Colorado Buffaloes ralphie handlers, run Ralphie VII before the game against Arizona State University on Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025(Remi Krupinski/CU Independent).
The first month of the college football season is over, and the Big 12 is beginning to reveal what kind of conference it may be in 2026.
After several years of realignment, the league has settled into a 16-team structure that stretches from Arizona to Florida and includes programs with very different histories, styles and expectations. Traditional Big 12 schools now share a conference with former Pac-12 programs and schools that joined during the league’s recent expansion.
The result is a conference where old rivalries, unfamiliar matchups and long-distance road trips all factor into the same championship race.
For Colorado (2-2, 0-1 Big 12), now in its third season back in the conference, that means navigating a league that looks considerably different from the one the Buffaloes left in 2011.
The Buffs, however, are only one part of a much larger picture.
Ranked teams lead an open conference race
Five Big 12 teams appeared in the Sept. 27 AP Top 25: No. 10 BYU (3-0, 1-0 Big 12), No. 12 Texas Tech (4-0, 1-0 Big 12), No. 13 Utah (4-0, 1-0 Big 12), No. 19 Oklahoma State (3-1, 1-0 Big 12) and No. 20 Houston (3-1, 0-1 Big 12).
Cincinnati (4-0, 1-0 Big 12) and Arizona (3-1, 0-1 Big 12) also received votes.
The rankings give the conference a recognizable group near the top, but the opening weeks have not created much separation throughout the rest of the league.
That depth is part of what makes the Big 12 difficult to predict. There are few conference games that can be treated as comfortable wins, and one upset can significantly change the standings before the season reaches November.
The format only increases that pressure.
The Big 12 does not use divisions, meaning all 16 programs compete for the same two spots in the conference championship game. Conference records and tiebreakers can therefore become increasingly important as the season continues.
With so many programs packed into one set of standings, each conference matchup carries added weight.
Texas Tech establishes itself early
Texas Tech has emerged as one of the conference’s early leaders.
The Red Raiders entered October undefeated and opened Big 12 play with a 28-26 victory over Houston on Sept. 18.
They also enter the season as the defending Big 12 champions, giving the program both recent success and high expectations.
Texas Tech has continued to build on last season’s championship run, placing itself near the center of the early conference conversation.
Its matchup at Colorado on Oct. 3 gives the Buffaloes an early meeting with one of the league’s highest-ranked teams and offers another opportunity to see how the defending champions compare with the rest of the conference.
For the Big 12 as a whole, Texas Tech remains one of the most significant teams to follow as the schedule moves deeper into October.
BYU and Utah remain unbeaten
Two of the league’s western programs have also positioned themselves near the top of the standings.
BYU opened conference play with a 28-17 victory over Arizona before beating Colorado State 41-23 in Fort Collins.
The Cougars entered the Big 12 in 2023 and have quickly become one of the programs capable of competing near the top of the league. Their undefeated start has only strengthened that position.
Utah has been equally impressive.
The Utes opened Big 12 play with a 31-17 road victory over Iowa State and have remained unbeaten through their first four games.
Utah has traditionally built its identity around physical defense, strong line play and the ability to control games over four quarters. Those qualities have continued to translate after the program’s move from the Pac-12 to the Big 12.
The Utes’ presence also gives Colorado one of its more familiar conference opponents.
The two programs spent more than a decade together in the Pac-12 before both joined the Big 12 in 2024, creating a matchup that carries more recent history than many of the Buffaloes’ newer conference games.
Oklahoma State returns to the rankings
Oklahoma State has also moved into the national picture after an uneven start.
The Cowboys lost their season opener to Tulsa before responding with three consecutive victories, including a 41-24 road win over West Virginia.
That turnaround has returned Oklahoma State to the AP Top 25 and added another established Big 12 program to a crowded group near the top of the standings.
The Cowboys have long been one of the conference’s more recognizable programs, and their return to the rankings adds another difficult opponent to the league schedule.
Stillwater also remains one of the more challenging road environments in the Big 12.
Colorado travels there on Oct. 24, giving the Buffaloes another matchup against a ranked conference opponent during a difficult October stretch.
Houston continues to make progress
Houston entered the Big 12 in 2023 as part of the conference’s first major expansion wave and has continued working to establish itself in the league.
The Cougars’ only loss through four games came by two points against Texas Tech. They responded by defeating Georgia Southern 42-28 on the road.
Although Houston opened conference play with a loss, its early-season performance was enough to keep the Cougars in the AP Top 25.
Their progress is another example of how quickly the Big 12’s competitive landscape can change.
Programs that joined the league only a few seasons ago are no longer simply adjusting to new opponents and schedules. They are increasingly becoming part of the conference race themselves.
That development has added another layer of uncertainty to a league already defined by parity.
The middle of the conference could shape the standings
The ranked teams have received most of the early attention, but the Big 12 race could be influenced just as much by the programs outside the Top 25.
