The Big 12 has changed so much in 10 years that the old version almost feels like a different sport.
Back in July 2016, when Matt Campbell made his first Big 12 Media Days appearance as Iowa State’s rookie head coach, the league was still a tidy 10-team setup. Everyone played everyone.
The round robin was clean, the travel was manageable, and even a trip to Morgantown felt like part of the normal routine. Bob Bowlsby was running the conference, and the whole thing had a very different feel.
That was also before NIL was part of the college football vocabulary and before the transfer portal became the force it is now. Back then, Kamari Cotton-Moya, Joel Lanning and Allen Lazard were part of Iowa State’s presence in Dallas, while Patrick Mahomes represented Texas Tech, Baker Mayfield showed up for Oklahoma and Mike Gundy introduced the world to what became known as the “Gundy mullet.”
Now the league is a 16-team, four-time-zone operation spread across 10 states, and the coaching turnover tells the story even louder than the expansion does. None of the 10 head coaches from Campbell’s first Media Days are still in the same jobs. Campbell is now the veteran in the room, and another young Iowa State coach - Jimmy Rogers - is the one stepping into that same spotlight this week at The Star in Frisco, Texas.
The list from 2016 reads like a snapshot of a different era: Campbell at Iowa State, Bill Snyder at Kansas State, Gundy at Oklahoma State, Charley Strong at Texas, Dana Holgorsen at West Virginia, Jim Grobe at Baylor, Bob Stoops at Oklahoma, Gary Patterson at TCU, David Beaty at Kansas and Kliff Kingsbury at Texas Tech. Since then, there have been firings, retirements and moves to other jobs.
Campbell went to Penn State. Snyder retired.
Gundy was fired. Strong was fired.
Holgorsen left for Houston. Grobe and Stoops retired temporarily.
Patterson resigned. Beaty was fired.
Kingsbury was fired.
That churn has changed the feel of the league, too. Coaches and players move faster now.
Athletics directors do, too. Fans are less patient.
For Rogers, the questions this week will sound familiar in a few different ways. Non-local reporters will want to know how Iowa State handles the transition from a team that could have been one of the Big 12’s best to a roster and staff filled with people who weren’t even at Iowa State last season. And, just like Campbell in 2016, Rogers can expect to be asked about being a young coach in a league full of pressure.
That was one of the first things Campbell faced as a 36-year-old at his first Big 12 Media Days. Rogers, now 39, is likely to hear something similar.
Some things, it seems, stay the same.
In Other News...
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Iowa State Earns Top 12 Respect Despite Major Roster Turnover
Iowa State is still earning national respect heading into the new season, landing 12th in CBS Sports latest college basketball power rankings even as the roster around it changes. The Cyclones are coming off a strong run and will look different this time around, but coach T.J. Otzelberger has enough returning pieces to keep the program in the mix.
Killyan Toure and Jamarion Batemon give Iowa State some continuity in the backcourt, and that matters for a team trying to reload without sliding backward. Otzelbergers group has already shown it can adapt, and the bigger question now is how quickly the new pieces settle in around the players who already know what it takes to win in Ames. [Read more 🡒]