Honestly, if you told a Big 12 fan three years ago that their conference would be thriving in 2025 while the "Power Two" looked like a corporate boardroom, they’d have laughed in your face. Most people thought this league was dead when Texas and Oklahoma skipped town for the SEC.
They were wrong.
The Big 12 conference 2025 season wasn't just a survival story; it was a hostile takeover of the national conversation. We saw a 16-team juggernaut stretching from the mountains of Utah to the humid humidity of Orlando. It’s weird, it’s chaotic, and it’s arguably the most entertaining product in college athletics right now.
The Year Texas Tech Stunned the Country
Nobody saw the Red Raiders coming. Not like this. While the media spent the preseason obsessing over Deion Sanders and Colorado, Joey McGuire was quietly building a monster in Lubbock.
Texas Tech finished the regular season with a staggering 12-2 record. They didn't just win; they dominated. The climax came on December 6, 2025, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. In front of over 85,000 screaming fans, the Red Raiders dismantled BYU 34-7 to claim the Big 12 Championship. It was the program's first conference title since the days of Mike Leach, and it secured them an automatic bid to the College Football Playoff.
BYU, led by Kalani Sitake, was the season's other great shocker. They entered the title game at 11-1, proving that the "Four Corners" expansion (Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah) wasn't just about geography—it was about competitive depth.
Why the 2025 Standings Looked So Different
Looking back at the final regular-season tallies, the parity was almost exhausting. Look at this mess:
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- Texas Tech: 8-1 (Conference)
- BYU: 8-1
- Utah: 7-2
- Houston: 6-3
- Arizona: 6-3
- Arizona State: 6-3
Oklahoma State, usually a pillar of the league, absolutely cratered. They went 0-9 in conference play. It’s a brutal reminder that in this new version of the Big 12 conference 2025, if you don't evolve with the portal, you get buried. Fast.
Brett Yormark’s Global Gamble
Commissioner Brett Yormark is basically the P.T. Barnum of college sports. He’s not interested in tradition if tradition doesn't pay the bills.
The 2025 season actually started in Dublin, Ireland. Iowa State and Kansas State played the "Aer Lingus College Football Classic" in August. It was weird seeing Big 12 logos on a field in Dublin, but it worked. Yormark is pushing for "global expansion," with rumors of baseball in Mexico City and basketball in Paris.
He’s also been incredibly vocal about the business side. Sponsorship revenue for the conference reportedly jumped 185% year-over-year. While other commissioners are playing defense against lawsuits and NIL, Yormark is trying to sell naming rights to the conference itself and exploring private equity infusions. He’s treating the Big 12 like a media company that happens to play football.
The Hardwood: Still the Best in America
If you think the football was wild, the basketball season has been a fever dream. The Big 12 conference 2025-26 basketball season kicked off in November 2025, and it’s currently a war zone.
Houston is the standard. Kelvin Sampson has turned the Cougars into a defensive machine that simply doesn't break. They won the Big 12 regular season and tournament titles in early 2025, eventually falling to Florida in a heartbreaking National Championship game.
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But the real story of the current season is the star power.
- AJ Dybantsa (BYU): A freshman who is a lock for a top-two pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.
- Darryn Peterson (Kansas): Another freshman phenom keeping Bill Self’s squad in the top ten.
- JT Toppin (Texas Tech): The reigning Player of the Year who stayed in school because the NIL package was too good to pass up.
The league sent seven teams to the NCAA Tournament in 2025. This year, experts like Pete Fiutak suggest they could send nine. It’s the deepest, grittiest league in the country. There are no "night-offs" in Manhattan, Kansas or Ames, Iowa.
The "Deepest Conference" Claim
Yormark keeps saying the Big 12 is the deepest football conference in America. Is he right?
Kinda.
If you define "best" as having the top two teams in the country, that’s the SEC or the Big Ten. But if you define "best" as the conference where the #12 team can beat the #2 team on any Saturday, the Big 12 wins. Arizona State’s run to a playoff bid in 2024 and Texas Tech’s rise in 2025 prove that the middle class of this league is incredibly dangerous.
What Most People Get Wrong About the Future
The biggest misconception is that the Big 12 is "settled." It’s not.
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The conference is currently lobbying hard for the "SCORE Act" in Congress to regulate NIL. Yormark knows that without a federal cap on spending, the Big 12 will eventually lose the arms race to the Big Ten's TV money.
There's also the private equity talk. While Yormark recently signaled he might not sell an equity stake just yet, the "cash infusion" model is still on the table. Schools like Utah are already pioneering private partnerships to stay competitive.
Actionable Insights for Fans and Investors
If you're following the Big 12 conference 2025 and beyond, here is what you need to actually watch for:
- Watch the 2026 CFP Deadline: January 23 is the date. If the playoff doesn't expand to 16 teams, the Big 12’s path to multiple bids gets much harder.
- Monitor the "Four Corners" Schools: Utah and Arizona have successfully integrated, but Colorado and Arizona State have been volatile. Their stability dictates the league's TV value in the next contract cycle.
- Track Freshman NIL: Players like Dybantsa are essentially "pro" athletes in a college jersey. The schools that can sustain these million-dollar-plus contracts for freshmen will be the new permanent residents of the Top 25.
The 2025 season proved that the Big 12 didn't need Texas or Oklahoma to be relevant. It just needed to be different. By leaning into the chaos, the global market, and a relentless "basketball-first" business mindset, the conference has carved out a space that feels more modern than anything else in the NCAA.
Stay updated on the 2026 recruiting classes, as the early signing period in December showed that the "middle" Big 12 schools are now out-recruiting traditional ACC and Pac-12 (what's left of it) powers. The landscape has shifted for good.