the same thing at Oklahoma State where she’ll play her fourth season of college basketball.

Of course, the fact that she transferred from Iowa State — and she’s an Iowa native — and transferred to OSU in the offseason made news. For most of the summer, she’s been practicing with her new teammates, but the media hasn’t had much opportunity to speak to her. That changed on Wednesday.

She was available, along with Liv McGill and Stailee Heard, as the Cowgirls are the favorites to win the Big 12.

So, why Oklahoma State? One of the factors was getting her head beat in by Oklahoma State in the past.

“I’ve played coach Jacie [Oklahoma State coach Hoyt] the last few years and lost quite a few of those matchups,” she said. “So, I just loved her competitive spirit and nature.”

Crooks said she was one of the last players to leave Iowa State in the transfer portal and had conversations with ISU about what the roster could look like in 2026-27 before she transferred out. There were no hard feeling on her end.

“I was there for three years, so I’m not going to sit around be callous about that,” she said. “I have a lot of love and care for those people and I always will.”

Oklahoma State heads to Iowa State on Jan. 9. On Tuesday, Iowa State head coach Bill Fennelly said he wasn’t sure what the reception would be.

Prep Stars Make Media Day Debut

Two of the most sought-after players at media days were freshmen — BYU’s Bruce Branch III and Arizona’s Caden Holt. Both could be one-and-done players for the Cougars and Wildcats so Wednesday may be their only media day appearances.

Branch was a McDonald’s All-American and is following in the footsteps of AJ Dybantsa, who was the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA Draft in June after playing just one season at BYU. Branch sees it as inspiration but not something he has to chase.

“Long story short, just don’t think about it,” Branch said. “Don’t look for rankings, drafts, nothing like that. I just take every day, just use that day to get better. Just really focused on BYU right now. Not really focused on we know what’s next next year or anything like that. Honestly, I just want to win this year. I’m going to do everything in my power for us to do that.”

Holt was considered the No. 2 recruit in the country and was also a McDonald’s All-American. At one point he said he was looking forward to playing on Tuesdays and Fridays, but head coach Tommy Lloyd had to remind him that the Big 12 plays on different days.

“Yeah, yeah, every — two nights a week it’s probably going to be one of the biggest games of my life,” he said. “I’m looking forward to competing with the guys every night in the best conference in the country, honestly. Whatever day it is, Monday through Sunday.”

The TCU Tsunami

The TCU Horned Frogs women’s basketball team is used to success these days. The program has won two straight Big 12 regular-season titles, a Big 12 Tournament title and has reached the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament each of the last two seasons.

But this is a brand-new team in head coach Mark Campbell’s eyes. To build camaraderie and chemistry, he did what many coaches do — get his kids a foreign trip. In this case it was Toronto.

The Horned Frogs played games, practiced, got to know each other and endured what Campbell called a “tsunami.” It was a tsunami-like storm that dropped torrential rain on Toronto, something the locals considered to be a 100-year storm.

“We were doing a bike tour in Toronto and a tsunami hit,” Campbell said. “It’s one of those things, you can either kind of pout and it sucks or go jump in the puddles. Some of these guys were out there dancing and made the best of it. They had their ponchos on.”

The Horned Frogs were ranked No. 2 in the preseason poll behind Oklahoma State. While Olivia Miles and Marta Suarez are gone, TCU can lean on center Clara Silva as their lead player in 2026-27.

New Coaches in New Places

UCF’s Gabe Lazo is the only first-year women’s coach that spoke on Wednesday. He’s a Florida native who had just taken a job with LSU when the Knights moved on from Sytia Messer. That put him in a weird spot — should he stay at LSU or take the head-coaching job in his native state?

“It was a difficult conversation to have with coach Kim Mulkey, but it’s something you can’t say no to, right?” Lazo said.

He couldn’t. He took the job. It’s had a side benefit — Disney World is right down the road.

“I’ve been to Disney World six times in the last four months,” Lazo said. “I went to Disney World once as a kid. My mama loves Disney World. She’ll be here. She’ll be going to Disney World.”

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Big 12 Conference opened its men’s and women’s basketball media days on Tuesday with a new format. On Tuesday, eight men’s and women’s programs were at T-Mobile Center to talk about the season — Baylor, Texas Tech, Colorado, Arizona State, Iowa State, Utah, Cincinnati and Kansas. Coaches and played did interviews throughout the day with the regular season set to open on Nov. 2.

Here are five takeaways from the first day in KC.

When is JT Toppin Returning?

The Texas Tech forward tore his ACL in February and has been rehabbing the injury this summer. He’s one of two Big 12 returnees that are dealing with the same injury, with Oklahoma State’s Parsa Fallah being the other.

When JT Toppin was asked about his recovery and when he might play, he kept it positive but vague.

“I’m great right now. … I’m right on schedule,” Toppin said. “Been taking it slow. I feel like I’ll be coming back very, very soon.”

