Brett Yormark Punishes Texas Tech? | Ranking The Top Ten Big 12 Programs

Did the Big 12 punish Texas Tech by giving the Red Raiders two non-Saturday games? On tonight’s show, I break down the latest Brett Yormark vs. Cody Campbell drama after Texas Tech landed a Friday game against Houston and a Thanksgiving night matchup with TCU. I explain why I actually think the Big 12 got this right, why Tech fans are frustrated, and why the TCU game could be a huge TV win for the league.

Plus, ESPN suddenly seems to love the Big 12 heading into the 2026 college football season. I dive into why Bill Connelly is high on so many Big 12 transfer portal classes, what that says about the league nationally, and whether this kind of respect is actually built to last.

And to wrap it up, I rank the top 10 football programs in the Big 12 right now based on NIL support, coaching, consistency, and institutional backing, including Texas Tech, BYU, Utah, Arizona State, TCU, K-State, Iowa State and more.

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#Big12 #TexasTech #BrettYormark #CodyCampbell #TCUFootball #CollegeFootball #TransferPortal #BYUFootball #KStateFootball #IowaStateFootball

Transcript

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Oh, did we just get a new layer to the Texas Tech Big 12 beef? Did you guys see the schedule that came out with all the non-Friday or the non-Saturday games, rather, in the Big 12? Texas Tech got two of them. Now, is that the Big 12 sending a message about Cody Campbell's disagreement that he had with Brett Yormark? What does this all mean? We're going to talk about that. I found ESPN loving up the Big 12 as well. So I definitely want to get into that with some very good data from the transfer portal, man. If you're thinking about Big 12's success during the 2026 football season, and I am going to give you a bit of a dose of my own personal opinion here with the top 10 football programs in the Big 12 as they currently stand right now. I'm going to rank them for you, ladies and gentlemen. And that is sure to make some people upset because there is no good way to do that. As I was going through that exercise, I was just like, this is this will get some people fired up. Okay, but that's the fun of it all. Thank you for joining me. Those of you who are here tonight, it is the Open for Business Big 12 podcast. I'm your host, John Kurtz. Greatly appreciate all of you who are joining me. Remember, this is where the Big 12 just means more. Please do like the video. Please subscribe to the channel. Both of those things really help. It also helps me if you subscribe to the Open for Business Big Twelve newsletter at OFBnews.com. You can also click the link in the description of this video. There are many ways to get in touch tonight. Kim, hello. I see you in the chat. Thank you for being here, my friend. A great Red Raider fan. I'm sure there will be many more tonight. Uh, but you can fill up the chat with Kim if you are so inclined and you want to support the channel. You can submit a super chat by clicking the dollar sign below the chat box. It's totally free to just like the video and subscribe to the channel, though. And all that is very, very helpful. If you are not watching live, you still want to be connected, you still want to make your voice heard, you can leave me a question or comment on Venmo. It is John Dash Kurtz-4. On Venmo, that is John Dash Kurtz-4. And uh thank you to everybody who does that. In fact, that's where we're starting tonight, and this is where we start with a bang, and it ties in perfectly to the opening topic that I have for you tonight, which is about Texas Tech and the Big 12. Okay, because Joe, and thank you for the support, Joe, left me this comment. Joe is a TCU fan, I can tell by the logo, and that is going to be a key piece of information as you listen to this comment. Okay. Joe says, John, can you please address the Texas Tech fans who think Tech is a premier program now for having one decent season due to Campbell's checkbook before the wallet opened? They were at best a mediocre program. Checkbook alone is the only chance they have. It's the name of the game now, but please address the fans that without it they aren't anything special, who think they can complain about games on Friday night, games on Thanksgiving. It's getting worse than Texas. At least Texas had national championships to back up the boasting where Tech has done nothing. That was Joe, okay? Not me. I promise you that was Joe. Texas Tech fans, if you want the proof here, I should have just done this in the first place. To make sure that you realize that this is not me saying that. Joe said all of these things, okay? There it is right there. Joe said those things. Not me, my friends. Uh okay, Joe, in all seriousness, I appreciate it. This has been a contentious, contentious topic. Let me address this. I think that the attitude of some Texas Tech fans on Twitter, which I think Joe, you you may be in the state of Texas and be around Texas Tech fans on a day-to-day basis. So fair point if you're not just basing this off of Twitter. I think most of us are basing that off of Twitter or Facebook or wherever we see fans online, right? And most of the discourse that I have seen, there are certainly, you know, the fringes online that act like tech will leave for the SEC because of this, or that yes, they are deserving of over-the-top preferential special treatment. And in those cases, yeah, it does it does give some Texas vibes for sure. The question is, how much of that is real life? How much of that is the actual fan base? What is the difference? You have to separate. You have to separate what is just a group of fans online versus what is the actual complaint being made here, and what is the actual debate? What are we talking about here? What are the terms that we're talking about? So, Joe, I get it. There are definitely fans that give off that vibe, which is ironic because tech, as did everybody, hated Texas in the Big 12, and that was such an issue forever that they wanted special treatment. It goes back to 1994, before the Big 12 had even started, when they're getting this thing worked up, them in Nebraska had his shoes and beef because Texas wanted special treatment anyway. I think there is a legitimate debate here about what do you do with potentially the biggest Big 12 game of the season with Texas Tech Houston. And is giving a team two non-Saturday home games in conference play in one season