While the Big 12 wasn’t exactly the most dominant college football conference that the country got to see this season (that’d be the Big Ten this season, for what that’s worth), it’s worth pointing out that the Big 12 was better than what many would give the conference credit for.
To be completely frank, the Big 12 was pretty decent this season, especially at the top of the conference. The Texas Tech Red Raiders, BYU Cougars, Utah Utes, and Houston Cougars all managed to get at least 10 wins this season. That’s worth paying attention to.
And once you take a look at all of those wins, I don’t think a ton of folks are going to be all that shocked to learn that the Red Raiders, Cougars, Utes, and the other Cougars were all able to end the 2025-2026 college football season ranked among the 25 best teams in the country (as well as one other Big 12 team, that is).
Final AP Poll Top 25 rankings: Texas Tech wraps up 2025-2026 season as one of five teams from the Big 12 to be ranked
Here’s where the four teams from the Big 12 ended up ranked in the final AP Poll Top 25 of the 2025-2026 college football season:
- Texas Tech Red Raiders - No. 7 overall
- BYU Cougars - No. 11 overall
- Utah Utes - No. 14 overall
- Houston Cougars - No. 22 overall
- TCU Horned Frogs - No. 25 overall
There’s still a lot of work that this conference has to do to continue to elevate itself and improve its product as we move forward, but there’s potential there. And when you factor in that several Big 12 teams ended up changing coaches, it’s worth pondering and wondering as to if the conference is going to see some improvement soon.
Take the Oklahoma State Cowboys, for example. They ended the year at 1-11 and moved on from Mike Gundy. But, with the aim of improving in a hurry, Oklahoma State picked up Eric Morris (a former Texas Tech football player, in case you didn’t know) and they plucked a lot of transfer portal talent.
So yeah, I feel safe in saying that the Big 12 is going to be a lot of fun to keep up with next season. I think the conference is going to make things very interesting for college football fans (and I think Texas Tech has the potential to end the season on top of the conference once more).