I asked Texas Tech head coach Grant McCasland about a timeline and he said there isn’t one and that’s by design. He’s deferring to the team’s medical group and to Toppin. They’ll let him know when he’s medically cleared and Toppin will let him know when he’s ready.

“I trust JT Toppin — that I can tell you,” McCasland said. “I’ve been through it all with him before and I think there’s enough experience there where he’ll be 100% when it’s time for him to play. And I do feel great about him playing at some point this season.”

McCasland reference a six-week stretch in Toppin’s first season in which he missed time due to an injury and managed it properly. He also told CBS Sports that Toppin wasn’t yet ready to practice and that if the former NCAA eligibility rules were in place he would have been redshirted this year.

Bill Fennelly’s Swan Song

Iowa State women’s basketball coach Bill Fennelly announced earlier this offseason that he would retire after the season. He is the longest-tenured coach in the Big 12, men’s or women’s, and has won 656 games at Iowa State in a career in which he’s won 822 games.

So, Tuesday was the first of his “lasts,” as in this is his last Big 12 media days. He was asked many questions about his retirement, and he was quite reflective about it — or as reflective as he could be given that he still has a season to prepare for.

One hope? That the “Iowa State Way” he built over more than three decades persists beyond his departure.

“We wanted to create a program that embodied our fan base, embodied our community the great state of Iowa,” he said. “I grew up in Iowa, my wife grew up in Iowa so it’s home for us. Hopefully we’ve created a program that’s added to the Big 12 and added to Iowa State. I’ve been truly blessed over my time that I’ve been able to coach and be around so many phenomenal people let alone players and staff members that have invested so much in me and in our school.”

Bill Self Talks Trey Kaufman-Renn

With so many players spinning court cases to remain eligible, the case of new Kansas forward Trey Kaufman-Renn is outside the norm.

While most of the cases have in the five-for-five realm — Class of 2022 players who didn’t redshirt and are seeking a fifth year based on the NCAA’s new age-based criteria — this would be Kaufman-Renn’s sixth year of college basketball. He was a Class of 2021 player who played four years and redshirted one year. He was also selected No. 59 overall in the NBA Draft but never signed a contract.

Kaufman-Renn’s attorneys are making the case that had the NCAA had the five-for-five rule before his eligibility expired, he wouldn’t have used his redshirt.

He recently received a temporary restraining order that allows him to practice and play with Kansas until his case is fully heard.

Naturally, that led to a lot of questions for head coach Bill Self, who has two other Class of 2022 players competing on TRO’s — Tre White and Melvin Council Jr. Both played for him last year. Kaufman-Renn played at Purdue. Self addressed several questions about it during the breakout interviews, including whether he was a “disruptor” for signing Kaufman-Renn so late.

“If we don’t play with them, we’ll play against them,” he said.

Earlier in the day, commissioner Brett Yormark drew a distinction that indicated Kaufman-Renn wasn’t breaking the Big 12 rules on professionalism by returning, saying that because he was automatically put in the draft and didn’t “declare” for it he wasn’t in violation of the league’s rule.

The cases for all three players is ongoing.

That ‘Dawg’ Mentality on the Continuum

This is a big transitional year for Baylor women’s basketball under head coach Nicki Collen. The program lost Darianna Littlepage-Buggs, Bella Fontleroy and Jana Van Gytenbeek to graduation. So she’s breaking in a relatively new team with just one returning starter, Taliah Scott.

She and her players talked about developing a “dawg” mentality with a new group of players and it hasn’t been easy. Collen was happy to use the analogy to explain where her team is at right now.

“I’ve joked that there are days we’re dog-less, then we have Chihuahua days,” she said. “We want to get to where we are consistently German Shepherds or Pitbulls, something where you know there’s a consistency about the way we show up.”

Collen seemed happy her team isn’t opening the season in Paris against Duke. But they Bears still have several non-conference showdowns against great teams, including a trip to Nashville to face Tennessee.

“Those are home games for those teams,” she said.

Baylor enters the season with the second-longest streak of 20-win seasons in the country with 26, behind only UConn.

Why New Coaches Took New Jobs

Two of the league’s new head coaches spoke on Tuesday — Arizona State’s Randy Bennett and Kansas State’s Jerrod Calhoun.

Bennett spent more than a decade at Saint Mary’s, where he built the Gaels into one of the best mid-major programs in the country. For him, Arizona State was really the only job that was going to get him to leave. After all, he’s an Arizona native.

“I grew up in Mesa, which is 10 minutes away from Arizona State University where I lived,” he said. “I grew up as a Sun Devil. That’s who I rooted for. I knew which team in the state that I was rooting for the whole time. So just how many guys get a chance to coach in their hometown at the big school?”

Calhoun left Utah State to take over at Cincinnati and, like Bennett, local roots were important. He grew up in East Liverpool, Ohio, and at one time was a student assistant under Bob Huggins at Cincinnati.

That, combined with a family, means Calhoun has been busy at his new job.

“The number of things you have to do outside of basketball, the time commitments [are different],” he said. “You know having three young daughters, trying to balance all that, has been a little difficult because I don’t tell a lot of people no.”