too much? Those are legitimate debates, okay? I'm going to talk more about that coming up here. So I think there Texas Tech fans should not just idly sit by and take this without mentioning anything, at least bringing it up. I think that is fair. I'll put it that way, Joe. I think there is a fair argument to be had. The problem is how some people go about it and how some people wouldn't even listen to anything from the other side. Like I just taped a podcast, Rob Brough, my buddy, who does a great job covering Texas Tech and does radio in Lubbock for his podcast. I just taped with him tonight. We had a great, we had like a 45-minute debate about it. It was really good back and forth. Like there's a debate to be had. I'm sure that'll come out this week. Uh, so watch for that if you want to hear the whole thing. But yes, there are fans who take it too far. Absolutely. And Joe, the the only other thing I would say is this is like I know this because I I saw it happen to me during the magical year that was 2022-23, that athletic season, when K-State won the Big 12 in football, and when K-State went to League 8 in basketball with a brand new coach, mind you, and it felt like, man, K-State is never coming down from this. Like we own the league, and like I and myself, the K-State fan base, like we got we got too high on our own supply, man. We got out over our skis. It's very easy to do. Every fan base does it. So I don't think Texas Tech is particularly unique necessarily, but I do get your frustration. And what I was seeing online, like, if you want my honest opinion, if you would have pulled me when I first logged into Twitter, I saw Cody Campbell's tweet, retweeted it, didn't think much of it. I popped in the next day, like 12 hours later, and the wasteland that I saw on Twitter of like the arguing that was going on and the stuff I was reading. Yeah, I was pretty annoyed. I was pretty annoyed. But that doesn't mean that there is some substance there to what was being talked about, okay? Um, all right. With that, setting the table for this discussion, let's talk about this schedule that came out, okay? So Brett Yormark heard Cody Campbell's complaints about Texas Tech playing on a Friday. So he didn't give Texas Tech a non-Saturday home game this year. He gave them two. He gave them two non-Saturday home games instead. Uh, I'll tell you why this totally rules, okay? Even if I can understand why tech fans aren't thrilled. And I will tell you why it's still pretty fair at the end of the day. All right. Uh, we all know the history here, right? You guys, uh, we're going on what, like two weeks now? Week and a half, two weeks. This has been going on. Cody Campbell called out Brett Yormark for wanting to move the Houston game to Friday. It's the conference opener for both teams. It's in mid-September. Um, the basis of Cody Campbell's beef was hey, it's going to hurt Texas high school football. For tech and Houston here, you're trying to recruit against Houston. You can't have recruits in on a Friday night, right? Because they're obviously going to be playing. And Tech has to play at Oregon State the week before. It presumably will be in a late night time slot. And um, yeah, it'll be tough for people to get to Lubbock for that game. You might have to take off work if you're going to make it to a Friday night game, right? That was the formal complaint filed and took a bit of a shot at Brett Yormark. Yormark responded by telling the Lubbock Avalanche Journal that, quote, Cody Campbell doesn't run the Big 12. Okay, so he had like the back and forth, and then Cody Campbell came back with the very emphatic on Twitter anyway. Brett must have must not have heard the Big 12 runs through Lubbock. That one really seemed to uh throw some gas on the fire. Although I know tech fans, Rob was just telling me, and Rob Brough, my buddy, and I'm fair enough, said, I thought that was just a joke one. Like what, and so hey, yeah, if you want to take it as a joke, that's fine. Many people take it too seriously. Cody Campbell's got a pretty high standing in where he's at in the college athletics world and as a member of the Texas Tech board. I thought it was notable, you know, and I knew what it was going to do and what the reaction was to it, and it turned it into a mess, right? This this was a beef. This was a beef. But now we have the official list of non-Saturday games in the Big 12, and uh yeah, the Houston game made it. It is on a Friday night, can confirm, but also it's not just that one for Texas Tech. Okay. Now, please do subscribe. It would really help if you click subscribe, trying to get to 35k subs, and we are getting closer and closer, my friends. Thank you very much, everybody who has helped with that. All right, so let's check this out. Here are the lists, or is the list of the games that are not being played on a Saturday this year in the Big 12. Okay, so you've got Missouri at Kansas, which honestly, like I'm here for that. That sounds cool, right? Missouri, Kansas early in the season, Friday night, Houston at Texas Tech. You see there on September 18th, Iowa State, BYU, Baylor, UCF. I mean, TCU at Arizona, sneaky, really good game there. Sneaky, really good game on Friday, November 6th. Uh, Houston at Colorado. We'll see. You know, Colorado's taking a lot of shots right now on social media because their team looks small, like quite literally small. Um, and then look at Thursday, November 26th, people. That is Thanksgiving. TCU at Texas Tech. And then West Virginia at Utah that Friday. TCU at Texas Tech on Rivalry Week on Thanksgiving night. Okay, so after Cody Campbell's formal complaints, Texas Tech gets stuck with two here. TCU is the really, really interesting game here. This is the one that piques my interest more than the Houston game. And I know that there's a great debate to be had with the Houston game. I want to get to the TCU thing. With Houston, like, there's first of all a debate as to whether or not you want to put this on Friday versus Saturday for ratings. The assumption here is that the Big 12 and Fox feel like the rating will be better on Friday night than it would be on Saturday. Saturday, it's a light slate outside of maybe the college football game of the year, which will be Lane Kiffin going back to Oxford. LSU will miss. The rest of it's pretty light. So how does that fit in? What would a big noon game do versus a Friday night standalone? There's a very reasonable debate to be had on both sides, I think, of that