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While Texas Tech football won, it was a bad week for the Big 12
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- While Texas Tech football won, it was a bad week for the Big 12
Even though there was only one game played, last week was a busy week all around in the Big 12.
Good for the Big 12: A Texas Tech football team won the conference for the first time. Not only that, the Red Raiders got a first-round bye in the College Football Playoff , where even some of the national talking heads think Tech can make a run.
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Bad for the Big 12: Brigham Young, the lobbying from commissioner Brett Yormark and Tech coach Joey McGuire notwithstanding, found its door to the 12-team playoff locked. The Cougars are going to Orlando for a date with Georgia Tech in the Pop-Tarts Bowl. As consolation prizes go, one of the best. Spent Christmas week there in 2002, wearing shorts and polos while a winter storm descended back home.
Worst of all for the Big 12: The conference lost two of its cornerstone coaches, Chris Klieman resigning at Kansas State after seven seasons and Matt Campbell leaving Iowa State after 10 seasons to take over at Penn State .
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In the post-Texas, post-Oklahoma era, the Big 12's best anchor in the storm was a core group of coaches who had established long-term success and winning cultures at their schools. Kyle Whittingham at Utah, Mike Gundy at Oklahoma State, Campbell at Iowa State, Klieman at Kansas State.
Now Gundy, Campbell and Klieman are gone, and Whittingham, just turned 66, is presumably a short-timer.
MANHATTAN, KS - NOVEMBER 29: Head coach Chris Klieman of the Kansas State Wildcats looks on before a game against the Colorado Buffaloes at Bill Snyder Family Football Stadium on November 29, 2025 in Manhattan, Kansas. (Photo by Peter Aiken/Getty Images)
Makes the road to the next championship easier for Texas Tech, but again, it's terrible for the conference. In this age of college sports, the Big 12 needs all the strong, stable programs it can muster.
I'd say Iowa State's next 10 years won't be as fun as the past 10 years have been. Kansas State won't win as much in the next seven years as it has in the past seven. That's not a knee-jerk judgment on their new under-40 coaches — Jimmy Rogers at Iowa State, Collin Klein at Kansas State — and that's not patronizing. You won't catch me disparaging Ames or Manhattan, two underrated college towns. Give me either over Austin.
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They're hard places to win, though, and to sustain winning.
Klieman resigned, beaten down by the college football premise he signed up for not being the college football landscape he's in now. That, and fan discontent over a 6-6 season.
Let's see if the next guy can deliver a 10-win season, two nine-seasons, two eight-win seasons, three bowl victories, and a steady presence in the national rankings, as Klieman did. Ask Texas Tech fans how perspectives can change after bringing home a favorite-son quarterback off the Texas A&M staff.
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Penn State football hired Matt Campbell as its next head coach. Campbell, 46, coached 10 seasons at Iowa State and was the winningest coach in school history.
In regard to the Iowa State situation, boy, did we miss the mark on last week's Big 12 power rankings, noting that Campbell had just hit his 10-year anniversary with the Cyclones. I predicted he'd stay another 10, entering Gundy and Whittingham territory. That aged like milk sitting out on a July afternoon.
Double whammy, too. It looks like Jon Heacock, architect of Iowa State's always-solid, some years special defenses, will go with Campbell to Happy Valley.
When Campbell left for Penn State, here was a first thought: Know who'd be a great fit at Iowa State? Chris Klieman. Alas, it sounds as if Klieman, at 58, really does think he's retiring. Or at least going to sit in the Florida sun for several months while he decides.
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The Big 12 was better for their being here. Their successors will find it hard to measure up.
After the UT and OU departures, the Big 12 was forced to add members from the G5 ranks who could water down the conference. Now legacy members are in grave danger of doing the same.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: While Texas Tech football won, it was a bad week for the Big 12
