Locked On Big 12 | Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast

The Houston Cougars enter the 2026 college football season with genuine momentum to capture the Big 12 championship, fueled by a potent blend of returning star power, elite transfer portal additions, and the proven leadership of head coach Willie Fritz. Following a stellar 10-win campaign a year ago, Houston’s trajectory points squarely toward the top tier of an wide-open conference.

At the heart of this optimism is quarterback Conner Weigman. After a brilliant breakout season orchestrating the offense, Weigman’s dynamic dual-threat capability gives the Cougars a luxury most programs in the country covet. To make matters easier for him, Fritz dipped back into the transfer portal to reunite with star running back Makhi Hughes, who previously terrorized opponents under Fritz at Tulane. With a revamped, experienced offensive line anchored by portal standouts like guard Shadre Hurst and tackle Alvin Ebosele, the Cougar offense features all the infrastructure necessary to dictate terms week in and week out.

Defensively, Houston returns a rock-solid core of veterans who know how to close out high-stakes games. Playmakers like linebacker Sione Fotu and standout safeties Kentrell Webb and Jordan Allen provide stability and hard-nosed physicality. While the team must navigate a challenging conference slate—including high-profile road tests against heavyweights like Texas Tech and Utah—Fritz's historical track record shows his programs make massive leaps forward in his third year.

The Big 12 is expected to be a weekly gauntlet, but Houston boasts the quarterback play, scheme consistency, and roster depth required to survive the chaos. If the trenches hold up against the conference's elite, the Cougars won't just be in the conversation come December—they are built to finish the job and claim the crown.

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The release of the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll has reignited a familiar frustration across college football, spotlighting the national media's glaring oversight of the Big 12. While voters continue to roll out the red carpet for the SEC and the Big Ten, a fiercely competitive and deep Big 12 conference is once again left fighting for scraps, treated as an afterthought by a poll driven more by brand nostalgia than actual gridiron parity.

The math tells the story. The traditional power conferences capture an overwhelming majority of the top 25 slots, leaving the Big 12 with a paltry handful of representatives. Even when programs like Texas Tech and BYU crack the upper tier, they are forced to climb an uphill battle for validation that elite SEC and Big Ten teams simply bypass. Perennial contenders from the coasts and traditional hotbeds coast on reputation alone, soaking up the benefit of every doubt before playing a single snap.

The disrespect trickles down even further into the voting margins. Dynamic, battle-tested squads from across the conference are routinely shoved out of the rankings entirely. This persistent blind spot ignores the weekly grinder of the Big 12—a conference famous for a brutal, high-stakes gauntlet where competitive balance and razor-thin margins naturally produce losses that voters weaponize against them, while overlooking identical flaws in favored brands.

Until the AP panel shifts its lens away from regional bias and evaluates programs on pure on-field merit, the Big 12 will remain college football's premier powerhouse underdog—forced to prove its elite status every single Saturday just to get a nod from the committee.

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The release of the preseason Associated Press Top 25 poll has once again laid bare the national media’s persistent bias against the Big 12, treating one of the country's most competitive conferences like an afterthought. While the SEC and Big Ten continue to hoard national spotlight and inflated rankings, the Big 12 finds itself drastically underrepresented, dismissed, and chronically undervalued by voters who rely more on brand-name recognition than actual on-field parity.

Look no further than the distribution of spots. The SEC and Big Ten flood the poll, securing nearly two-thirds of the entire top 25, while a deep, punishing Big 12 conference is handed a meager four spots. Texas Tech breaks into the top 15 at No. 12 following a historic stretch, and BYU sits right behind at No. 14, yet both programs are continually forced to jump through hoops just to earn national respect. Meanwhile, perennial favorites from traditional power conferences coast on historical momentum, receiving the benefit of every single doubt despite unproven rosters or underwhelming recent finishes.

Worse still is the blatant disrespect found lingering in the "others receiving votes" section. Programs like Arizona, TCU, and Oklahoma State—teams capable of beating anyone on any given Saturday in a conference defined by chaos and elite depth—are shoved out of the top 25 entirely. This systemic oversight ignores the brutal week-to-week gauntlet that Big 12 teams navigate, where physical play and razor-thin margins routinely cannibalize records, preventing the kind of unblemished façades that SEC and Big Ten darlings use to manipulate voters.

Until the AP panel starts evaluating programs based on competitive reality rather than lazy regional bias, the Big 12 will remain college football’s ultimate cash-cow underdog: expected to beat everyone, yet denied the respect they've earned until deep into November.

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Behind the scenes in Provo, a quiet power struggle between BYU head coach Kalani Sitake and Athletic Director Brian Santiago has burst into the public eye, laying bare a stark conflict over football funding and administrative backing.

The friction came to a head when Sitake—riding high after a magnificent 12-2 campaign and a Big 12 title game appearance—lashed out at the university's financial commitment. Having spurned interest from high-profile openings like Penn State to remain loyal to his alma mater, Sitake made it clear that football has been chronically underfunded compared to other campus programs, specifically pointing to men's basketball. He argued that the Cougars are constantly asked to overachieve on a discount, lacking the robust NIL infrastructure and recruiting war chest required to dominate the modern Big 12.

That public critique blew the doors off the locker room, sparking rampant online speculation that Santiago's job was on the chopping block. The rumor mill spun so furiously that athletic department staffers resorted to jumping onto fan forums directly to quell the chaos.

While Santiago stays put for now, the fallout exposed a fundamental fracture in how the athletic department prioritizes its crown jewel. Unkept commitments made during Sitake's contract negotiations have clearly strained ties between the two leaders. To patch the cracks without cutting heads, BYU brought in Marc Hill as a dedicated deputy AD for football. The message from the head coach is unmistakable: if the Cougars want to permanently evolve from a pesky underdog into an elite national powerhouse, the front office has to open its wallet and match its ambition.

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A brewing tension has emerged in Provo between BYU football coach Kalani Sitake and Athletic Director Brian Santiago, centering on resource allocation, unfulfilled promises, and institutional support for a surging program.

The friction broke into the open when Sitake—fresh off a stellar 12-2 season and a Big 12 title game appearance—publicly voiced his frustrations with the athletic administration's financial backing. Having turned down overtures from major programs like Penn State to stay at his alma mater, Sitake bluntly stated that his program has been forced "to do the most with the least". He noted that while other sports on campus—most notably men's basketball—have seen heavy institutional investment, football has lagged behind in receiving the competitive resources, NIL infrastructure, and recruiting budget necessary to keep pace within the Big 12.

The public airing of grievances fueled wild, unsubstantiated social media rumors that Santiago was on the verge of being fired or stepping down. The speculation reached such a fever pitch that BYU's athletic communications department took the unprecedented step of creating an official account on a major fan message board to shoot down the firing rumors

Beneath the rumors lies a deeper philosophical divide over how BYU manages its athletic department. Insiders suggest that promises made to secure Sitake's long-term commitment have been slow to materialize under Santiago, leading to visible strains in their working relationship. Though Santiago remains in his post, the university quickly moved to adjust internal oversight—hiring Marc Hill as a deputy athletic director specifically focused on football. Ultimately, Sitake's public comments have put the administration on notice: if BYU wants to transition from a localized overachiever to a consistent national power, leadership must drastically scale up its commitment to the football enterprise.

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