one. The other part of this is tech having to play on a Friday night. The high school football issue to me is kind of a wash. Okay, I understand it's very special in Texas. I do get that. The league signed the TV deal. Everybody's having to deal with this. K-State had to do it a couple of years ago for a ranked matchup against Arizona. And by the way, coaches complained about the high school aspect of that then. That's fine. Joey Maguire complained about it now, that's fine. But to me, that's kind of a wash because everyone will have to deal with it. Kirby Hokut signed the TV deal knowing that that was going to happen. The other thing is a lot of schools have played Friday night games already. Ten Big 12 teams have played at least three Friday night games the last two years since we had this configuration of the league. Eight teams have hosted two plus Friday night games or non-Saturday games each of the last two years since the new configuration of the Big 12 came here. So it's Texas Tech is one of only two teams. It was Tech and Iowa State, one of only two teams that has not played a non-Saturday game each of the last two years since the new configuration of the league came into play. So it's it's kind of a statistical anomaly and aberration that it had not happened yet. It's it's in a lot of ways the law of averages coming around that this was going to happen. So from that standpoint, like I just can't really get behind that it's not fair to Texas Tech, the Houston game, at least in a vacuum. Okay. Think about that in a vacuum. I can't I can't get with it's not fair. If you want to say TV ratings-wise, you'd be better off playing this game on Saturday. Let's have that debate. I think we can definitely have that debate. The TCU game is where it gets complicated because now you're talking about okay, two non-Saturday home games in one year, that definitely hurts some Lubbock businesses. I completely understand that. I'm sympathetic to that. Hitting them with two is I mean, that's something you're not going to want to do very often. And hopefully, when the next schedule, well, not only next year's schedule, but then you make the next scheduling grid, hopefully you can kick something back to tech. I know there have been some gripes about tech not playing enough Texas schools or Oklahoma State on the schedule. Again, I don't think your mark has done a fabulous job with the schedule. So hopefully that comes back around. You don't want to do that to somebody every single year. But Thanksgiving night, I think, is a bit of a different deal. And I'm sure Cody Campbell knew about that when he was complaining about the Houston game. And he either chose not to complain about this or was like, hey, the aggregate of this, we shouldn't move the Houston game, but like I'm cool with moving the TCU game. I think the TCU game being on Thanksgiving totally rules. I mean, I love that. First of all, I love selfishly, I love that spot for college football. And so having a good Big 12 game, which I think TCU Tech should be this year, yeah, man, sign me up. And I I loved that being the egg bowl slot. I was always excited to watch the egg bowl every year. There's no other college game that night as of right now, looking at the schedule. Now, of course, there's going to be an NFL game to compete with, but I don't know. I'd have to, I should go back. I should have done this before the show. I should go back and look at what the egg bowl ratings were. I think even competing with an NFL game, that that will do a good rating. And if you put it on Saturday, all of a sudden you're competing with Texas and Texas AM, Ohio State, Michigan, the Iron Bull, Washington, Oregon, Clems, and South Carolina, right? Like there's a ton of competition. That would just get washed away. It's not arguable that this game will get more attention being on Thursday than Saturday of Rivalry Week. It also doesn't affect the high school football season because it's late enough in the year. So that all probably factors into why you wouldn't hear the complaints about that. And so, tech fans, if the case is, hey, yeah, TCU, that's fine. That makes sense. I get it. Throwing us then the Houston game on top of that, I don't like that. And having to do two and one, you shouldn't like that. I wouldn't like that either. No Big 12 fan base would. Doesn't mean that it's really unfair. I'll put it that way. As long as this is something that's only going to happen once in a blue moon and you're not going to get hit with scheduling stuff like this every single year. To me, this is your pill, you got to swallow it this year while the entire league is having to deal with games being played on Thursday, on Friday for the betterment of the TV deal that you all signed. Um, that's where I land. It's kind of a nuanced take on it, right? I see why tech fans are upset. I see why people bristle at what some of the reaction to this has been from tech. No school in the Big 12 would take this completely lying down and not at least complain a little bit. I think we can be honest about that at the end of the day. Uh, so did that suffice in just like making everybody a little bit upset here? Um, not that that was the goal, but that's kind of how I feel by the end of this one. Speaking of that TV deal, it's all pitching in to make as much money as possible, right? So that everybody can save women's sports and save Olympic sports and save college sports. That's the that's the general idea here, right? This is the sacrifice, it's not all gonna be fun. I've been talking about this for literal years now on this channel. This is a sacrifice the Big 12 is always gonna have to make. You can't go up against the SEC and Big Ten by doing the same thing and just doing it traditionally the way it's always been done. You got to get creative, find ways to try and earn an edge. This is one of those. Now, if you are wanting the full play-by-play of this beef as it has gone along, and you want to know more about how this beef all got started between tech and the Big 12 and Cody Campbell and Brett Yormark, click here for the backstory. That's for everybody watching the clipped version. Those of you that are hanging out here tonight, don't worry about it. Just continue to sit tight. I appreciate you all being here. Subscribe to the channel, like the video. It is totally free. If you are so inclined to contribute, you can click the dollar sign below the chat box. You can hit me up on Venmo at John-Kurtz-4, leave me a question