Week 2 in the Big 12 already feels like a proving ground.
After a chaotic opening weekend, the conference rolls into a slate packed with heavyweight non-conference games and the first league matchup of the 2026 season. Kansas gets a real measuring stick.
Arizona State walks into one of the toughest road environments on the board. Oklahoma State has to show it can do more than just talk about an improved offense.
And Big 12 play opens immediately with Arizona heading to Provo.
A lot of the league’s early-season noise gets sorted out fast this week.
Kansas is the first team with a chance to make a real statement. The Jayhawks came into 2026 with plenty of skepticism after back-to-back 5-7 seasons, and that skepticism was earned.
Over the last couple of years, roster turnover has been a constant, and consistency has been hard to find on either side of the ball. But there’s a different feel now with Andy Kotelnicki back as offensive coordinator, and the offense suddenly has some buzz around it again.
Isaiah Marshall is the quarterback now, and this game against Missouri will tell us plenty about what that new setup actually looks like after Jalon Daniels’ departure from Lawrence. Missouri may not be the SEC’s top-tier standard, but a ranked Tigers team in the Border War is no soft landing.
If Kansas wins that one, the Jayhawks will have to be taken much more seriously.
Oklahoma State, meanwhile, is already at a crossroads. The offseason chatter centered on a much better Cowboy offense, but Week 1 brought a 10-point loss to Tulsa and very little evidence that the ceiling has moved.
What stood out even more was that the defense, not the offense, looked like the more encouraging unit - which is not how anyone expected this to go. Now the Cowboys are a 20-plus-point underdog at home against Oregon, and Dan Lanning’s team is coming off a near scare against Boise State, which should keep the Ducks sharp.
Nobody’s asking Oklahoma State to suddenly start trading punches with Oregon, but Saturday has to produce something usable on offense. If Drew Mestemaker and company look as overwhelmed as they did against Tulsa, the questions in Stillwater get a lot louder.
Arizona State brings another quarterback storyline into the weekend. Earlier this week, Cutter Boley was pegged as someone who could wind up being a top-five quarterback in the Big 12 after throwing six touchdown passes in his debut in Tempe.
That kind of start naturally invites the comparison to Sam Leavitt, who was a major loss for the Sun Devils, especially after what he did against Clemson. But Kenny Dillingham has earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to quarterbacks, and Boley now gets one of the biggest tests he’ll see all year: a trip to Kyle Field to face an outstanding Texas A&M defense.
If he can walk into that setting and deliver, Arizona State’s post-Leavitt transition starts to look a lot more convincing.
The Cy-Hawk game also arrives with a different kind of energy this year. Iowa State heads to Iowa City looking for a third straight win over Iowa, something the Cyclones haven’t done since a five-game run from 1998 through 2002.
But this isn’t the same old matchup, either. Jimmy Rogers is now in charge in Ames, and Iowa State’s roster has plenty of new faces.
Iowa still has Kirk Ferentz on the sideline, which feels like it always does, but this Hawkeyes team is not being viewed as a Big Ten title contender. Iowa State is the underdog, but the chance to make it three in a row gives the Cyclones a real opportunity to show they’re not backing up in 2026.
Then there’s Arizona, which gets thrown straight into Big 12 play with a trip to Provo to face BYU. It’s early September, but the conference race gets its first live test right away.
The Cougars are favored, and Arizona has to prove it can hang with a legitimate league opponent on the road. Noah Fifita gives the Wildcats an experienced quarterback who can keep them in the fight, but winning in Provo is a different animal than what they saw in Week 1.
The result won’t decide the Big 12 championship picture, but it should tell us something important about both teams. If Arizona can go toe-to-toe with BYU - or pull the upset - then the Wildcats deserve to be talked about as a real factor in the conference.
In Other News...
Jaylen Raynor Faces A Bigger Iowa Test Than Fans Wanted
Jaylen Raynors first game for Iowa State gave a little of everything: two touchdown passes, two more scores on the ground and some encouraging signs with the ball pushed downfield. It also came with the kind of uneven passing day that usually gets noticed quickly in this state, as he finished 8 of 16 for 184 yards against Southeast Missouri State.
The bigger test now is Iowa, where the Cyclones may need their run game to do some heavy lifting if Raynor is going to keep building off that debut. He looked more comfortable off play-action and showed some progress throwing deeper, but a cleaner, more balanced attack figures to matter even more with the Hawkeyes waiting. [Read more 🡒]
Cy-Hawk Just Got More Tense For Iowa State's 2028 Recruiting Push
Jimmy Rogers and his staff at Iowa State are still in the early stages of rebuilding the programs recruiting board after the wave of decommitments that followed Matt Campbells departure, and the 2027 class is starting to take shape. That group sits No. 43 nationally with 24 commits, a workable foundation that includes names such as Isaiah Hansen and Will Slagle, while the next cycle is already becoming part of the conversation as the staff works to reestablish its footprint.
The more immediate concern may be 2028, where Iowa State has already brought in several prospects and tried to get ahead of the competition. Defensive lineman Hunter Mosolino and quarterback Chase Grove are among the recruits who have been on campus, but both are headed to visit rival Iowa this weekend, a reminder that even the earliest stages of this recruiting battle can carry real weight for the Cyclones. [Read more 🡒]
Iowa State Has One Backcourt Challenge Before Big 12 Play Arrives
Iowa State still has the look of a program that should stay in the national conversation next season, even with some significant roster turnover ahead. T.J. Otzelberger has built enough credibility in Ames that the Cyclones are already drawing early top-25 attention, a sign that the foundation remains sturdy as the roster keeps evolving.
The wrinkle is in the backcourt, where the team will have to sort out ball-handling and tempo without one of its key pieces right away. With Killyan Toure recovering from a shoulder procedure and not expected back until January, Iowa State will need returning guards and transfers to steady things while the Big 12 season looms. [Read more 🡒]