Cincinnati has produced one of the strongest starts in the conference and opened Big 12 play with a 31-26 victory over Kansas State.
Arizona has also remained in the national conversation despite losing its conference opener to BYU.
Baylor (3-1, 1-0 Big 12), Arizona State (2-1, 1-0 Big 12) and UCF (3-1, 1-0 Big 12) have each started conference play with a victory.
Baylor defeated Colorado 23-13 on Saturday, UCF beat TCU 21-13 and Arizona State earned a 24-17 road win over Kansas earlier in the season.
Kansas State (3-1, 0-1 Big 12) also remains part of that competitive middle tier despite its opening conference loss.
Teams such as Kansas, Iowa State, TCU and West Virginia add even more uncertainty to the standings. Even when those programs are not ranked, they can still affect the direction of the conference race through head-to-head wins and difficult home matchups.
That group gives the Big 12 much of its unpredictability.
A short winning streak can quickly move a team into contention, while consecutive conference losses can push a preseason contender toward the middle of the standings.
The difference between competing for a place in the conference championship game and simply trying to stay above .500 can sometimes come down to only a handful of possessions over the course of a season.
Conference depth creates difficult weekly matchups
One of the biggest challenges of the Big 12 is not necessarily facing one dominant program, but having to navigate a schedule filled with competitive teams.
A ranked opponent may be followed by an unranked team capable of winning at home, creating little opportunity for programs to relax between major matchups.
The conference also features a wide variety of playing styles.
Some teams emphasize physical running games and defense, while others rely more heavily on tempo and explosive passing offenses. That forces teams to adjust from one week to the next rather than preparing for the same type of opponent throughout conference play.
For Colorado, that variety is especially noticeable this season.
The Buffaloes move from Texas Tech to Utah, Oklahoma State and Kansas State during October before facing another collection of different opponents in November.
The broader conference faces the same challenge.
There is rarely one formula that works against every Big 12 opponent.
Geography adds another challenge
Few conferences require teams to travel as widely as the current Big 12.
West Virginia and UCF represent the league’s eastern edge, while Arizona, Arizona State, BYU, Colorado and Utah make up much of its western footprint.
The conference also includes programs across Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa and Ohio.
That creates unusual travel demands throughout the season.
A team can play in the Mountain time zone one week before traveling several states away for another conference game. Some road trips require programs to cross multiple time zones, adding another variable to preparation and recovery.
For Colorado, the difference is particularly noticeable.
The Buffaloes’ remaining conference schedule includes opponents from Texas, Utah, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arizona, Ohio and Florida.
It is a much different geographic experience from the more regionally concentrated Big 12 Colorado first joined in the 1990s.
Those travel demands may not decide the conference race by themselves, but they have become an unavoidable part of competing in the modern league.
Old opponents meet new conference members
Realignment has also created an unusual mixture of familiar and unfamiliar opponents for Colorado.
Kansas State and Oklahoma State bring back matchups with programs Colorado faced regularly during its previous time in the Big 12.
Utah and Arizona State are more recent opponents from the Buffaloes’ Pac-12 years.
Cincinnati, Houston and UCF represent a newer side of the conference, with games that would have been uncommon before the most recent rounds of realignment.
That mixture reflects the broader identity of the modern Big 12.
The league is no longer defined primarily by its Great Plains and Texas roots. Instead, it brings together programs from several regions and multiple eras of college football.
For longtime Big 12 followers, the conference still includes many recognizable rivalries and traditions. For newer members, it offers an opportunity to build new ones.
Colorado sits somewhere in between.
The Buffaloes have history with several longtime members but are still developing familiarity with much of the league’s current lineup.
October should provide more clarity
The opening weeks of conference play have created an early group of contenders, but much remains unsettled.
Texas Tech, Utah and BYU remain unbeaten, Oklahoma State has climbed back into the rankings and Houston remains in the Top 25 despite an early conference loss. Cincinnati is also undefeated and sits just outside the rankings.
Behind them is a large group of teams still close enough to influence the race.
October should begin creating more separation.
Several of the league’s top teams will begin facing one another more regularly, while programs in the middle of the standings will have opportunities to move upward with conference wins.
Colorado will get a close look at several of those teams, facing Texas Tech, Utah, Oklahoma State and Kansas State over its next four conference games.
Still, the Buffaloes are only one part of a conference race that remains difficult to predict.
With 16 teams, no divisions and considerable depth throughout the standings, the Big 12 could remain unsettled deep into the season.
The league has ranked contenders, undefeated teams and several programs positioned just outside the national rankings, but no single team has completely separated itself from the field.
For now, that uncertainty is one of the most important things to know about the Big 12.
Nearly every week has the potential to reshape the conference race.
Contact CU Independent Sports Editor Shruthi Rajesh at shra3446@colorado.edu