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark said the conference is “doubling down” on growth as he spoke at Big 12 basketball media days on Tuesday. He wasn’t talking about conference expansion. He noted that the league has expanded by eight teams in the past few years and is happy with the membership. The growth is more about revenue, expanding opportunity for his schools and their student-athletes. He expressed his support for the 24-team College Football Playoff proposal on the table and the expanded NCAA Tournament, saying he hopes to get at least 10 teams in both the men’s and women’s tournaments this year.

Here are three of the most important things he said on Tuesday.

The Big 12 Championship Game

Nothing is final with the College Football Playoff. But if the proposed format gets to the finish line, that will eliminate the Big 12 Championship game for football, which has been a revenue driver for the league and was a sellout last year when Texas Tech beat BYU.

Yormark was asked about the possibility, along with the potential for, perhaps, other significant league events like the Big 12 men’s and women’s basketball tournaments going away due to expansion in other areas.

He said if those must go away, they’ll find other tentpole events to build around.

“We’re in the event business,” Yormark said. “It drives a lot of fan engagement and excitement. So, we’ll see what happens in the future. But those are big moments for us. And for some reason, if one goes away, we’ll replace it with something different.”

Non-Conference Scheduling

The Big 12 requires all its teams to play a power conference opponent in non-conference. A few have struggled to get that game, including Texas Tech, which saw a neutral-site series with USC fall apart earlier this season. Yormark was in Provo for the BYU-Notre Dame showdown on Saturday and said the atmosphere was incredible.

Big 12 teams have lost several home-and-home series contests with SEC schools, in part because the SEC adopted the same nine-game schedule format the Big 12 uses. The SEC also required a non-conference power conference contest.

If the CFP reaches the finish line, then all power conference teams will have to schedule a non-conference power conference game each year. Yormark sees bigger games like that in the Big 12’s future in that case.

“Our schools are committed to playing the biggest and best, and I do believe that if we were to get something done with the CFP and expand to 24, you’ll see scheduling the scheduling dynamic move in a different direction, and I think that’ll be a positive when you think about scheduling and the best matchups week in and week out, specifically out of conference,” he said.

Protect College Sports Act

Yormark fielded several questions around the legislation, which was passed in the U.S. Senate before its recess and will head to the U.S. House after the midterm elections. It’s not clear if the legislation will pass the House, but he said he’s part of four working groups trying to keep the legislation moving.

He was asked about how much student-athletes have been involved in the discussions about the legislation.

“I can tell you that I sit on four of the committees, the president’s committee commission on college athletics, and there has been great representation by student athletes on all those committees, and they’ve had a voice,” Yormark said.

One of the parts of the legislation that student-athletes are likely to take some issue with is the one-time transfer rule, which the NCAA implemented several years ago but was overturned in court cases. Student-athletes can now transfer year-to-year, if they wish. A group of student-athletes are also in court in attempts to be eligible this season, most of which were Class of 2022 athletes who did not redshirt and are not getting a fifth year to play based on the NCAA’s new age-based eligibility rule.

Yormark said he supports the age-based eligibility rule, which gives student-athletes to play five years of college athletics.

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.

Well, here we go. It now appears we are as close to a 24-team College Football Playoff as we’ve been. ESPN’s handshake deal with the CFP to broadcast the remaining games means that assuming ever all the other boxes get checked, we will have a 24-team playoff in 2027.

Like it, or hate it, the future is coming. I took some time this weekend to jot down 10 big thoughts on what the playoff means to the Big 12, to college football and the future of the sport.

Big 12 Access

The Big 12 is one of the big winners in this expanded playoff. Commissioner Brett Yormark made it clear he wanted to ensure his conference got equal access to any expanded playoff. This expansion also gives his conference more access.

Earlier this week, 247 Sports applied the proposed format to the CFP era, which started in 2014 as a four-team playoff. In an average year the Big 12 would have ended up with four teams in the playoff. We know last year the Big 12 would have had five teams.

This is why the Big 12 coaches unanimously signed off on the 24-team format in May. They want more access. This is why Yormark joined forces with Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti after he abandoned the controversial weighted-bid system that bound the Big 12, the ACC and the SEC together last year. Yormark wants equal access and this system provides it.

Ultimately, if the Big 12 wants more respect on the field it needs to win more games. To do that, it needs more opportunity. The league has won one game in the CFP since 2014. You want to change that narrative? You gotta win games on that stage. This gives the league the chance.

The Format

The proposed 24-team format would include an automatic bid to each of the four power conference champions, an automatic bid to the highest-ranked Group of 6 and then 19 at-large bids based on the final CFP rankings. This is only a minor tweak from the 23 + 1 format that Petitti proposed.

If we’re being honest, I would rather have a 24-team playoff that includes auto bids for all conference champions. That’s 10 auto bids and 14 at large teams. That gives everyone a seat at the table and makes every race more meaningful.

But let’s be honest — the power conferences don’t care about giving the Group of 6 a seat at that table. Neither does ESPN and neither does the CFP. If we’re going to expand to 24, this is the most realistic format we can get to.