or comment there, and I will get to it to start the next show. Uh, let's see here. First thing I see when I peek back down at the uh at the chat, Badunga. Yeah. Are you a Louisville fan, Chuck? Florian Badunga going to Louisville. Not staying in the Big 12. Here is your, I'll give you a little brief transfer portal update, I suppose, in like five minutes for men's basketball, okay? Florida Badunga is going to Louisville. Surprising to me, the rumor on that had been Duke for a long time. Michigan was also interested. Ops to go to Louisville. Okay. Uh Colin Chandler is going to BYU. I think that's a great fit. I'm excited for the Cougars on that front. Um, Iowa State has been busy. Landed, is it now five? I think it was the fifth transfer today. And it seems like the roster's totally set. Like TJ Otselberger, even with losing a couple of coaches, ruthlessly efficient in the transfer portal, did a great job. Now, flip side of that coin is Milan Monchilovich has put his name in, well, he's declared for the draft, pursuing that, but then also put his name into the portal. Then TJ Otselberger came back with a statement that was saying, hey, we support him in his dream to go pursue the NBA. So, like, I don't know. But it would appear that Milan Monchilovich is not going to be playing basketball for Iowa State one way or another next year, uh, which obviously is a bit of a tough break. There's there's some of your highlights from uh from the transfer portal. Okay, Chuck, Chuck is a uh is a Louisville fan. I was wondering about that. Makes sense. Okay, here's something that will shock you. ESPN suddenly loves the Big 12. Where's that coming from? What exactly is going on here? It is true, at least in this one instance, okay? I'll explain to you what happened and ask the question will this last? How much does this matter? I I will tell you this this is a great sign for the 2026 football season if you are a Big 12 fan. Those who have been around this channel for a while are certainly well aware. I know I'm preaching to the choir. If I tell you that it feels like the Big 12 has long gotten the short end of the stick from ESPN, now some of that is just at the expense of not being the SEC. The SEC is always going to get the benefit of the doubt. But, you know, even when we think back to things like, oh, I don't know, BYU not even being able to get on the graphic for the bubble of the college football playoff the last two years. Crazy. Literally, the graphics last year that were what were the numbers there? It'd be like 9, 10, 12, 13 missing the 11, and then they just have like a little note at the bottom, like, oh, by the way, BYU's number 11. Couldn't even get on the graphics. Uh, you know, 2021 articles being written trying to kill the Big 12. That was everybody, but ESPN was certainly involved there, right? I mean, it has not always felt like a warm lovey-dovey relationship between the two, at least the reception that the Big 12 gets from ESPN, which then is reciprocated by Big 12 fans. Uh, but the Big 12 has beaten the SEC in something in ESPN's eyes, okay? And that is actually for best transfer portal classes in football. In football, we are talking football. Best transfer portal classes. Kind of. Please do subscribe to the channel. One click really helps push him to 35k subs. Ton of you watch, but don't subscribe. It really does help if you subscribe. I appreciate you. Now, this is not a list of best. Transfer portal classes in the country, necessarily from ESPN. It is a list of Bill Connolly's favorite transfer portal classes. Okay. Bill Connolly of ESPN fame. He does the S Plus, which is uh one of the really good, if you're into the nerdy college football rankings, it's a great one, a great power pull. Um, he's very, very intrigued by what the Big 12 has done in the transfer portal this year because he ranked one through 20 his favorite transfer portal classes, and six of the top 11 were in the Big 12. Six of the top 11 were in the Big 12. His favorite transfer portal classes. Now that's a very subjective measurement, right? If we were to compare this with, all right, John, what what are people saying are the best transfer portal classes? The Big 12 by comparison has two of the top 11 transfer portal classes according to on three. They have five in the top 25. If you extrapolated Connolly's list out, it's six of the top 25. Uh, Cincinnati was in the honorable mention, which was like the 20 through 25 slot. So close, if you just expand it out to 25, but you shrink in on the top 11, six of the top 11 versus two. Uh, that is much, much different. So I would tell you that this fits with more of the previous narrative of the Big 12 than what it has turned into over the last year, which is much more like the hey, this is the Texas Tech DYU Invitational Conference. These teams are much more well-resourced than everybody else in the league, so they're just gonna run away with it. Whereas, you know, before, just a year ago, 365 days ago, it was, oh, this is the this is the Zany conference where anybody can win, and it's wild, and all these teams are, this would seem to fit more in that type of category. But here you go. Bill Connolly, his top 11 transfer portal classes in terms of his favorite. Okay, his favorite number one, numero uno. It's not Texas Tech, it's Oklahoma State. Okay, how about that? Oklahoma State, Drew Mestimaker, obviously the headliner there, the quarterback coming from North Texas, Caleb Hawkins, running back from North Texas, had 1,800 yards from scrimmage last year. Wyatt Young, big time receiver from North Texas as well. We know that, I mean, this was like transporting every key player damn near from North Texas' team last year, coming to Stillwater. Took a lot of cash for the Cowboys to get that done, but they did. And uh it's pointed out by Connolly here that it's not just the North Texas guys that are bringing a lot of production. Uh they've got Trey Page from Tarleton State, 4,500 incoming receiving yards from three different receiver transfers, two of whom are not from North Texas, right? You got one from uh Wake Forest coming in there, also. So he's saying, look, it will be very interesting to watch how the North Texas experiment goes, just putting that into an Oklahoma State uniform and off they go. But also, hey, there were a lot of players added here with a ton of production outside of just North Texas. So uh Bill Connolly calls Oklahoma State sleeper Big 12 contenders at worst. At worst. He says