• Big 12 Media Days are Tuesday and Wednesday this week at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. The Big 12 is switching it up by moving from its typical home in Arlington (meanwhile the SEC is moving in on Dallas next week), and there are storylines everywhere. More on that below.

• The Big 12 preseason poll is out, and the newcomers from Salt Lake City are predicted to win the league. Utah edged out K-State and Oklahoma State as the preseason favorite. Five teams received first-place votes, including Kansas and Arizona. 

• We also got the preseason All-Big 12 team, with Oklahoma State leading the charge. The Cowboys have a league-high six players…so should we rethink that poll? Arizona wasn’t far behind with five selections of their own. 

• 247 Sports’ Josh Pate floated the idea of Kansas having SEC or Big Ten potential, in part because of the $400+ million investment into the Gateway District that includes a new football stadium. This comes after realignment YouTuber Greg Flugar, who reported USC/UCLA to the Big Ten months before it happened, mentioned the SEC has discussed the Jayhawks.

• Utah has named defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley the “Head Coach in Waiting” to Kyle Whittingham. Does this mean the 65-year-old Whittingham might be considering retirement soon?

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The Bottom Line

I’m heading to Vegas for Big 12 Media Days this week — wish me luck with the 120-degree heat! That means there’s awesome insight coming your way in Open For Business over the next few weeks.

Here are some of the main storylines I’ll be looking out for:

• How much will Brett Yormark say about private equity/private capital and naming rights? Multiple stories broke earlier this month about the Big 12 considering both of those routes to keep up financially with the SEC and Big Ten. Is Yormark ready to divulge much? K-State AD Gene Taylor gave a little bit of insight to me on YouTube recently.

• What will Coach Prime say? There’s no doubt who will fetch the biggest crowd on Wednesday. I’ll be very intrigued to see how brash Coach Prime, Sheduer Sanders, Travis Hunter, and Shilo Sanders choose to be. Prime should draw a bigger crowd than anyone in Big 12 Media Days history.

• What vibe will we get from Utah? The Utes are the preseason pick to win the league, but how happy are they actually to be here? Rumors swirled this offseason about Utah eyeing the ACC before Utah AD Mark Harlan shut that down. I can’t wait to hear from Kyle Whittingham and company on their new home.

• How confident are league administrators about the future of the league in light of the House settlement and revenue sharing? We’ve seen ADs like Kirby Hocutt at Texas Tech and Jeremiah Donati at TCU announce they’ll be paying out the full $20-22 million revenue-sharing number. Is everyone on the same page there?

Does Kansas Have a Shot at the Big Ten or SEC?

Kansas to the SEC or Big Ten is far from a slam dunk, but there does seem to be legitimate smoke that it’s eventually possible. Scoff if you want, but 247 Sports’ Josh Pate is one of college football’s most prominent voices right now, and I listen when he talks. If you’re paying attention to his reports about news of the ACC implosion starting this month, you should probably lend an ear here too. 

Hear me out: it’s understandable that the SEC, in particular, feels like they’ve just about maxed out on valuable football brands. If they land Clemson and Florida State, there’s no football program left (outside of Notre Dame) to move the needle financially. So, where is there still money to be gained? Basketball. 

Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark has (brilliantly, I might add) laid the blueprint for this. Decouple your basketball media rights from your football media rights during the next contract cycle and sell them separately to maximize the value of great hoops. 

If the SEC adds North Carolina and Duke or Kansas along with Florida State and Clemson, they could sell a basketball media rights package featuring Kentucky, UNC, and Kansas/Duke—serious brand firepower.

As for football, Lance Leipold would certainly keep Kansas respectable at the SEC/Big Ten level. But honestly, those leagues need teams to come in to lose games to the crowded powers at the top. As years go by, once proud programs will become increasingly frustrated when they’re winning 7 games every year instead of 10. 

Is that Oklahoma’s music??

There’s a lot that needs to happen for this to come to fruition – Kansas is just a potential candidate. The SEC will likely get the pick of the litter from the ACC, the UNC System Board of Governors seems determined to include NC State with the Tar Heels, and Duke makes sense as a basketball partner with UNC.

But Kansas athletics director Travis Goff has done an excellent job at maximizing the Jayhawks’ chances to get included at some point.

Sleeping on the Pokes?

Is it possible to disrespect a team that got 14 first-place votes and was picked third in a 16-team conference? I think there’s definitely a case for Oklahoma State here. 

The Cowboys return 18 starters from a team that lost the Big 12 championship game to now-departed Texas and didn’t lose a single starter to the transfer portal. They lead the league in preseason All-Big 12 selections with six and have bonafide stars in Doak Walker Award winner Ollie Gordon II and linebacker Nick Martin. Oh, and Mike Gundy might be the best head coach in the league.

The more I think about it, the more I like the Cowboys as my pick to win the Big 12. It’s tough to pick against Kyle Whittingham and Utah now that Cam Rising is back in the fold, but it can be tricky to change conferences, and Rising hasn’t played in nearly two years. Oklahoma State and Utah are both as stable as college football programs get, but I’ll go with the team not adapting to a new league.

No disrespect at all to K-State, Kansas, and Arizona, who are all legitimate threats to get to Arlington. West Virginia, Iowa State, Texas Tech, and UCF should also be in the mix, but I’m bowing at the altar of Gundy for now. 

Big 12 Media Days

I’m heading to Las Vegas on Monday for Big 12 media days! Make sure you’re following me on YouTube and Twitter to get the latest coverage from Allegiant Stadium.