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Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
This article was first published in the Cougar Insiders newsletter Tuesday. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox each week.
The Big 12 just finished its summer football media days in Frisco, Texas, one of the last official conference functions before teams kick off fall practices at the end of July and beginning of August.
Here is my roundup of many of the key issues discussed in Frisco.
One of the more interesting aspects of the meeting is that the league declined to do a preseason poll of how reporters think the league will turn out.
Again.
Of course, it doesn’t mean much, but it is a fun, albeit kind of political, exercise of these events. It creates interest and a buzz. It also can be a trigger for pride for one team and tick off the others as they see it as a lack of respect.
Longtime Oklahoma-based columnist Barry Tramel picked BYU to win the Big 12 in his opinion published in the Tulsa World.
In his predicted order of finish for the 2026 season, he placed BYU No. 1, followed by Texas Tech No. 2. He cited strong confidence in coach Kalani Sitake’s program, the development of quarterback Bear Bachmeier (after freshman growing pains in 2025), and the situation at Texas Tech (including uncertainty at QB). He viewed Utah and Arizona as the next strongest challengers ahead of teams like Houston.
Question of the week
Preseason polls are a rite of passage at this time of summer, and while meaningless, they do portray a mindset of what the public, media and coaches believe about the credibility of teams and leagues. Texas Tech is favored to win the Big 12 with BYU predicted to be right there. What do you make of Big 12 football preseason sentiment and what do you believe today?
Jay Drew: Preseason polls are mostly meaningless, but in a way they do impact what is really important in college football — the rankings compiled by the College Football Playoff committee. Committee members are human, too, and I’m sure they sneak a peek at some rankings, probably the AP Top 25 poll, before they make their first selections the first Tuesday of November.
This year, that’s probably good news for BYU, because the Cougars almost assuredly will be in the top 25 when the preseason AP rankings are released in the middle of August. Last year, BYU started the season at No. 23 in the coaches poll, and slowly climbed into the top 10 before losing to Texas Tech.
My biggest takeaway from the Big 12 preseason polls published to date — the league itself did not conduct one for the second straight year — is that BYU enters the 2026 season with a lot of respect.
In almost every poll I’ve seen, and in the one I participated in, BYU is picked to finish second, behind only Texas Tech, though some folks believe that BYU should be No. 1 due to Tech’s quarterback uncertainty.
I picked Texas Tech to win the league on my ballot, mostly because I think Will Hammond is more than an adequate replacement at QB and also because the Red Raiders arguably have the softest schedule in the conference. News flash: If Texas Tech doesn’t win the Big 12 championship game, it won’t make the CFP. Why? Because it will have absolutely zero impressive wins.
Beyond BYU and Texas Tech, I really believe that either Utah, Arizona or Houston could challenge for a top spot. My dark horse is TCU. The Horned Frogs host BYU on Oct. 3, and although BYU will be coming off a bye week, the Cougars never seem to play well in Fort Worth.
Dick Harmon: The importance of preseason rankings is simple: It’s worthless and meaningless except for queuing up how the AP Top 25 and thus the first CFP rankings will roll out. By giving some teams a head start with rankings, they can stay and climb the rankings as the season progresses and they accumulate wins. It’s an early push, a grease-the-skids kind of thing and the blue blood programs almost always find themselves ranked before they play.
This year BYU has earned a little of that sugar. The Cougars should begin the season ranked for the second-straight season, and if they can defeat Arizona, and keep winning through Notre Dame and Utah, some special things could come their way.
Texas Tech is definitely the favorite to get to Arlington for the Big 12 game. The schedule handed to the Raiders is almost a cakewalk. They do have the most expensive roster and best transfer portal players, and are among the nation’s best at high school recruiting classes.
I think it is better for BYU’s staff and players to see themselves as an underdog and a challenger, competing with a chip on their shoulders. If they identify themselves in that role, they work and play harder for something to prove. “If they don’t know, they’re going to find out,” is how Kalani Sitake puts it.
Cougar tales
Egor Dëmin, AJ Dybantsa are turning heads in NBA summer league play. Here is a report on how Dybantsa is doing by Lawless Republic and here is a clip of Demin’s shifty work by Point Made Basketball and a piece by Dave McCann. Kevin Young’s staff picked up a 6-foot-6 win from Lithuania in Dobydas Buika.
Danny Ainge will be inducted to the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame, joining the late Stan Watts and Kresmir Cosic.
Tech giant Entrata has signed on as BYU’s first jersey patch sponsor. Details of the deal have not been made public but if a comparison to a similar patch deal by UNLV is a guide, the money amount could be at least $2 million a year — or more (UNLV’s deal is $11 million for 5 years).
From the archives
From X-verse
5⭐️ Adan Diggs, the No. 2 overall player in the 2027 class, breaks down the latest in his recruitment, the schools prioritizing him, potential visits, and the possibility of teaming up with his teammate and fellow five-star Demarcus Henry in college.
Read:… pic.twitter.com/SSEMzpVnCU
— Joe Tipton (@JoeTipton) July 13, 2026
BYU QB Bear Bachmeier, in our Tuesday one-on-one at Big 12 Football Media Days, on the outlook for the WR position this season: “I feel good. I feel really confident in those guys, they’ve been working their tails off, and they’re going to be dangerous…all the guys–JoJo…
— Greg Wrubell (@gregwrubell) July 8, 2026
Since 2020, BYU has a 0.500 record vs ranked teams (ranked as of game time). That may not seem impressive, but it’s the 13th best win rate over that time. pic.twitter.com/M7pqfWmLIC
— CougarStats (@CougarStats) July 7, 2026
Extra points
- Preseason chatter has BYU hot, ready (Deseret News)
- Max Hall wants Bachmeier to break his mark (Deseret News)
- Santiago sees bright future (Deseret News)
Fanalysts
Comments from Deseret News readers:
Preseason polls are meaningless, it gets proven on the field. However, it would be nice if everyone applied the same standards they use every year. BYU has everyone back and the top class in the Big 12, last year TT got rewarded with the top spot for that, especially because BYU lost its QB. Apparently losing your QB is so awful everyone expected BYU to fall to the upper middle of the pack! Now TT loses their QB and is still number one, so that tells you this is a beauty contest where everyone will keep picking their favorite team and only has marginally something to do with returning talent. At least it’s not as bad as the bogus ESPN preseason polls that put all the SEC into their top 25 regardless of losing records, they prop up their money makers and do their best to keep out BYU from the playoffs by starting out 10-20 places below where they should be starting most years! — Terry
The starting quarterback for Texas Tech, (provided he recovers OK from an ACL tear), is Will Hammond, an Latter-day Saint young man from Texas. How good is he? Ask any Ute fan, and most of them will tell you Will Hammond looked better than the TT starter. Will Hammond played most of the Utah/Texas Tech game because of an injury to the TT starter. — Scrabble
Up next
Sept. 5 | 6 p.m. | Football | Utah Tech, Provo
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