Morris has immediately made the Cowboys sleeper Big 12 contenders at worst. It's a pretty strong statement there about Oklahoma State. Like, I think a lot of people would say, hey, like, yeah, sleeper contender there, but you're saying at worst, Ken, what's the ceiling for this team? That's I mean, Oklahoma State, I do think is the most fascinating team to me in the Big 12 as of right now. Um, and I totally agree with Kim's statement here. The Big 12 is better when Oklahoma State is good. I do agree with that statement. I definitely do. All right, number three. Now, this was a shocker to me because this team has fallen off my radar. I they came bursting back into my awareness for the first time this weekend, but it was because everybody was making fun of them, dunking on them on Twitter. Colorado had its spring game, and there was a shot of the team like walking out of the tunnel onto the field, and they did. They all looked pretty small, and everybody's making a lot of jokes about, you know, bro, do you even lift? Like, do they have a strength and conditioning program? What's going on there? Uh, the point that Bill Connolly makes about this transfer portal class is that there was, he says, it seems like there was a genuine plan in place, at least as much as you can hope for from a 43-man class. He talks about how there was a lot of production in this one coming from lower levels, like lower level production as opposed to flashy name that may not have produced as much. So perhaps a tweak in the strategy there. And uh, you know, we'll see. He also does say the top 18 defenders are gone from last year's team. So, like, we're just still on this thing with Colorado where it's like you gotta get to a point where you're not replacing that much every single year. Okay. I mean, we're on like a third year in a row of doing this. Anyway, I digress. Uh, Texas Tech comes in at number four. Number four favorite class for Bill Connolly is Texas Tech. Some pretty obvious guys. You you know the deal here. Texas Tech, you know, Brendan Soresby. He really likes Jalen Jones, the Alabama state receiver as well, who had almost 1,400 yards and 19 yards per catch. Um, but there's there's obviously the edge. Trey White from San Diego State. Offensive line, Malcolm Simmons. I love that kid from Auburn. Like, yeah, there's there's a lot to like there in Texas Tech's class. Uh K-State at number eight, uh, another one that genuinely shocked me. Now, I mean, I'm cautiously optimistic about K-State next year and where the program's going. And I like a lot of things that they did, especially on defense, but Bill Connolly loves a lot of what K-State did, especially on defense. It includes, I mean, the highlight of the class is Wendell Gregory from Oklahoma State, uh, who I think has uh a very, very high ceiling as an edge. But yeah, Bill Connolly says, I'm confident that the first Jordan Peterson defense will hold up its end of the bargain. He does openly question what's going on on the offensive line. Six of the top, or seven rather, of the top nine last year are gone. And there are six transfers, but only two have starting experience at the FBS level. So, yeah, I mean, that's a fair question. I would also say, hey, watch out for defensive tackle. That's an area I think is pretty weak for K-State right now. Um, but I'm glad to see Bill Connolly is that high on uh on K-State's transfer portal class. How about West Virginia? West Virginia number nine. Cam Cook, dynamic weapon at running back from Jacksonville State. And then Michael Hawkins. Don't see a lot of talk about this, especially because I mean it's no guarantee that Michael Hawkins is even going to win the starting job at West Virginia. But Bill Connolly made the same point I made. I remember doing it with Mountaineer Paul, who does lockdown West Virginia not that long ago, and I felt very smart when he said it. Uh, he said Hawkins is exactly the kind of quarterback Rodriguez should be pursuing. Totally agree. I mean, that is a Rich Rod QB, man. That's the Rich Rod skill set. I think he can figure out how to use them or use him, excuse me, very, very well. Finally, the last one in the top 11 is Houston. This is another class. You guys have been listening to me for a while. I like this one a lot. We'll see what Mikai Hughes has in the tank. Uh, he was incredible at Tulane two years ago with almost 1,600 yards from scrimmage. He went to Oregon, got injured, got buried on the depth chart, didn't play a whole lot, but that's, I mean, just a year ago, he was one of the biggest prizes in the portal. So there could be a lot, a lot there. Uh offensive line. Houston did a good job shoring up the offensive line uh in this in this class as well, which is pointed out here by uh by Bill Connolly. So he makes note that six Big 12 teams in the top 11, evidently a conference with a nice blend of money and room for creativity. So I guess that's the qualifier. If you want to know what Bill Connolly likes about the Big 12 and what it did in the transfer portal, what his criteria is, what he's looking for. You got to have money to get enough talent, but also looking for some creativity. Okay, so he's very intrigued by the Big 12. I going through this, I will admit it made me feel a little bit better, up my optimism a bit, where I was like, all right, you know, hey, Bill Connolly's doing a good job of selling some of these classes here. See if the Big 12 can take a step forward. Obviously, Texas Tech took a big step forward last year. BYU took a step forward last year, but that conference depth, can everybody else catch up to them and also move the needle forward? It certainly seems like the league definitely tried. Uh Oklahoma State put its money where its mouth is. I think K-State put its money where its mouth is. Whether or not that's going to pay off next year or further on down the road, not sure. Houston, even as Calvin Sampson continues to preach that they're they're broke, they don't have any money. Uh Houston put together a really nice transportal class as well. Uh, all right. Please do like the video, subscribe to the channel. Appreciate everybody who uh who is here tonight. John dash Kurtz-4 on Venmo. If you want to uh submit a question or comment there as a super chat of sorts, I will get to it to kick off the next show like I did earlier tonight. Those of you who saw that, and uh subscribe to the Open for Business Big 12 newsletter. It is OFBnews.com. That's OFBnews.com to get signed up for the Open