Big 12 Media Days are in the books, and the overall message is that the conference is unified and together. However, sometimes, it isn’t the huge statements by the conference commissioner or the special guests who come in to speak. Sometimes, the real stories come from the coaches and players of each team.
That is what makes the Big 12 great.
The SEC, for example, is the Alabama/Georgia show. Nobody cares what Vanderbilt has to say. The Big 10 is the same with Ohio State and Michigan. Does anyone expect anything interesting to come out of Indiana?
There is no clear frontrunner in the Big 12 (although that may change if Florida State and Clemson join), so everyone is somewhat interested in everyone else.
Overall Themes
As mentioned, the overall message is that the conference is united. Coaches and players continually repeated the line that they were happy to be in the Big 12. Another common theme was that almost every team feels like they have upgraded their rosters. Sure, from a coaching speak standpoint, every coach is going to say that, but when looking at the actual transfer portal rankings, it actually does appear that the Big 12 really did upgrade almost every team.
Finally, another message that seemed to be repeated over and over was how competitive the league was going to be. It seemed like every team felt like the conference is wide open this year for anyone to win.
Here is the most interesting quote from each team’s head coach. Some will have context given with it.
New Schools
Arizona’s Brent Brennan – “I would say TMac and Jacob Manu and Jonah Savaiinaea had more to do — Gunner Maldonado, more to do with keeping Noah Fifita there than I did.” – In today’s college football, when a head coach leaves for another school, it seems like all the big name players do as well. It was a shock to see Noah Fifita, who could be the top QB in the Big 12 this year stay with the Wildcats and not follow Jedd Fisch to Washington.
Arizona State’s Kenny Dillingham – “Most leagues I’ve been in have one or two flavors of the league. This league has a variety of flavors.”
Colorado’s Deion Sanders- “I’m judged on a different scale. I can’t win nine games and our GPA suffers. Our GPA can’t be high, and we lost another eight games. We have to win in every area. That’s the way we’re judged.” It was interesting that Colorado came in with so much confidence following a 4-8 season last year. Shedeur Sanders also mentioned that Colorado is everyone’s Super Bowl. Overall, an interesting and confident approach from Colorado.
Utah’s Kyle Whittingham – “We’re going to open here in ’27 against the Miami Hurricanes. I probably won’t be sitting here in this chair, but somebody will.” – Kyle Whittingham is one of the most successful and tenured college football coaches in the country, and many have wondered how long he will be coaching. It appears that he has one or two more seasons before he decides to retire.
Old New Schools
Kelly Presnell, Arizona Daily Star
BYU’s Kalani Sitake – “Yes, there is definitely a sense of urgency now that we know what we are up against in the Big 12. I am excited more than anything. I may look serious, but I am excited.” – BYU finished 5-7 in 2023, including a five-game losing streak to end the season.
Cincinnati’s Scott Satterfield – “We have 47 new scholarship players. How do they know what we’re going to be? They don’t. That doesn’t really matter to me. It’s what you put together and go out and play game-by-game. Hopefully, we’ve got a much better football team”. – These comments were interesting because it gave some depth on how even coaches no longer know how good their teams are. With the transfer portal as crazy as it is, every year is a completely new team for P4 schools.
Houston’s Willie Fritz – “We don’t have three years to build a culture.”
UCF’s Gus Malzhan – “Probably the first two (teams), possibly three, have a chance at the top 12. That’s been a long time coming, and it should have happened a long time ago.” This was a reference to the college football playoff. Most media pundits have the Big 12 as a one-bid league, but Malzhan believes that the depth of the Big 12 will pay dividends and give the league at least a second bid.
Traditional Members
Baylor’s Dave Aranda – “We’re fully invested now in the transfer portal. We’re fully invested with name image likeness.” – Many coaches and programs were hesitant to jump on the NIL and transfer portal culture of college football in its first few years, instead relying on traditional recruiting. However, after a 3-9 season, Coach Aranda realized that embracing the new style is essential.
Iowa State’s Matt Campbell – ” We just are not going to ever be the people that have the most money or most NIL money. We’ll have to be the team that develops our players better than anybody. And again, when we have been at our best, we’ve been older and have been able to keep our guys and get older.”
Kansas’ Lance Leipold – ” We just are not going to ever be the people that have the most money or most NIL money. We’ll have to be the team that develops our players better than anybody. And again, when we have been at our best, we’ve been older and have been able to keep our guys and get older.” The Kansas Jayhawks will be playing all of their games in Kansas City this year; four at Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City, and four games in Arrowhead Stadium, home of the Kansas City Chiefs.
Kansas State’s Chris Klieman – “I’m hoping that we ultimately get to an even number of conference games so that we’re not in the nine, five away, four at home, that it’s more of a four and four splits of eight games, or even a ten, because if you have to play a Power Five, you might as well play it in your league and get five and five.” –The Big 12 is one of the leagues that play nine conference games. Some have argued that they should drop down to eight to allow more nonconference, while others have said to move it to ten since the conference is bigger and it will allow more teams to play each other.
Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy – ““Because of collectives, these guys that are playing college football are employees, whether you like it or not…There are large sums of money involved. That’s the way it’s gonna be going forward.” – Read a deep dive into this.
TCU’s Sonny Dykes – “What happens in today’s college football world is you turnover almost half your roster now every year. So there are not that many players when it was all said and done.” This was in response to how TCU went from the National Championship game in 2022 to 5-7 in 2023.
Texas Tech’s Joey McGuire speaking on Patrick Mahomes – “I always tell everybody we’re playing in Lawrence, Kansas, last year, and probably the large majority of the NFL and their bye week are going somewhere to take a break, and he’s on the sideline in Lawrence, Kansas, watching us play the Jayhawks. The guy just absolutely loves Texas Tech.”
West Virginia’s Neal Brown – “We’re picked seventh in the league. We’re not in some of these preseason Top 25s….. Garrett Greene is not getting talked about as much as some others. His production speaks for itself. Wyatt Milum is as good as any left tackle in the country. We could go on and on. I think our players are being underrated as well.” – Last year, West Virginia was picked to finish last in the Big 12 and ended up having a shot at the Big 12 Championship game in the last few weeks of the season. Brown’s statement was a shot at the national media for not respecting them and the conference.