I hope at some point we have a Group of 6 team that runs roughshod through this playoff and embarrasses some of these teams.

The On-Campus Games

If we’re talking about positives, this is one of the big ones. The first two rounds will be on campus sites. That’s a tremendous value add to for college football. I would even argue you could have the quarterfinals on campus.

The pageantry around college football is a huge differentiator. That doesn’t always translate at a bowl game. But a first-round game at the right Big 12 stadium would pop.

The Bowl Games

This will significantly change the bowl system. If we’re being totally honest I think that’s a good thing. I’m the type of person that wants more meaningful football in the postseason. I don’t necessarily WANT a 24-team playoff — I think 16 teams is the max — but I want more games that mean something. Non-CFP bowl games don’t mean anything. They did two generations ago when they helped decide the national champion in the poll era. But they don’t mean much now.

Yes, they draw viewers because we love football. Coaches want the extra 15 practices. The players get a free trip and that’s great for them. But when I grew up sometimes eight-win teams got left out of the bowl system. You want to talk about “rewarding mediocrity?” Teams that go 6-6 go to bowl games. I hear people talking about rewarding mediocrity in a 24-team playoff? That’s not mediocrity.

We will lose some bowl games. It’ll be OK. We’ll still get bowl games. There just won’t be as many and, if done right, they can be just as meaningful.

The Non-Conference Games

The 9+1 scheduling format for power conferences — nine league games and one non-conference power conference game — will be a reality in this format. That’s a good thing for the game. (Hey, Indiana and Texas Tech could use a game next year — and college football could use that game).

But let’s get beyond the requirement. As I’ve written here before, the four power conferences should ditch the long-term game contracts and go to a year-to-year schedule for those games based on the quality of those teams NOW.

It seems ridiculous for Oklahoma State to sign a game contract with Mississippi State for games five years from now we don’t know what those teams are going to look like. Let’s get a balanced schedule that provide great games, great ratings and great impact on the playoff race.

The Conference Championship Games

They’re going away. They’ve outlived their usefulness. Back win the SEC implemented theirs in the 1990s I remember traditionalists losing their minds. But the way they did it — 12 teams, two divisions and the division champions meet in the title game — was elegant and that’s why everyone copied it (that and the money).

But with bloated megaconferences and unbalanced schedules, they don’t do much more than decide an auto bid to the CFP. And if 24 teams are going to make it, just determine your champ in the regular season and move on.

Now, yes, the Big 12 and other leagues will lose that revenue and need to replace it. About that …

The Money

The CFP is the big loser here. Why? They should have taken the additional inventory to market.

Per Pete Thamel at ESPN, the network will pay $345 million per year for the additional games. That’s on top of the $1.3 billion per year they’re paying for the 12-team playoff. Sounds great right? Well …

Thamel also reported this:

“Of that new $345 million, ESPN will only essentially be paying $205 million, as they are getting back $140 million annually from the cancelation of the three power conference championship games that ESPN owns the television rights to broadcast.”

I’ve made the case all along that if there was extra inventory that the CFP would be smart to take that extra inventory to market and get additional value. You don’t think Fox or CBS might have come to the table? Sports Illustrated’s Bryan Fischer did the math. There are 12 extra games and at $345 million that’s $28.75 million per game. That’s what ESPN is getting from TNT for the CFP sub-licensed games now.

The CFP fumbled the bag bad here.

The Big 12 Programs Best Positioned

If four Big 12 teams can get into the playoff in 2027, then who is the best positioned to take immediate advantage of this?

The three schools that leap to mind are Texas Tech, BYU and Utah. All have money behind the programs, quality coaches, great players and are great right now. That should carry over to next season. Plus, the five-for-five eligibility gives those coaches more time to develop young talent — if they can be kept, of course.

Beyond the immediate term there are schools that are starting to position themselves in the right way. Oklahoma State is one. I think their resources are going to keep improving if the Cowboys keep winning. Arizona and Arizona State feel well-positioned to be consistent players in this the next three-to-five years. All three schools, to me, have the right coaches, too.

I still think Houston and UCF are sleeping giants in terms of what they can be five to 10 years from now with the resources in those cities and their donor bases.

The beautiful thing about this conference is it’s so wide open anyone can make a run any given year. It’s the parity we’ve come to expect from the NFL, and I love the fact that we have at least one conference in college football that seems to embrace it.

Stop Crying About the Regular Season

Were you not entertained on Saturday? What an incredible day — and not just for the Big 12 after BYU beat Notre Dame. We saw five of the country’s Top 7 teams lose on Saturday. It shows you just how much parity exists in the college game right now. It’s fun. But all I got in my feed was “this goes away in 24-team playoff.”

No it doesn’t. That’s ridiculous. You’re going to stop watching great matchups on a weekly basis because of a playoff? Come on. I saw so much of that in my feeds on Saturday I put my phone away. The regular season isn’t going to die because of this.