for Business Big 12 newsletter. It's totally free. It comes to your inbox twice a week. And I appreciate everybody who subscribes that way. This final topic for you tonight is going to be one that uh I I think riles some people up. I'm sure I will see comments about this. I actually had intended to put this out on Twitter, I just haven't done it yet, but I was almost cringing as I was thinking about that because I was like, oh, people will get people get upset about this. We're gonna do we're gonna do the top 10 programs in the Big 12 right now, top 10 football programs in the Big 12. So let's rank the top 10 football programs in the Big 12. And I'm talking about right now. This is April 12th, 2026, as I do this right now. Here is the criteria, okay? Because I know, I know you'll be upset. There will be people that will be upset. Let me know about it in the comments. That's totally fair, it's all fair game. But I want to give you the baseline criteria here because we could be using totally different criteria when trying to evaluate this. This is basically in order of importance here, one through four, and what I'm ranking these on. Number one, financial support, specifically NIL support, but financial support in general. Okay, we'll wrap that all up. It's the most important thing in the game today, and I don't think there's much of an argument outside of that. Financial support matters above all else. Number two, though, is coach. You have to have a great coach, and a great coach, obviously, with solid financial support, can make up that gap and compete at the very highest levels of the sport. So coach is number two. Number three, we are gonna go history/slash consistency, weighted more heavily toward the last three years, which would coincide with the NIL transfer portal area, but I will extend it back out to consider the last 10 years as well. Okay. And then number four, I just lumped in a category organizational support. So that could be the coaching staff beyond just the head coach. I'm really thinking more like AD president, you know, what is the approach at the university? How up to the modern times are they in this current environment that we are in? Those are the categories and the criteria that I'm considering here. NIL support, the coach, the history and consistency of the last three and then the last 10 years, and then the organizational support at the school. Okay, those are the ground rules. They are laid. So here we go. Just missing. I was having some debate about this. The 10th spot. It was a tough debate between Arizona, Baylor, and who I chose at number 10. Okay, so Arizona and Baylor are just off here. I mean, Baylor, it's like, you know, I didn't know what exactly to do with them. They have two really high highs in the last decade, but then a lot of not very good in between there. And I don't, I mean, who's sticking up for Dave Aranda right now as a great coach? It's hard. It's hard, even though I still think of Baylor as like Art Bryal's Baylor. Um, it's just not what they've been for a while. So, number 10, I went Cincinnati. Edging out Baylor. They have five nine plus win seasons uh in the last decade. They've just they've been better. If you go look at the last 10 years, they've been better than Baylor. I think Satterfield v. Aranda is a wash. Maybe Baylor's got more financial support. Um, but it seems similar-ish to me, at least. And I'm kind of just, you know, I just saw Cincinnati, the list that I did with Bill Connolly's top trans reportal classes. Since he was on there in the top 25, Baylor was not. So I'm I'm going Cincy by a nose. At number nine, Houston. All right, the Houston Cougars. Here's the thing Houston might have a top two coach in the league. And I said that was the second most important category here. Willie Fritz, I would certainly put him up there in the top three to five. He might be a top two coach in this league. They are ascending after a great year last year, but there was a little, there was a downspell if we're talking about the three years before that. Fan support could use some work. I'm lumping that almost into the like institutional structure there at Houston. And in terms of money, I mean Kelvin Sampson was out openly campaigning and saying, like, yeah, we don't have any money. Like, we're did he say we're poor or we're broke? I'm trying to remember what the specific phrase was. But anyway, that drew a lot of headlines because people were just like, whoa, like, what is what is Calvin Sampson doing? It it Houston does not seem to be in the best financial position. All right, so that's why I've got them there at number nine. Number eight, this one I'm sure will get me some hate, but just hear me out because this tier coming up here, eight through five, to me was really hard to separate out. Uh, number eight, Iowa State. We're going Iowa State. If Matt Campbell were still the coach, I mean, that probably because then you think about what the roster would be, that probably jumps it up like four or five spots here. But that's a big time bottoming out moment. NIL support does not seem like it is strong. I mean, you listen to Matt Campbell on his way out the door. He talked about how much legwork the football staff had to do in terms of their NIL. Um, it certainly made it feel like that was a big part of his reason to go, or at least a part of the reason to leave. And now you've just got a total unknown at head coach. I don't Jimmy Rogers may be awesome. I have no idea. And the recent history is good. 19 wins the last two seasons, Big 12 title game appearance. Iowa State has been very, very formidable. But when you combine not great NIL and a complete unknown at head coach, and then Jamie Pollard, it's tough for me to evaluate as an AD. I think his accomplishment list over the course of his career is very good. But I see it feels like I see a lot of frustration with him from Iowa State fans, and some of that may be like, is he on the cutting edge of what you need in an athletic director in 2026? Don't know. So I went Iowa State 8. K-State is number seven, and that's where I say that I'm gonna get a bunch of hate. Okay. But if you're comparing, I have the number to the last five years, which I realize is right between three and 10, which is what I set. But K-State 42 wins the last five years, Iowa State 37 wins the last five years. That's probably not fair. I I basically did like the Chris Kleiman era of K-State. If I were being fair, I should have done three and three. The