The only team to ever win the Big 12 football title in back-to-back years is no longer in the conference, and ESPN’s Rece Davis thinks that fact will only be true until after this season.
Arizona State is the College GameDay host’s pick to win the title this year in what’s viewed as a wide-open conference likely to produce only one College Football Playoff team, he said on a recent podcast episode with Dan Wetzel.
Davis made note of the returning talent back — 79% of the 2024 production, per ESPN’s Bill Connelly — and he said he could tangibly feel the momentum working for ASU on a recent visit to Tempe. He’s also been impressed with what he’s seen from quarterback Sam Leavitt.
“(Leavitt’s) no shrinking violet. He’s got a little something to him, and … that’s where I start with Arizona State,” Davis said.
“All of the things I said historically (with losing Cam Skattebo and winning so many close games last year) certainly give me pause, but I start there. I think they’re going to, at the very least, make it back to the Big 12 Championship Game. But they’re going to lose a couple games because everybody in that conference is going to lose a couple of games.”
Four Big 12 teams were tied for first place to end last season with two losses each, and three other teams had three losses. It certainly was wide open and appears to be again.
“There is great momentum with Arizona State,” Wetzel added. “As much as they have lost and as much as you want to sit there and say, ‘hey, it’s not going to happen,’ I have a lot of faith in that program continuing to rise and I think he’s getting the players and the enthusiasm and the program that really is built to last, which he wants to do.”
Oklahoma is to this point the only team to win the title in back-to-back seasons, doing so three straight years from 2008-10 and six straight years from 2015-20. Each of the four titles since then have been won by four different teams.
Kansas State was the next top contender listed for a couple reasons similar to what ASU has going for it. Avery Johnson and head coach Chris Klieman have a lot of the same momentum going for it to build off a Rate Bowl win over Rutgers.
The Wildcats started 7-1 before ASU handed them one of their three losses in their last four regular season games. A loss to Iowa State in the final game sealed K-State’s absence from the Big 12 title game.
Kansas State is also one of two top contenders in the conference that ASU won’t face this season, with BYU being the other.
The Wildcats will look to set the tone to begin the season when they face another contender, No. 22 Iowa State, on Aug. 23 in Dublin, Ireland. Their only other opponent ranked in the preseason AP poll is No. 23 Texas State on Nov. 1.
No. 11 ASU, No. 17 Kansas State and Iowa State make up the highest-ranked Big 12 teams in the preseason poll.
Which teams make up the best of the rest in the Big 12?
Utah has a makeup Wetzel feels strongly about getting behind, as coach Kyle Wittingham has said it could be the best offensive line he’s had, including two potential first-round picks.
Putting that in front of a dual-threat quarterback like Devon Dampier, formerly of Scottsdale Saguaro High School, who brings his New Mexico offensive coordinator with him, could make for a successful offense after the quarterback uncertainty the team experienced in 2024.
Texas Tech is also a contender after 2001-04 offensive lineman-turned-oil billionaire Cody Campbell led an NIL charge for the ages over the offseason, which has the Red Raiders spending more than Ohio State did for its 2024 national title team, according to The Athletic.
The reason it could pay dividends immediately is because of the known commodities brought in, Wetzel said.
TCU, Colorado and BYU are the wild cards as teams on the outside looking in because of uncertainty in one area or another. Colorado, for example, has a quarterback competition to sort out, meanwhile it seems BYU is close to figuring its own out, likely a true freshman.
Davis threw Arizona’s name in the ring as a team that “might be a little bit better than people might think,” while Oklahoma State was Wetzel’s pick for which team on the lower end of the conference could potentially make a run like the one ASU had last season.