Will it be different? Sure. Teams will have more wiggle room to get to the postseason. But this idea that suddenly the regular season is going to be a disaster because of this is just absurd.

There will still be drama every week of the season. There will still be great games you’ll watch. November will be so fascinating in 2027 that you won’t be able to turn away. I promise you. The regular season is not going to die. Stop buying that narrative.

The End Game

Now, 10 years down the road the way college football will be organized is going to be different — and that might be the biggest issue the game faces. I’ve written about this for years in this space. Eventually, the power conference will break away from the rest of the game and do their own thing. They’ll exclude the remaining Group of 6 teams after one more round of realignment and be their own league. The NCAA — if it’s still around — will reorganize what’s left and then we’ll have that Group of 6 “playoff” that REALLY no one wants.

That’s the greatest danger to the game we love — excluding an entire chunk of teams because they don’t make enough money. This is why giving every conference an auto bid would help preserve that ecosystem. But the power conferences don’t want that.

The mid-point of the 2026 college football season is this weekend and the Big 12 has some big games on the schedule. A Top 25 showdown. Two rivalry games. And a Top 10 showdown between Notre Dame and BYU. All kinds of good stuff this weekend. Each week here at Heartland College Sports I’ll point out three hot seat coaches going into the next slate of games. I’ll explain why for each. And remember — it’s not always about job security.

Sonny Dykes, TCU

Welcome back from the bye week, Sonny. Things cooled down in Fort Worth? No? Well, I guess that’s how it goes.

You know what cools the seat down? Winning. You’ve got a good chance on Saturday against Baylor. Your arch-rival. The Revivalry. It’s a great opportunity to right the ship — a little bit at least.

Baylor enters the game coming off a bye week but in much better shape. The Bears are undefeated in the Big 12 and, if things fall right, there’s a path for them to really shake up the race to the conference title game. A loss to TCU isn’t part of the plan.

Rivalry games can bring out the best in the team that is seen as down and that’s TCU. If Dykes can’t get his team out of this doom loop they’ve been in since Big 12 play began then that seat is only going to get hotter.

Deion Sanders, Colorado

So, to be clear. It wasn’t a playbook. It was a set of play sheets. Deion Sanders talked about the much-discussed play sheets that were reportedly found in a hotel bar before their game with Texas Tech. Among the nuggets:

“I don’t think we have a whole playbook.”

“Why would we [look into it]? It’s over.”

“We probably know a lot more than you think we do.”

“That happens sometimes.”

“We scored on the first drive, so I guess it didn’t work.”

Did he forget they lost 29-7? Perhaps the play this week against Utah is to just leave the whole game script in the hotel bar for the Utes to find? If so, I nominate Pasta Jay’s in downtown Boulder. Not a hotel bar but great, old-style Italian. Have the bison ravioli. Yum.

If Colorado loses to Utah, it will have lost four straight games. At what point does new athletic director Fernando Lovo start thinking about pulling the trigger?

I’m not sure what worries me more — that the play sheets were left in a bar or that Colorado doesn’t have a playbook?

Joey McGuire, Texas Tech

McGuire has been on this list before and like last time it’s not about job security. He’s not going anywhere.

The Red Raiders are coming off a bye week. He and his staff got two weeks to correct some of the issues that have ailed the offense. In terms of timing, this was a good place to take a break and get some things reset.

Based on that, the pressure is on. Bigger games are coming up against Arizona, Oklahoma State and Baylor. Every week the Red Raiders stay undefeated the bigger the target gets on their collective back. So far, they’ve handled it well. But handling that pressure week to week is tough.

But the “hot” part about his week is all on Tech’s part. Why? The Red Raiders went 8-1 in league play last year. Remember which team beat them? You know you do.

Arizona State. Don’t let the desire for revenge derail you from the overall goal, Raider Nation.

The Big 12 Conference has some of the biggest games in the country this weekend, starting with a Top 25 matchup between two teams with Big 12 title aspirations. BYU hosts Notre Dame, while Oklahoma State travels to Houston. We also have two of the best rivalry games in the conference, with one taking place in Kansas and another in Texas.

As we enter Week 7, here are four teams that to me have the most to prove going into the weekend.

Oklahoma State

Oklahoma State has been one of the surprises of the season. With Drew Mestemaker at quarterback, the Cowboys have played their way into potential Big 12 contention. This week, Oklahoma State gets to prove that it belongs in that conversation.

The Cowboys are heading to Houston to take on the Cougars, another team with Big 12 title aspirations. But they’re where they were expected to be. The Cowboys were not.

The job is simple this week — the Cowboys must prove they belong in the conversation. If OSU wins, their next three games are favorable enough to allow the Cowboys to be 6-0 going into their Nov. 14 showdown with Texas Tech.

If they lose, well, the Cowboys are just part of the group that will have no margin for error the rest of the season.

Kansas State

The Kansas State Wildcats face the Kansas Jayhawks in the Sunflower Showdown this weekend. What does Kansas State need to prove? That the Wildcats aren’t going to take a nosedive.

