Big 12 football shelved preseason poll. It didn’t stop us from ranking the teams

Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark and several head coaches from across the conference were downright giddy to announce the end of the league’s preseason football poll earlier this week.

A year after media members who cover the Big 12 badly missed the mark with their preseason predictions by picking Utah (5-7, 2-7 Big 12) to win the conference and Arizona State (11-3, 7-2 Big 12) to finish last, it seemed like everyone was lining up to dunk on the merits of July rankings.

“I think there’s no value” Yormark said of the now-extinct poll.

“It meant nothing,” added K-State football coach Chris Klieman.

The Big 12 is well within its rights to eliminate the preseason poll if it thinks doing so will help the conference. But here’s the thing: nothing is stopping us in the media from organizing our own preseason Big 12 football rankings.

It’s not like coaches voted in the old poll. Conference officials simply asked media members to predict their order of finish in the conference standings and then released the results.

With that in mind, we at the Star decided to do the same with our own Big 12 experts — Shreyas Laddha (Kansas), Kellis Robinett (K-State) and Blair Kerkhoff (the dean of all Big 12 football writers).

All three of them ranked the Big 12’s football teams from 1-16, and then we added up the results.

The Sun Devils are the new favorites

Arizona State clearly impressed the group last season, as the Sun Devils were predicted to win the conference for a second straight year.

Star running back Cam Skattebo is gone. But head coach Kenny Dillingham and quarterback Sam Leavitt are back. That, and other reasons, was enough for two of our three voters to rank Arizona State at No. 1.

Texas Tech was the other team to receive a first-place vote. The Red Raiders reached deep into their pockets to buy a star-studded transfer class this past offseason. Add them to a group of returning players who won eight games (and beat Arizona State last season), and that is enough to inspire confidence.

Interestingly, though, Texas Tech only finished third in our preseason poll.

K-State checks in at No. 2 and narrowly missed out on the top spot. The Wildcats are the unanimous choice to finish second in the Big 12 standings.

That’s right, all three of our experts think quarterback Avery Johnson will lead his team to the conference championship in Arlington, Texas later this year.

Little expected from UCF and Oklahoma State

There was also agreement at the bottom of out Big 12 preseason football poll.

Two voters picked UCF to finish last with Scott Frost returning to coach the team. The other voter went with Oklahoma State after the Cowboys crashed and burned last season. With dozens of new players and coaches arriving in Stillwater, it is hard to expect big things from the Pokes.

Three Hot Takes

1. The Big 12 will send two teams to the College Football Playoff. How? Not sure. But it seems likely to happen with so much talent returning atop the conference standings. Perhaps the league’s third-place team will join the conference champion in the CFP. That would create some controversy in December.

2. More Big 12 teams than you might expect will go bowling this season. In fact, so many teams will qualify for the postseason that teams will have to look outside the conference’s usual bowl footprint to find landing spots. That is good news for the Kansas Jayhawks, who narrowly missed out on a bowl last season. Maybe an abundance of Big 12 bowl teams will mean that Lance Leipold gets a mayonnaise bath.

3. UCF and West Virginia will regret bringing back old coaches. It’s hard to understand how Scott Frost and Rich Rodriguez were hired over more qualified candidates during the last hiring cycle. Frost has produced just one (!) winning record during his seven years as a head coach. Rodriguez won consistently at Jacksonville State over the past three years, but he is staring at a huge jump to the Big 12. Frost (American) and Rodriguez (Big East) led UCF and WVU, respectively, to success when they played in lesser conferences. Previously living in Orlando and Morgantown won’t help them now. Both teams will struggle mightily this season.

The Star’s Big 12 Preseason Football Rankings

1. Arizona State (2) - 46 points

2. Kansas State - 45 points

3. Texas Tech (1) - 42 points

4. Baylor - 37 points

5. Iowa State - 36 points

6. Kansas - 33 points

7. BYU - 29 points

8. Utah - 28 points

9. TCU - 26 points

10. Colorado - 23 points

11. West Virginia - 14 points

12. Arizona - 13 points

13. Houston - 10 points

13.. Cincinnati - 10 points

15. Oklahoma State - 9 points

16. UCF - 7 points

First-place votes in parentheses.

This story was originally published July 11, 2025 at 7:00 AM with the headline "Big 12 football shelved preseason poll. It didn’t stop us from ranking the teams."

Kellis Robinett

The Wichita Eagle

Kellis Robinett covers Kansas State athletics for The Wichita Eagle and The Kansas City Star. A winner of more than a dozen national writing awards, he lives in Manhattan with his wife and four children.