Randy Peterson
|
July 02, 2025
So, the Big 12 thinks it can silence the media. Yeah, right.
No longer will this logistically-unmanageable band of 16 teams that spans four U.S. time zones, and 10 states, have a pre-season media football poll. Too much holdover embarrassment from last year, when Arizona State was the pre-season pick for last – and ended up winning the conference’s championship game?
You betcha, but that’s cool. We’ve heard and read about that for a week or more. Nothing, however, is stopping reporters that cover the Big 12 from coming up with their own inaccurate pre-season rankings falderal – independent of the conference.
It’s like throwing darts, regardless who’s doing it, and that’s especially the case with this unofficial guessing game.
This isn’t like the olden (better) days of the Big Eight, when you had a more realistic chance of accurately predicting eight, than the 16 of today.
Even close to precise pre-season polls in this age of free agents (aka paid athletes), and stars possibly holding out for more NIL money -- are impossible to predict.
That’s OK, too. We’ve done it for years – 52 consecutive during my previous professional life, for instance. During the first week of July – roughly a month before camp starts – it’s all about entertainment. It’s about creating interest.
Who cares about fans who pay big bucks to attend games? Who cares about giving them an unofficial idea of which teams might be good? Who cares about distracting attention from the sport’s off-field drama that’s going on around us?
Not the media (un)savvy Big 12, apparently.
So with that, I present you this first (and likely not annual) poll of preposterous presumptions from a select panel of Iowa Everywhere website personalities.
The consensus, among the eight who participated, revealed a Top 10 of:
1. Arizona State
2. Texas Tech
3. Utah
4. Kansas State
5. Iowa State
6. Baylor
7. Kansas
8. TCU
9. BYU
10. Colorado
**
INDIVIDUAL SELECTIONS WENT LIKE THIS:
Randy Peterson
1. Arizona State
2. Texas Tech
3. Utah
4. Iowa State
5. Kansas State
6. Baylor
7. Kansas
8. TCU
9. BYU
10. Colorado
**
Chris Williams
1. Arizona State
2. Iowa State
3. Texas Tech
4. Kansas State
5. Utah
6. Kansas
7. BYU
8. TCU
9. Baylor
10. Houston
**
Chris Hassel
1. Arizona State
2. Kansas State
3. Utah
4. Texas Tech
5. Iowa State
6. TCU
7. BYU
8. Baylor
9. Kansas
10. Cincinnati
**
Scott Dochterman
1. Arizona State
2. Utah
3. Texas Tech
4. Iowa State
5. Baylor
6. BYU
7. Kansas State
8. TCU
9. Kansas
10. Colorado
**
Matt Van Winkle
1. Arizona State
2. Kansas State
3. Iowa State
4. Baylor
5. Texas Tech
6. Kansas
7. TCU
8. BYU
9. Colorado
10. Utah
**
Jake Brend
1. Kansas State
2. Arizona State
3. Iowa State
4. Baylor
5. Texas Tech
6. Kansas
7. TCU
8. Utah
9. Colorado
10. BYU
**
Derek Duke
1. Arizona State
2. Texas Tech
3. Kansas State
4. Iowa State
5. Baylor
6. Utah
7. TCU
8. Kansas
9. Cincinnati
10. Colorado
**
Andrew Downs
1. Kansas State
2. Texas Tech
3. Arizona State
4. Utah
5. Iowa State
6. Baylor
7. BYU
8. Kansas
9. Colorado
10. TCU
(Columnist Randy Peterson, a multiple State of Iowa Sportswriter of the Year winner, can be reached at randypete4846@gmail.com or at any Okoboji-area beverage/food establishment between the hours of open and close.)