Kansas State has lost its first two Big 12 games to Cincinnati and to Houston. While losing to your rival is never good, losing to Kansas this year would be especially bad. The Jayhawks have a losing record, head coach Lance Leipold might be on the hot seat, and the Wildcats haven’t lost this game in 16 years.

Nothing says bottoming out quite like losing to your rival for the first time in 16 years. Kansas State needs to prove that they’ve already hit rock bottom and are ready to bounce back up.

Baylor and TCU

We will pair Baylor and TCU this week since they’re playing one another. First, hats off to both schools for using “Revivalry” in their social accounts. We’re never going to call it the “Bluebonnet Battle.” That’s just ridiculous.

For Baylor, the prove it is simple. The Bears are undefeated in Big 12 play, they’re coming off a bye week and there’s an opportunity for to get through the first third of Big 12 play undefeated. The Bears want to prove they are a legitimate contender to get to the Big 12 Championship game. Baylor can’t afford to get tripped up in a rivalry game this weekend if that’s the goal.

For TCU, they must prove that their season isn’t about to fall off a cliff. The Horned Frogs are coming off a bye week and in case you need to be reminded they have yet to win a Big 12 game. They’ve lost to UCF and BYU. Maybe playing a team with a non-ubiquitous acronym will help?

If the Horned Frogs lose this game their Big 12 title hopes are done. And I’m not sure I would give them a puncher’s chance against West Virginia next weekend. You could even say the Horned Frogs’ bowl game hopes are on the line. Sonny Dykes job? We’ll see. Let’s play the game first.

The Big 12 Conference is nearing the halfway point of the 2026 college football season. Some teams are already out of the Big 12 title game race.

Others? Well, they’re in it but the games — and the pressure — is going to start getting bigger. This weekend features a Top 25 showdown between Houston and Oklahoma State, with the Cougars entering the game with a Big 12 loss to Texas Tech and in need of the victory. The Cowboys are trying to stay undefeated in Big 12 play. Plus, there’s the Top 10 match up between BYU and Notre Dame.

So, who’s stock went up and who’s stock went down? Let’s look at the big movers across the league.

Stock Up

Arizona

I felt this was a big game for Arizona because it was a noon kick in Morgantown — 9 a.m. in Tucson — and the Wildcats were without three wide receivers.

So what happened? Arizona scored 51 points, quarterback Noah Fifita threw for 341 yards and three touchdowns while wide receiver Isaiah Mizell made up for the missing receivers with six catches for 183 yards and two touchdowns. Yes, the defense allowed 31 points. But the Mountaineers’ issue is not scoring points. It’s stopping them.

The Wildcats have now played six games. They’ve lost one — to BYU. Right now, they’re in the thick of it. They’re in contention to get to the Big 12 Championship game. As long as Fifita continues to play at a high level, Arizona will have a shot. It won’t be easy. But it will have a shot.

Oklahoma State

The Cowboys are buzzy right now but they’re also the team that can shake up this Big 12 race. Quarterback Drew Mestmaker threw for more than 300 yards against UCF and the defense worked through some tackling issues to hold the Knights to seven second-half points, along with a defensive touchdown. The offense overwhelms opponents. The defense closes the door with big plays in big moments.

The game with Houston, their first against a ranked team as a ranked team, is the pivot point of the season. if Oklahoma State wins, I could see them staying undefeated in Big 12 play going into their matchup with Texas Tech on Nov. 14. If they lose, then the Cowboys are still in the race, but it gets much tougher. Either way, their stock is up.

Utah

Entering last weekend Utah was dominant in every game it played. But Saturday against Kansas the Utes got their first taste of a challenge. Utah was only up 21-17 at the break. I watched that game on replay and Kansas played them hard. They threw some different things at Utah and the Utes struggled to adjust. But they made some big adjustments in the second half and the Utes pulled away.

The Utes should be lean into running back Wayshawn Parker as much as possible. This is the dynamic back in the Big 12 that few are talking about. He dumped 171 yards and two scores on Kansas and it’s the second time in three Big 12 games where his running helped close the door on an upset-minded opponent (Iowa State).

I had my doubts about Utah coming into the season mainly because of the coaching change. But the Utes are in great shape.

Stock Down

UCF

UCF has now lost 12 straight road games since the Knights beat TCU in their Big 12 debut in September of 2023. That’s head coach Scott Frost’s streak to break now, but he and his Knights are struggling. They’ve been in each road game and haven’t been able to close the deal.

UCF was missing 10 players against Oklahoma State, including quarterback Alonza Barnett III and wide receiver Duane Thomas Jr. That makes the Knights’ offense extremely limited and until those players return a stout defensive line can only do so much. Even with the injuries, the Knights need to find ways to win those games, or they’ll fall short of a bowl game again.

Kansas State

I guess I’m just so used to Kansas State being good that I’m having difficulty with the concept that they’re, well, not.

