Land. Cars. Cash.

We’ve reached the final installment of the Anonymous Player Survey, and we’re closing it out with some of the wildest responses yet.

Big 12 players opened up about the craziest things schools have done to try to lure them into the transfer portal, and some of these answers are must-read.

We also got our first AP poll of the season, and I was surprised to see one Big 12 school getting near–top ten respect again.

Let’s get to it.

Anonymous Player Survey: Craziest Transfer Offers

I talked with nearly 30 players at Big 12 Media Days in Frisco to get candid responses on everything from who they think will win the league to the toughest place to play, the best quarterback, wild portal offers, and more.

Today’s installment of the Anonymous Player Survey asks: What’s the craziest thing a coach has done to try to get you to come to their school?

Here’s what the players had to say:

“Oh, I plead the fifth on that one.”

“I mean, there was a lot of talk about (an SEC team going after me) on Twitter a couple months ago. That was pretty funny to watch because they had never contacted me. I never spoke to them, so that was really funny.” 

“Pullin’ up to my house unannounced. All kinds of crazy things. I stayed and talked to them, though. I’ll be respectful to everyone.”

“Just money. Lots of money talk. Unexpected phone calls late in the night. Some smaller schools were calling me, and I was like ‘why are you even calling me?’”

“Yeah, it's just money and it's a crazy, crazy day and age right now that we live in, but it's exciting and you just got to be in tune with what God wants you to do and make sure that you're taking it to prayer and making the decisions for yourself. But it's been a blast, too.”

I have heard people will say, ‘Oh, we'll give you this.’ And then when those people do get into the portal, it's like, ‘Ah, just kidding. We're going to give you this instead.’ And you're screwed. You have to go with them or you're just kind of out there.” 

“Hit me up right in the middle of spring ball. I just kind of felt weirded out by that because we're in the middle of spring ball. Right? You’re going to come try to pick me up in the middle of spring ball, and I'm working. That's some of the craziest things.”

“There was a lot of money that was thrown at me. And someone offered me land. Land where I'd be living and to be able to own that, so that was pretty crazy.”

“They told me they'll take care of me, my mom, the whole fam for real. A new car…all that stuff.”

“Just offer some toys and stuff. They have to have a middleman, right? So a lot of the teams or the players on the team will reach out and just say the stuff about, ‘we got this for you, we got this for you.’ Cars and stuff. Different things like that.”

“People getting their phone number, and how do you even get that? Yeah, getting information that’s like, there's no way you got that.”

“It's always probably the money, just a large amount. They can slide in your DMs, you can call other people to tell you to call them. You know what I'm saying?”

“They try to keep it slick, but I don’t really pay attention to it.”

“I think as an older guy, especially since my injury, I think I've had an easier route and I've been able to avoid the recruiting. I think a lot of people look at it like, wait, is it his last year or sixth year, or is that his last year?”

What You Need to Know

• The first AP poll is here, and the Big 12 has four teams in the Top 25, plus the top three teams in “others receiving votes,” giving the league seven of the top 28. One team even flirted with the top ten.

• The coaches poll last week got me wondering: Can the Big 12 produce a national brand like Clemson? Here are my top contenders.

• One Fox Sports analyst dropped a wild ranking of every FBS team. Spoiler: As a Big 12 fan, you’re going to be mad. 

• Baylor’s Big 12 title hopes may have taken a hit with running back Dawson Pendergrass suffering a season-ending foot injury. Here’s what Dave Aranda said about it.

• West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez shared a surprising revelation about his offense heading into 2025.

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