Big 12 logo Oct 22, 2022; Lubbock, Texas, USA; A general view of the Big 12 Logo on the field before the game between the West Virginia Mountaineers and the Texas Tech Red Raiders at Jones AT&T Stadium and Cody Campbell Field. Mandatory Credit: Michael C. Johnson-USA TODAY Sports
By Reice Shipley on

Ahead of the 2025 college football season, Big 12 athletic directors and coaches have reportedly decided to do away with its annual preseason media poll, which may or may not be coincidentally correlated with how inaccurate it was this past season.

Last year, despite being ranked 16th out of the 16 schools in the Big 12 in the league’s annual preseason media poll, the Arizona State Sun Devils rose to the top of the conference and won their conference championship. And notably, every team that finished inside the top five of the Big 12 conference standings was ranked outside of the top 5 in the 2024 Big 12 preseason media poll.

Whether the incredibly inaccurate year of predictions from the media in 2024 played a role in the decision or not, the conference will be doing away with their annual preseason media poll. They’ll be joining the Big Ten as the only other conference not to have a preseason media poll, according to Brett McMurphy of Action Network.

This preseason poll has never has any real importance aside for preseason hype. But there are some negative elements to this decision being made.

Getting rid of this preseason poll does somewhat take away from great stories from teams that exceed expectations each season like Arizona State in 2024. Though, we will still get an element of these great stories of players exceeding expectations when it comes to the Big 12 media all-league poll, which will still be voted on at Big 12 Media Days next month in Frisco, Texas.

Naturally, reactions from media members were largely mixed in regards to this decision to do away with the Big 12 preseason media poll.

“They got last year so wrong they’re quitting,” wrote the popular college football page on X, Sickos Committee.

“We broke it,” wrote Ralph Amsden, a writer for the Arizona State Rivals page “ArizonaVarsity”.

“Clearly it hurt the league last year to have the preseason poll,” wrote John Kurtz of the KC Sports Network. “I kinda love this.”

“Good,” wrote Ali Farhang, a host of the Farhang & Medcoff radio show on ESPN 1490 in Tucson. “Preseason polls are asinine, uneducated guesses and create biases that can have season ending impacts. Should be across the board.”

About Reice Shipley

Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.

View all posts by Reice Shipley