Houston came to town and after a close first quarter the Cougars pretty much handled their business. The Cougars are a great team and that showdown with Oklahoma State on Saturday is going to be electric. Kansas State’s biggest problem right now is defense. They lost so much in the portal and while head coach Collin Klein did what he could to replace it, there just isn’t enough talent there right now.

That makes it that much harder for quarterback Avery Johnson and the offense to keep the Wildcats in ball games. Kansas State plays Kansas this weekend and puts its 17-year Sunflower Showdown on the line. And it’s ON THE LINE.

BYU

Strange to say that BYU stock is down when they’re undefeated and I get that. But the injury to running back LJ Martin is critical. I thought quarterback Bear Bachmeier had a great game, and he certainly put that team on its back. He threw for 329 yards and rushed for another 109 yards and I can’t imagine he can keep that up the rest of the season.

BYU used six other players rushing the football, but Preston Rex had 21 years to lead the non-Bear rushers. So that’s the worry — can the Cougars find a complement to Bachmeier in the run game? BYU needs to find it this week with No. 2 Notre Dame coming to town.

What does the massive Skydance merger mean for the Big 12 Conference and its future media rights? That question became much more important this week as CBS Sports and Turner Sports came under the same corporate umbrella, bringing together two networks that already carry Big 12 football and basketball programming. There are reasons for Big 12 fans to be excited about what this could mean when the conference returns to the negotiating table later this decade. But in the short term, there are also some legitimate questions about sublicensing deals, television exposure and where the Big 12 fits into a massive new sports portfolio.

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.

Time to talk about television, the Big 12 Conference and the future.

Will Skydance be Good for the Big 12?

After Paramount purchased Warner Brothers Discovery earlier this week, CBS and Turner Sports are now under the same umbrella and will be called Skydance moving forward. Most hailed it as great news for the Big 12. After all, both are partners with the league, albeit through sublicense deals with ESPN. But, both entities carry Big 12 content. So the merger is a good thing, right?

Right?

That’s how I felt at first. But, after a few days of reflection, I have questions.

The desk.net on X (formerly Twitter) provided a good graphic that showed just what sports rights Paramount/CBS and Warner Brothers Discovery (which owned Turner Sports) currently have the rights to broadcast. It’s … a lot.

In all, the new Skydance entity holds rights to 36 different leagues. That’s an awful lot of carriage for the new entity to deal with.

It begs this first question — long-term, how many of the networks that Skydance now owns will broadcast sports?

On the CBS side, there is, of course, CBS, along with the CBS Sports Network. There is also streaming on Paramount+. On the Turner side, there is TNT, TBS and truTV. They partner with HBOMax for streaming. Front Office Sports reported that David Berson, previously CBS Sports CEO, will lead what will be called Skydance Sports. An additional part of the plan during the negotiation process was for the two streaming services to merge.

Berson has some decisions to make when it comes to which networks will do what? But he also has a ton of programming to deal with and a ton of options under which to broadcast. Both are good things — or are they?

The graphic above shows deals with 36 leagues. ESPN has just 14. Fox has 13. A few years ago, ESPN was checking out of some broadcast rights at the negotiating table due to cost.

Does anyone really think that Skydance can handle all this financially? The total price of the merger was $110 billion. They’re going to have to look to make cuts.

Initially, those cuts are going to be in personnel. This is corporate America folks and this is what happens. CBS and Turner are great sports operations but in the world of Skydance that’s a redundancy that will eventually be rectified. Will Turner Sports just go away? Or become a “boutique” brand for certain events?

I’m old enough to remember when ABC/Capital Cities bought ESPN in the 1980s. What eventually happened was the ABC sports brand, perhaps the best brand of the three broadcast networks, was swallowed up by ESPN. Now any sports on ABC is produced by ESPN. The days of Jim McKay and Roone Arledge died with that purchase.

I’m not sure if Turner Sports dies because of this, but it becomes something different. Because there is no way CBS is rebranding for sports. Not happening. It doesn’t mean TNT would lose sports. It just means it would be under a different banner. After all Skydance needs the channels.

The next issue for Skydance will be what to keep and what to, well, either give away or buy out. That’s where I have questions about the Big 12 in the short-term. John Ourand of Puck Sports reported that the new entity has plans to do away with some of the sub-licenses it has, including the Big 12 programming it currently takes from ESPN.

Now, that’s not the end of the world. The sublicence was short-term to begin with. But that sub-license was a way to get the league more exposure on another network and a chance to build a relationship with a network that might be interested in taking more Big 12 programming come the next contract after the current one expires in 2030-31.

Last season the league spun basketball programming with five different networks — ESPN, Fox, TNT, CBS and NBC/Peacock. The last three were ESPN sublicenses. Starting next year it looks clear that it’s going to be no more than four with the merger. The CBS sublicense for basketball ends after this season. Based on Ourand’s reporting, I have questions whether Skydance will continue that sublicense next season.

Those are the short-term implications. As with any merger or acquisition, there’s going to be a reset. And that reset for Skydance is likely going to require anywhere from 12 to 18 months to complete. That takes us into the end of 2027.

