We’re not even one full, real week into the college football season and we’ve got some bowl projections to go ahead and talk about. The 2025 college football season has begun (shoutout to the Farmageddon matchup in Ireland in Week 0) and we’re about to get the Week 1 slate of games started.
And we’ve got some pretty interesting bowl projections involving the Big 12 that we need to talk about. Like how Erick Smith of USA Today has 11 teams from the Big 12 (which, just a reminder, has 16 teams these days) making it into a bowl game this season.
If it feels like that’s a lot of teams from the conference playing in a postseason matchup, that’s because it is. And that’s a good thing for the Big 12, in my opinion.
Here’s what those very early bowl projections for the Big 12 look like:
Early 2025 bowl projections from USA Today put 11 teams from the Big 12 into the postseason
- Utah Utes - College Football Playoff vs. Oregon Ducks
- Texas Tech Red Raiders - First Responder Bowl vs. UTSA Roadrunners
- Baylor Bears - Rate Bowl vs. Wisconsin Badgers
- Iowa State Cyclones - Alamo Bowl vs. USC Trojans
- Kansas State Wildcats - Texas Bowl vs. Texas A&M Aggies
- Kansas Jayhawks - Armed Forces Bowl vs. Army Black Knights
- West Virginia Mountaineers - Independence Bowl vs. Western Kentucky Hilltoppers
- TCU Horned Frogs - Liberty Bowl vs. Missouri Tigers
- BYU Cougars - Pop-Tarts Bowl vs. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
- Arizona State Sun Devils - Holiday Bowl vs. SMU Mustangs
- Colorado Buffaloes - Idaho Potato Bowl vs. Ohio Bobcats
And here are the five Big 12 teams missing out on bowl games, according to these projections:
- Arizona Wildcats
- Oklahoma State Cowboys
- UCF Knights
- Houston Cougars
- Cincinnati Bearcats
I mean, we’ve already talked about how I don’t love that particular matchup for the Red Raiders. And it’s not that matchup or the bowl game itself. It’s the fact that Texas Tech has a ton of potential to accomplish some pretty impressive things this season and that destination and opponent would indicate a less-than-ideal sort of season.
As for matchups that would be fun as heck to watch? Arizona State and SMU would be FASCINATING to keep up with. Same with a hypothetical Liberty Bowl between TCU and Missouri. Kansas State facing Texas A&M (who has Collin Klein, a K-State legend) as its offensive coordinator would also be a blast.