Welcome to the wildest two weeks on the college football calendar. 

The transfer portal opened on Friday, and it has been a mad dash for every FBS program in the country to restock its roster, even for teams lucky enough to be preparing for College Football Playoff semifinal games.

It feels almost impossible to keep up with all of the Big 12 news coming out of the portal. Fair warning: some of what I write here might already be outdated by the time it hits your inbox.

As you might expect, Texas Tech is on pace to put together the best portal haul in the conference. The Red Raiders have already added arguably the best Big 12 player available on both sides of the ball in Cincinnati QB Brendan Sorsby and K-State LB Austin Romaine. Oklahoma State edge Wendell Gregory is not far behind.

The rich get richer. If it is starting to feel like Tech can almost pick and choose the best players in the conference from the portal, that is because there is some truth to that. 

The paradigm in the Big 12 has shifted quickly. Tech has positioned itself to be the top dog moving forward because it now has proof of concept to go with its money.

Everybody has long known about the deep pockets of Cody Campbell and the Matador Club. But now the Red Raiders have proven they can make the playoff, land an elite portal class, and consistently put together top-20 high school classes with the cash.

Tech’s nine current portal signees (at time of writing) give the Red Raiders the second-best class in the country, behind only Indiana. They have already landed the No. 3 QB, No. 4 LB, multiple coveted receivers, and are projected to grab the No. 1 DT and No. 4 edge.

In other words, they are doing it again, only this time with a more talented quarterback.

Texas Tech could very well be the new Oklahoma: the team that wins the Big 12 most years and has a real shot at a national title. From 2000 to 2023, the Sooners won 14 of 24 possible Big 12 championships.

Heck, Tech getting blown out in a playoff game furthers the Oklahoma cosplay. The Sooners won a national title in 2000 but went 0-4 in the playoff and lost those games by an average of 18 points per game. 

That’s a double-edged sword for most Big 12 fans. To earn real respect nationally and increase the league’s survival odds, the Big 12 needs a program or two to emerge as year-in, year-out national title threats. 

But Tech stepping into that role does not feel very fun for fans of the other 15 teams right now.

BYU has won 23 games over the last two years, but could not get within 22 points of the Red Raiders this year in two tries. Only three teams in school history can match what Utah did this year, yet the Utes still lost at home by 24 to Tech’s backup quarterback.

It is going to get even less fun if Texas Tech continues to pluck the best players from other Big 12 teams. Imagine watching your team get pummeled in Lubbock by your old favorite player while a kid in the front row of the student section shakes a “Drill Baby, Drill” sign in your face.

Welcome to college football in 2026. 

None of this is meant to be an attack on the Red Raiders. They’re operating exactly how I would want my team to operate, given the current rules (or lack thereof). 

Tech sat through a decade and a half of mediocrity in the old system. Can you blame them for taking full advantage when the rules changed?

I am also not trying to anoint Tech too soon. Making the pieces fit every year is not a given, even if those pieces are talented. There are plenty of examples of big spenders who struggled to get it right consistently.

But the Red Raiders have a lot of sharp people in place. It is not just Joey McGuire. GM James Blanchard is a star, and there is a reason he was coveted by Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman last offseason.

There is also a bit of a power vacuum in the Big 12 right now with Mike Gundy, Kyle Whittingham, Chris Klieman, and Matt Campbell suddenly all gone. The league is there for the taking.

My hunch is you’re going to need to get used to what we saw this year from the Red Raiders, whether you like it or not. 

Watch Out for Oklahoma State and Houston

If you’re scanning the top portal classes in the country, you might be surprised at who you see right behind Texas Tech at No. 3. 

Make way for Willie Fritz’s Houston Cougars. 

Houston only has four portal signees so far, but they are quality players. 

Oregon RB transfer Makhi Hughes was one of the most coveted players in the portal last year after tearing it up at Tulane. Speaking of Tulane, Fritz also landed Green Wave OT Shadre Hurst, a two-time All-American.

There is real momentum with the Houston program right now.

The Cougars just polished off a 10-win season with a Texas Bowl victory over LSU. QB Conner Weigman leads a core group of Cougar stars returning next year, and five-star QB Keisean Henderson is on his way to play for Fritz this fall.

Buy Houston stock now. 

Oklahoma State is also trending up after new head coach Eric Morris landed the best players from his North Texas roster this past season.

QB Drew Mestemaker, RB Caleb Hawkins, and WR Wyatt Young are all top-six players at their positions in the portal. Landing all three is a massive jumpstart for the Cowboys program.

And that is not even close to the end of the list. Thirteen UNT players have signed with OSU so far, as of Monday afternoon.

Not only does this infuse the Oklahoma State roster with talent, but these transfers will also be playing for the same coaches who tutored them in Denton. All of that continuity should give the Pokes a real chance to win right away.

What You Need to Know

• Here’s what Texas Tech will reportedly pay former Cincinnati QB Brendan Sorsby to play for the Red Raiders this year. It’s a wild number. 

• West Virginia landed an SEC quarterback in the portal, along with his brother, who plays DB. 

• Scott Frost and UCF grabbed a quarterback in the portal who started a College Football Playoff game this year. 

• Colorado star WR Omarion Miller is heading to another Big 12 school. 

• K-State landed a high-profile receiver from the SEC and a Big 12 running back. 

• Here’s a good read on why the SEC has taken a step back in the NIL and transfer portal era. 

• Almost every major contributor from Iowa State’s 2025 team has now signed with Penn State to play for Matt Campbell. 

• Former ISU QB Rocco Becht had some pointed comments about Iowa State in this ESPN article.

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