Even if the sublicenses do go away, this merger still has great potential for the Big 12 for a couple of reasons.

First, Skydance clearly is invested in sports. It may trim some of their packages back, but they clearly see the good in it. Their programming has worldwide reach. That has appeal to the Big 12 and to Brett Yormark because he wants his conference to be a global conference. You can disagree as to whether that’s a good thing but having a partner like Skydance that has worldwide programming is an asset.

Even with the merger, that still gives the league four different potential partners to go to the next time the media rights are negotiated. And this time around, Skydance should have more negotiating power.

Second, one of the entities that helped facilitate this purchase was Red Bird Capital. If you follow the Big 12 then you know what Red Bird is. That company, along with Weatherford, helped create the Big 12’s private capital plan. And while none of the teams tapped into the substantial line of capital that was offered to them, there are plenty of other things that Red Bird and Weatherford are working with the Big 12 on to enhance the league’s revenue.

One shouldn’t discount the fact that Skydance and the Big 12 have a relationship with the same private capital partner. That’s a relationship that can be leveraged at the negotiating table.

Perhaps the best part of this merger for the Big 12 is the timing. I can’t imagine how this would have worked out for the conference if this happened say three years from now. Having it happen now gives the new entity time to work through its plan.

I know Big 12 fans would love nothing more than for ESPN to go away as a partner. I get it. No amount of College Gameday appearances is going to change just how embedded the SEC is with ESPN and that’s fair because ESPN is the SEC’s exclusive broadcast partner. I think many big 12 fans would tell you that’s the same partnership they want — just not with ESPN.

I’m not sure if an exclusive partnership is the right thing for the Big 12. I’m not even sure if leaning into a Big 12 Network is a good thing for the conference. But I did walk away after considerable thought believing that ultimately Skydance has the potential to be a bigger positive for the Big 12 than a negative. It will be bumpy for a while.

But come around 2029, when the Big 12 would start looking to negotiate a new deal, this new entity should be able, and most likely willing, to be a more substantial partner to the Big 12. That’s probably the biggest takeaway from the last week.

We’re entering the second weekend of October and we’re beginning to see a little bit of separation in the Big 12 Conference. If you’re undefeated in league play you want to stay that way. If you’re winless in league play you need a win bad. As we enter Week 6, here are four teams that to me have the most to prove going into the weekend.

Arizona

I don’t like doing the same team two weeks in a row, but the Wildcats have a tricky situation this weekend. They must get on a plane and fly to Morgantown and change three different time zones for Saturday’s game. Remember — Arizona doesn’t recognize daylight savings time, so the time there right now is the same time as it is in California.

Not just that, but it’s a noon game in Morgantown which means every Wildcats body is going to be telling them it’s 9 a.m. when they kick off.

Aside from that, the Mountaineers are reeling. They’ve lost two straight Big 12 games and they’re desperate. It’s pull-out-the-stops time.

Arizona must prove to me they can overcome body, mind, time zone and desperation to win this one. If so, then they can stay in this Big 12 race long-term.

More: Arizona vs. West Virginia Prediction, Pick and Odds for Week 6

Kansas State

Kansas State got two weeks to figure out what went wrong against Cincinnati. Hint — they did not stop the run (the Wildcats gave up 271 yards). That makes their matchup with Houston interesting. Quarterback Conner Weigman is one of the best running quarterbacks in the conference and Houston has a good two-headed monster at running back between Re’Shaun Sanford II and Makhi Hughes.

Weigman can sling it, but after watching the Wildcats surrender nearly 300 yards on the ground to Cincinnati, you can bet the Cougars are gonna run the ball.

The Wildcats must prove to me they can stop the run. If they can do that, they have a shot. Because K-State’s offense came to play in that game with the Bearcats.

More: Houston vs. Kansas State Prediction, Pick and Odds for Week 6

Oklahoma State

For the past two weeks the vibes have been Immaculate in Stillwater. The Cowboys beat West Virginia to open Big 12 play, snapped their 18-game losing streak, won their third straight game and got back in the AP Top 25 for the first time in two years. Head coach Eric Morris and his staff spent the weekend recruiting the heck out of the country. The timing couldn’t have been better.

What do the Cowboys have to prove this week? That they didn’t get the big head while they were off. Oklahoma State’s players have been hearing for the last two weeks how great they are. Morris not only must put together a great game plan but must manage to keep his team focused.

There’s a path for the Cowboys to legitimately contend in this conference. That path does not include losing to UCF on Saturday.

More: UCF vs. Oklahoma State Prediction, Pick and Odds for Week 6

Arizona State

The Sun Devils got shoulder rolled by Baylor on Saturday, to the point where I must question if Arizona State is the team I thought it was going into the season?

I thought the Sun Devils could content and maybe they can. Maybe Baylor is just THAT good.  But that ASU defense can’t give up 55 points again.

I need to see Arizona State snap back. Yes, it’s one-win Hawai’i. But if they look anything less than dominant, my concern level goes up.

More: Hawaii vs. Arizona State Prediction, Pick and Odds for Week 6