point is, it's very similar, the recent history between these two. It's it's very similar. They both have brand new head coaches, and they both have athletic directors who have been there a while, who I think have accomplished a lot, but now there are questions as to all right, is this the right guy in 2026 with what you need right now? So there's so much that's similar. The the thing that separates it for me is like I my I think K-State is really financially backing Colin Klein right now. It feels like the money situation for football, at least right now for K-State, basketball, different story. But for football right now, I think the financial situation is is in a pretty good spot. So that that gives it the bump for me. I said it was the most important category. It's gonna give a slight edge to K-State there. I've got Oklahoma State at number six. Oklahoma State at number six. Um, I might be writing the 10-year history too much on this, but I'm combining that with the way Oklahoma State stepped up NIL-wise to get Eric Morris's entire team, basically, from Denton, Texas, up into the orange and black this year. All of that, I'm impressed with the NIL there. You heard Carson Cuttingham on this channel talk about how there's really a much more untapped NIL potential than people realize at Oklahoma State that Mike Gundy just was not getting into. So you combine that with, you know, hey, over the last 10 years, they've won 10 plus games four times. It's been a it's a program with really good guts, really good infrastructure to work with there. Um and the the hire seems really good on paper, but the coach is unknown. Uh, I'm going Oklahoma State at number six, though again, hard to separate that tier of K-State, Iowa State, Oklahoma State. And now TCU. So I put TCU at five. TCU has a national championship game appearance that was not that long ago. Okay. Not that long ago. Between that and the fact that, I mean, hey, Sonny Dykes is averaging nine wins a season. They're basically a nine and four program over the last four years that he's been there. And it seems like the money situation is good enough. Sonny Dykes is a good coach, not great, and just got signed up with an extension where, hey, he's being paid over$7 million per year. I that would seem to indicate TCU's doing a decent job financially, at least right now. Um, it's enough for me to put TCU just above the others there at number five. Okay. TCU, the number five best program in the Big 12. Four through one are coming, but please do subscribe. I appreciate everybody who subscribes to the channel. Really helps me as I push toward 35k subs. Many of you watch, but don't subscribe. One click really does help me out a lot. I've got Arizona State at four. Arizona State, fourth best program right now, as of today, in the Big 12. I think Arizona State has, for my money, right now, the best coach in the league. So that's a huge, like with a bullet marker for them. Um, that's the number two most important category to me. They're number one in it. And Arizona State has stepped up its financial commitment recently, obviously, to keep him around.$7.5 million a year now for Kenny Dillingham and$11 million staff pool. Um, I would imagine there were some NIL promises made as a part of getting him to stay around and not seriously entertain the Michigan gig when that was open. Um, I think institutional, I'm really impressed with what uh Graham Rossini is doing as the AD there. Um, great hire with Randy Bennett. I thought with basketball, he's been able to keep Kenny Dillingham around. And then the last three years, terrible year, three years ago, but the last two, I mean, 19 wins, college football playoff appearance, and near win in the Peach Bowl, and then winning eight games last year with all the injury issues, with playing with Jeff Sims at quarterback. You know, I thought that's where Kenny Dillingham flexed his coaching chops almost as much as he did during that magical run in 2024. So Arizona State at number four, the only thing there really is like extrapolating that out over the last 10 years. You know, uh, I just it's like I need to see that continue more. I need to see the renewed financial commitment pay off. But I Arizona at number four and ascending, right? Moving up the list. Number three, if not for the crazy offseason with Kyle Whittingham, I would probably have Utah number one, but they're at number three. All right. I love the financial support there.$500 million private equity deal. And it was uh, you know, all done with the blessing of Taylor Randall, the president, who I think is very athletically minded, like understands more than most university presidents the intense importance of athletics and the critical nature of the time that we're at in college athletics right now. So I love that. I love that. They also have an excellent recent history as a program of the 12 college football playoff seasons. They have finished ranked in eight of the final 12 college football playoff polls. They've made a couple Rose Bowls, 11 wins last year. There's a lot to like there. But the big unknown is what's going on with Morgan Scaly as head coach now. Utah fans are very optimistic. I understand why. He seems like a bright, young up and comer. Well, maybe just a bright up and coming coaching mind. Like he seems like the table is set for him to be a really good coach. But is he? We don't know. We don't know. So that uncertainty knocks them back down to number three for me and puts BYU at number two. BYU at number two right now. Current Big 12 program rankings. Very good. Financial resources that are made better. Like what strengthened BYU's hold here at number two is Kalani Sataki's flirtation with Penn State and what that did to the financial support of BYU. It held everyone's feet to the fire. And again, according to that, Pete Nakos reported on three, you're now talking about like pushing a$25 to$30 million football roster with$10 plus million over the Rev share cap. That's a great thing that that gets promised, at least again, according to Pete Nakos, as a part of Kalani Sataki staying at BYU instead of going to Penn State. The recent history is great with the last two years with the 23 wins. My questions here, and we look, we know BYU, not just what they're paying Sataki and the report about the they just paid AJ DeMonsta uh quite a bit of money. I don't think it was the like 7 million that people were running away with, but it was millions of dollars. There's clearly