Week 9 brings another loaded stretch of Big 12 football, and the league’s race is packed with fresh pressure points. Cincinnati is coming off a statement win, BYU is trying to shake off a brutal swing in momentum, UCF suddenly has real life, Arizona still has something to prove, and TCU’s situation is getting harder to ignore.
The Bearcats are the first team worth watching closely. Last weekend, Cincinnati walked into a game against top-10 Texas Tech and came away with a 37-24 win that was far more lopsided than the score suggests.
It was a beating, plain and simple, and now they get another shot at a ranked opponent with Utah coming to town. The Utes are a tougher team than Texas Tech, but they are not untouchable.
Cincinnati is unbeaten at home this season, and Nippert Stadium has already shown it can be one of the hardest places to navigate in the Big 12. If the Bearcats do it again, they’ll send another jolt through the conference race.
BYU finds itself in a very different spot. The Cougars are still the better team than Arizona State, which is why they enter Saturday as more than a two-touchdown favorite.
But the numbers won’t settle this one; the game will. BYU’s last two weeks have been as emotional as anyone’s in college football.
The Cougars beat Notre Dame two weeks ago, then turned around and lost to unranked UCF on the road last week. That kind of swing changes the mood fast, and this weekend will show what kind of response they have left.
UCF, meanwhile, suddenly has momentum worth taking seriously. The Knights’ win over BYU changed the way they look moving forward, especially with backup quarterback Keyone Jenkins in the mix.
The offense appears to be finding something, even if only gradually, and the defense has already shown it can hold up. If the offense keeps trending the way it did last week, UCF has a real chance to get to a bowl game.
The remaining slate - Baylor, Kansas, Arizona State, Iowa State and Colorado - also invites a much bigger question: is there anything keeping this team from running the table and finishing 9-3? Baylor this weekend will be the first test of that idea.
Arizona enters Week 9 with a record that demands respect and a résumé that still leaves some room for doubt. The Wildcats are 6-1 and ranked in the Top 25, but the quality wins conversation is still open.
Their only game against a ranked opponent came against BYU, and that ended in a 28-17 road loss. They do own a win over Cincinnati, and that result looks a lot stronger now, but beyond that, the body of work is thin.
That could change in a hurry if Arizona goes to Lubbock and beats Texas Tech. If that happens, the Wildcats will force a much louder conversation about whether they belong among the Big 12’s true championship contenders.
And then there’s TCU, where the pressure is becoming impossible to miss. Sonny Dykes is heading into a matchup with Kansas after a week that brought the same kind of questions Baylor and Dave Aranda faced before things unraveled there.
TCU is not in the same exact spot, but the frustration around the program is obvious. Dykes took the Horned Frogs to the national championship game a few years ago, yet since that 2022 season he is 26-19 overall and 15-16 in Big 12 play.
That’s a steep fall from that peak, and TCU has not been able to turn that run into something lasting. Dykes signed a multi-year extension earlier this year, but if TCU drops to 3-5 overall and 1-4 in conference play, the school’s decision-makers will have a serious call to make about a coach whose move to a pro-style system has not delivered the results they wanted.
In Other News...
Cincinnati Has A Bigger Big 12 Chance Than Utah Wants To Admit
Saturdays Big 12 matchup has drawn plenty of attention because it pits Cincinnati against an undefeated Utah team that has looked the part through the early going. The Bearcats come in with some real momentum after a recent win over Texas Tech, and the conversation around this one has already turned to whether Cincinnati has more of a chance than Utah wants to acknowledge. David Pollack and Brent Rollins both dug into the matchup, framing it as a test of how far Cincinnati has come and how much pressure Utah can absorb in league play.
A lot of the focus naturally falls on Utahs dual-threat quarterback Devon Dampier, who gives the Utes a different kind of problem for a defense trying to stay disciplined from snap to snap. Pollack believes Cincinnati is capable of handling the moment and sees the Bearcats as live underdogs in a game set for 2:45 p.m. CT on ESPN. For Cincinnati, it is the kind of late-afternoon proving ground that can shift how the rest of the Big 12 views the Bearcats if they can turn another strong showing into something bigger. [Read more 🡒]
Arizona State Has A Real Reason To Watch The Big 12 Now
The Big 12s recent run of change has a lot to do with Brett Yormark, who took over as commissioner in 2022 and quickly put his stamp on the league. Under his watch, the conference added Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Arizona State, while also landing a media rights deal that helped stabilize the leagues future. For programs like Cincinnati, the last few years have been a reminder that the Big 12 is still trying to define itself in a shifting college sports landscape, even as it holds onto its place as the No. 4 conference and continues to put multiple playoff contenders on the board.
Yormarks tenure also pushed the Big 12 into some of the sports most consequential battles, reflecting how much more assertive the league has become in protecting its interests. The conference has not shied away from taking a leadership role when it believes the stakes warrant it, and that approach has helped shape the way the Big 12 operates on and off the field. With so much of that groundwork already in place, the next phase for the league will be about whether it can keep that momentum going as the leadership picture changes. [Read more 🡒]
Cincinnati Faces Its Toughest Test Yet At Nippert Against No. 6 Utah
No. 6 Utah arrives at Nippert with the nations longest active winning streak intact, and Cincinnati knows this is the kind of late-season home game that can say a lot about where the program stands. Scott Satterfield has stressed the value of playing in front of a familiar crowd, and the Bearcats will need every edge they can get against a Top 10 team that has handled just about everything in its path.
What makes Utah so tricky for Cincinnatis defense is the variety baked into its offense, which has a way of forcing opponents to stay disciplined snap after snap. The Bearcats are also staring at a game that could swing on hidden-yardage moments, whether it is the run game, a turnover or a field goal chance, so the margin for error feels especially thin. [Read more 🡒]