Welcome to August! Big 12 football will be played this month, ladies and gentlemen. 

We are only 26 days away from TCU and North Carolina opening up the season in Ireland. The season will be a great reprieve from talking about a college sports Senate bill every day. 

But for now, it is my duty to keep you informed on the Protect College Sports Act. Here’s the latest:

The SEC and Big Ten finally threw their support behind the bill on Friday. That’s after the leagues missed two deadlines imposed by Senators, who are working overtime to get the bill to a vote before the August recess, scheduled to start August 10. 

Will it be too late? Reporting today suggests that it might be. 

The chances of it passing through the Senate and the House decrease dramatically if it has to wait until mid-September when everyone returns. 

What’s actually in the bill now that the SEC and Big Ten successfully lobbied for major changes to the original bill?

• Athletes can only transfer once without penalty. Any other transfers would require sitting out for a year. 

• Athletes would have five years to use five seasons of eligibility.  

• Conferences would be capped at 19 teams. Any Power Four team joining another Power Four league would have to first become an independent for five seasons. 

• The revenue sharing cap would jump from $21.3 million to $48.8 million, thanks to a new $22 million retention pool to pay current players on a team’s roster and a $5 million pool for women’s sports.

• The other NIL loopholes would be closed. There would be a strict verification process for any deals outside of the cap, and they can’t involve the school at all. 

• There would be a ban on professional athletes returning to college. No more G League bounce backs. 

• Coaches can’t leave their team before the season ends. The Lane Kiffin rule. 

• An agent registry would be created, and agents wouldn’t be allowed to earn more than 5% commission. 

How will it affect the Big 12? There are some definite winners and losers here. Check out my latest video to get my take. 

Big 12 Anonymous Player Survey: Toughest Scheme to Prepare For

The latest installment of the Big 12 Anonymous Player Survey is the players picking which team had the toughest scheme to prepare for last year. 

And the winner is…TCU. 

That’s an interesting one, considering the Horned Frogs lost offensive coordinator Kendal Briles to South Carolina and hired UConn OC Gordon Sammis, who runs a much different style of offense. But three of the four players surveyed were talking about the TCU defense. 

TCU – 4
Utah – 3
BYU – 2
Arizona State – 2
Kansas State – 2
Colorado – 1
Arizona – 1
Kansas – 1
Iowa State – 1
Texas Tech – 1

“TCU came out in something completely different than they had shown. They had a DE who would just float around.” 

“TCU’s defense was just a little different than a lot of the defenses we played last year. Just coming out odd.”

“Everything with TCU was just complicated for me.” 

“TCU had a very weird front. It wasn’t traditional by any means at all.” 

“Utah was doing all types of pulls and fakes and read option and all of that.” 

“Utah did a lot of stuff with a lot of different packages, and they had a great d-line with two star defensive ends.” 

“Utah by far. They were running two quarterback stuff and two running back stuff. They’d get in 13 personnel and run triple option.” 

“K-State did a lot of different things. Their formations. They had a lot of different packages.” 

“K-State was really getting after us for a half.” 

“KU has a pretty tough scheme. They have some crazy stuff that we have to prepare for. They have a complex offense.” 

“Texas Tech had a really good system of doing things and a really good flow. It was hard to disrupt that.”

“It wasn’t even a scheme for Arizona State; it was Sam Leavitt. He was going crazy.” 

“Arizona had a lot of motion.” 

“BYU did a lot of unbalanced stuff with their o-line. They had a good running game, so it was hard.”

“Colorado had a bye week before we played them, and they came out and slapped us in the face.”

What You Need to Know

• Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire says the Red Raiders aren’t one of the top two spenders in college football. 

• Iowa and Iowa State extended their football series through 2031. 

• The Big 12 has four of the top ten linebackers in the country, according to Pro Football Focus. Three are from one Big 12 team.

• I sat down with BYU quarterback Bear Bachmeier, who thinks the Cougars can win a national championship. 

• BYU running back LJ Martin revealed the nitty-gritty details of the injury he played through last season.West Virginia football wins best social post of the week easily with this video.

• Want your Big 12 news and analysis in podcast form? Listen to Open For Business at the gym, in your car, or first thing in the morning on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube.

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