plenty of financial support available at BYU. My questions would be one, what's this going to look like without Jay Hill? That is a question that the program will have to answer. He did great things as the defensive coordinator. The other is you had an excellent AD and Tom Holmo. We're still very, very new into the Brian Santiago era as the AD. What's that going to look like? Big shoes to fill for Tom Holmo there. So those are a couple question marks for BYU right now. But number one, and it's crazy because if we did this at this time last year, it's it's wild, I guess. The point I'm making is it's wild how quickly this changes. We did this at this point last year. It would be a much different looking list. Texas Tech would not be number one, but they are number one. Just so far ahead of everyone else in the NIL department right now, and that matters so much more than everything else. And we now have seen proof positive that going out and spending like that at Texas Tech with the infrastructure that's there creates really good results. And that's a part of this. Infrastructure, the support, the institutional support. How about James Blanchard, dude? The GM there that's doing an excellent job freeing up Joey McGuire to go coach. James Blanchard, who was pursued hot and heavy by Notre Dame. He had a quote I was reading. Who was interviewing James Blanchard earlier today when I read that? He did a podcast. That's what it was. He did a podcast where he was talking about the Notre Dame gig and said, like he thought long and hard about taking it and ultimately told Marcus Freeman, I think we'll do something together one day, but it's not right now. There's unfinished business in Lubbock. They kept him around. He is an outstanding GM. He's getting paid quite handsomely, three-year, like$2.4 million deal. Um, but that's an example of like what tech can do. They have the financial resources right now to keep their excellent GM from going to Notre Dame. That's huge. If we're talking about them being the best program right now at this moment in time in the Big 12. Also, I mean, the recent history, not just last year, where they walloped everybody outside of Arizona State, but the last three years, if we're using that three-year trend, like it's been moving in the right direction, and tech had been solid, solid, and then drilled everybody last year, brought in arguably the best transfer portal class in the country. We'll call it a top five class, right? Just to be safe. A top five transfer portal class in the country. Like they're rolling, things are looking really good in Lubbock. So they are number one. I'm sure you think I got all sorts of stuff wrong here. That is totally fine. Let me know what you think. Where did I screw up? Tell me in the comments. Um, I would much appreciate it if you guys did all of that. And hey, if you want to know, as someone who's been around the league, if you want to know where I think the top 10 toughest places are to play in the bit in the Big 12, the top 10, well, I ranked, let me rephrase that. I ranked the toughest stadiums to play in the Big 12. Click here to find those. That's for everybody watching the clipped version of the video. For those that are hanging out live, uh, I appreciate you all. Looks like I've got one super chat here to go. Alan, what's up, Alan? Alan says, John, looking forward to KU Revenge or Mazoo and hoping to end the KSU streak. Uh, eight wins for the Jayhawks. All right, Alan, put put Alan down for eight wins for the Hawks this year. Alan, every time I see Kansas football pop onto my timeline these days, it's Lance Leipold or somebody else talking about Dylan Edwards, which I'm not gonna lie, is kind of annoying. So if the idea was just to annoy K-State fans, mission accomplished. We'll see what it what it actually looks like out there on the field. Um, Alan says KSU a contender. All right, I like that. Alan, I look, I'm very optimistic, but it's cautious optimism. Just new coach. I don't I don't totally know. Um, I'm hoping for KU Revenge over Mizoo. That would be amazing. I love that that game's on a Friday night. And to be honest, I hadn't thought about this until right now. I'd like to go to that game. I'd like to go to that KU Mizou game. That would be fun. I may have to uh I may have to try and work on that. West Virginia is the sleeper. Okay, West Virginia the sleeper. Rich Rod, year two, big jump. I could see that. And uh best Big 12 game will be Notre Dame BYU. Uh that's that's a huge one. It's a huge one for the conference, no doubt about it. Alan, good stuff. Man, making it feel like football season here in April. I love it. I love it. Thank you, Alan. Uh let's see. Bracket Cat. Bill Connolly is an old school Big Eight, Big 12 guy from way back. Yes, he is. He is. He's a he's a Mizzou guy. He is a Mizzou guy, but obviously that, you know, when you trace his career back and his roots back, makes him a Big Eight, Big 12 guy. So, yes, I do, though. Bracket Cat, K-State fans did have some big time beef with him when I think it was two years ago now. It was right after Lance Leipold won nine games that season and they beat Oklahoma. He published, I don't remember if it was a whole piece or just a like a paragraph in a piece that said Lance Leipold like had accomplished as much as Bill Snyder at that stage in Snyder's career. Something to that effect, which I still vehemently disagree with and obviously now looks a little bit silly. So he's not perfect, but I mean, I'm just razzing you a little bit, Bill. I think Bill does an excellent job. And yes, I do appreciate that he's somebody in that position that has the background of being in the Big Eight and Big 12. And even though his school left to go to the SEC, he still has an appreciation for it. So it does help. It does help. Uh thank you, Bracket Cat. Thank you, everybody, for being here tonight. I much appreciate it. This was a fun show. Getting us back into the football swing of things a bit here, but hey, big stuff happens in the portal. We'll keep talking hoops. We'll keep talking hoops. And actually, I'm realizing there was a big hoop story that I kind of forgot. I, you know, try and get you a video on that. Actually coming up as I'm thinking out loud about it because I missed that one there. All right. Thank you all. Please like the video, subscribe to the channel, sign up for the Open for Business Big 12 newsletter at OFBnews.com. Take care, enjoy the start of your week, and I will talk to you all very soon.