It is that time of year again when people around the college football world begin to release their early top 25 rankings in order to give fans something to talk about as we begin to trudge through the long summer months leading up to the start of the season. This year, Texas Tech football fans have plenty to be excited about, given that many so-called experts have the Red Raiders as a top-25 team. However, one of the loudest voices in the sport did not put Tech in his post-spring ranking.
FOX's lead analyst, Joel Klatt released his top 25 on Monday, and to the surprise of many, he left Texas Tech out. Though he has five Big 12 teams in his poll, he doesn't include the Red Raiders.
What isn't surprising is that Klatt, who has a reputation for focusing only on the top-tier programs in the nation, doesn't have any Big 12 teams in his top 13. BYU is his highest-ranked Big 12 member at No. 14. Then, he puts Arizona State at No. 15, Kansas State at No. 16, Iowa State at No. 17, and Baylor at No. 24.
By throwing four Big 12 teams together in spots 14-17, Klatt gives the impression that he doesn't have a great handle on which team is really the best in the conference. What's more, it feels as if he simply doesn't think very highly of the league as a whole.
That's not shocking, though. Despite the fact that Klatt is a Colorado alum, he is an analyst who only gives a passing thought or two to non-blue-blood programs.
Each week, as part of the FOX Big Noon Kickoff broadcast team, he typically sees just the name-brand programs thus allowing him to overlook and ignore good teams that might jump up and make noise despite not receiving tons of preseason noteriety.
That's why Klatt's poll should be taken with a grain of salt. Perhaps his thoughts on the top ten might carry some weight, but outside of that, his interest in and knowledge of the sport dip drastically.
Thoughts on @joelklatt’s Post-Spring Top 25? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/tUUwuHp7vi
— The Joel Klatt Show: A CFB Pod (@JoelKlattShow) May 5, 2025
For instance, does anyone really think that programs like Indiana, Auburn, Iowa, or Baylor have better rosters than Texas Tech heading into 2025? Those schools Klatt ranked No. 21-24 in his poll, respectively, and each has major issues to sort out this fall.
Indiana faces a much more difficult schedule in 2025 than in 2024, when it played only two ranked teams all season. What's more, it must replace a number of key starters from last season's playoff team, including starting QB Kurtis Rourke.
Auburn was just 5-7 last year. What's more, they are counting on transfer QB Jackson Arnold, a former blue-chip recruit who was benched last season at Oklahoma, to bring life to their struggling program.
Iowa also has a tough Big 10 schedule this season with games against Penn State, Oregon, USC, and Nebraska to go along with a non-conference road trip to Iowa State. Also, the Hawkeyes saw their superstar running back, Kaleb Johnson, head to the NFL this offseason.
As for Baylor, while they return plenty of talent from their 8-5 2024 team, including starting QB Sawyer Robertson, they also have a really tough schedule in 2025. In the non-conference, they host Auburn and then travel to SMU (which played in the ACC Championship Game last season) the next week. Additionally, they will face Arizona State, Kansas State, and TCU in the Big 12.
Anyone who is truly plugged into college football should consider Texas Tech a top-25 team. This program has one of the deepest and most complete rosters in the Big 12. In fact, given that Tech has signed the nation's top portal class, it would be easy to argue that the talent head coach Joey McGuire has to work with is better than any of his conference counterparts.
Yes, having to replace Tahj Brooks and Josh Kelly will be tough. However, Tech returns senior quarterback Behren Morton and many of his key weapons. Also, the return of leading tackler Jacob Rodriguez is going to make the defense arguably the best in the conference, given all that the portal brought to Lubbock on that side of the ball.
By excluding Tech from his top 25, Klatt reminds us that he is just a blue-blood blowhard who simply throws darts at the wall to fill out the bottom of his rankings. Like so many prominent college football personalities on television, he doesn't invest enough time in studying the Big 12 (outside of his alma mater) to really have a great read on the conference. Therefore, his omission of the Red Raiders should be taken with a huge grain of salt.