Yes, Texas Tech Is the Favorite, But Eric Morris Expects the Big 12 to be a ‘Dogfight’

Support PFB with a PFB+ membership — $8 a month or $50 for a year.

STILLWATER — When you’re talking Big 12 title picture, you have to start with Texas Tech.

The Red Raiders went 12-2 last year, winning the program’s first Big 12 title. Their lone loss in the league was a miraculous game in Tempe, but outside of that, Tech outscored Big 12 foes a combined 356-81 or by about 30.6 points a game. It was dominant stuff.

There’s reason to believe Tech can run it back. The biggest of those reasons is the fact that it’s no secret that there’s a decent chunk of change circulating through Lubbock, Texas, and in this new era of college athletics, that’s going to give you a chance even if you lost a lot to the NFL.

But there’s also reason to believe that it won’t be so simple as Tech rolling out there on Saturdays this fall and collecting wins. Not since Oklahoma in 2019 and 2020 has a program won back-to-back Big 12 titles. In fact, the league’s past six champions have all been unique, and the final five of those involved a head coach winning his first Big 12 title.

New Oklahoma State coach Eric Morris is in a unique position in that he is a Tech alum but he’ll try his best to keep that last stat going this fall.

“(Texas Tech) had one really good year and I think they built another good roster from the looks of it,” Morris said Saturday. “But that’s a cool thing about this sport, and I’ve always loved it — and just my mentality and quite honestly, I have little-man syndrome and so I’ve had it my whole life is this is a sport you got to come out, you got to prove it year in and year out, right? I think nowadays with revenue share, NIL, transfer portal, it’s created a ton of parity, and I think fans love parody and it’s healthy for the sport.”

Tech is the heavy favorite, even after news that transfer quarterback Brendan Sorsby would be unable to play. FanDuel, as of writing, has Tech at -105 to win the league with BYU sitting second at +500. OSU currently sits ninth in Big 12 title odds at +2,700, also behind Utah (+850), Houston (+1,500), Kansas State (+1,600), TCU (+1,700), Arizona State (+2,200) and Arizona (+2,200). After the Cowboys, the drop gets steeper, with Baylor being +4,000 down to least-likely Iowa State and Colorado each at +10,000.

Those odds might seem long, but Indiana entered last year at +3,500 to win the Big Ten and +10,000 to win a national title.

“There’s all these new teams each and every year that are up there at the top,” Morris continued. “I think it creates that. I think obviously you look at what Houston did last year (the Cougars went 10-3). I think you look at what BYU did last year (the other Cougars went 12-2). Or what Utah’s been able to do for the last 15 or 20 years. What Arizona State did two years ago. Like there’s a lot of things that say, ‘Hey, like there’s going to be some dogfights this year and you got to go prove it and earn it each and every week.’

“I think obviously Tech’s been in the media for some different reasons right now. But they’re definitely the reigning champs. That’s who everybody’s chasing right now. And you’re going to have to prove it one way or another, whoever is deemed the champion at the end of this thing.”