The Big 12 keeps changing its face, but oddsmakers are betting this season won’t end the same way. After six different conference champions in the past six years, the league has built a reputation for chaos. FanDuel Sportsbook, though, sees Texas Tech as the team most likely to bring some order to it.
The Red Raiders are the clear favorite at -110, with BYU next at +500 and Utah at +900. Texas Tech won the Big 12 in 2025 and enters the season with the league’s deepest preseason recognition, placing seven players on the Preseason All-Big 12 team.
That group includes preseason Defensive Player of the Year A.J. Holmes Jr., a defensive lineman.
There’s also a straightforward reason Texas Tech has separated itself from the pack: it does not have to play BYU or Utah in the regular season. With that kind of path, anything short of a trip to the conference title game would feel like a letdown in Lubbock. The Red Raiders are also trying to become the Big 12’s first back-to-back champion since Oklahoma ran the table from 2015-2020.
Behind the top tier, Arizona sits in a more intriguing spot. The Wildcats are seventh in the conference title market at +2500, behind Houston (+1500), TCU (+1700) and Kansas State (+1900), as well as the three teams ahead of them.
That number looks modest next to Arizona’s returning quarterback Noah Fifita, who is the most experienced quarterback in the Big 12. But the schedule explains the gap.
Arizona has to go to BYU, Texas Tech and Kansas State, while also hosting TCU and Utah. With at least five conference contenders on the slate, oddsmakers are clearly not eager to push Brent Brennan’s team much higher. Still, for bettors who think Arizona can make a real run, the Wildcats come with appealing value at that price.
If you want a true long shot, Oklahoma State is the name to circle. The Cowboys are sitting at +2700 and are entering their first season under Eric Morris, the former North Texas coach. They should have plenty of firepower with quarterback Drew Mestemaker, who led college football in passing yards for the 2025 season at North Texas, and one of his top weapons came with him: wide receiver Wyatt Young, an All-Big 12 preseason selection.
Oklahoma State’s path is not spotless, but it does have some room early. The Cowboys open conference play with games against UCF, West Virginia and Colorado, and they also get Texas Tech at home later in the year. The schedule gets tougher as the season goes on, but the setup gives Oklahoma State a real chance to hang around in the Big 12 race.
In Other News...
Arizona Fans Have A Real Reason To Watch This USC Commit
Hamilton opened its 2026 football season with a 25-6 win over Brophy Prep, and the Huskies did plenty of the little things right to start the year. The defense and special teams helped set the tone in a game that never really felt comfortable for the opposition, while the offense did enough to put the result away.
For Arizona fans keeping an eye on USC commit Roye Oliver III, though, there was an unexpected wrinkle. The key Hamilton receiver was in uniform but did not play, and afterward the coach declined to explain his absence, leaving one of the most watchable parts of the Huskies' season opener unresolved as they turn their attention to Arbor View of Nevada next. [Read more 🡒]
Arizona Has A Few Real 2027 First Round Hopefuls
Arizonas long-range NBA conversation already has a few names worth tracking as the 2026-27 season approaches, and the group is bigger than the usual hopeful headline. The most established of the bunch is Motiejus Krivas, the 7-foot-2 senior whose size, touch and steady role in Arizonas frontcourt keep him squarely in the first-round picture, while a younger wave includes Kharchenkov, a 6-foot-7 rising sophomore whose tools and flashes have already put him on the radar alongside a handful of other prospects the staff will be watching closely.
There is still a lot to sort out between now and draft season, which is what makes Arizona so interesting here. The profiles around the roster point to different pathways and different ceilings, from a 6-foot-5 guard out of UNC to Holt and Holmes, each bringing a distinct skill set and a few obvious areas to clean up before any real draft push can take hold. For the Wildcats, the appeal is not just that there are names with NBA traits, but that several of them arrive with enough upside to make next season a meaningful test of who can turn projection into something more concrete. [Read more 🡒]