The Biggest Questions Around the Big 12 in 2024-25

This offseason may have been one of the busiest for the Big 12 conference. A new contender in Arizona State joined, multiple schools are featuring new or revamped coaching staffs, and some moves in the now always prevalent transfer portal gave plenty of talking points over the summer. Now that the season is approaching, it’s a great time to take a deeper look and present some early questions for fans to consider and look out for answers. 1. What will Arizona State’s immediate and long-term impact be? Caught up in all the conference realignment changes, Arizona State is the newest official member of the Big 12. In the past four seasons, the Sun Devils have finished in the top ten, including team trophies in 2021 and 2022. They return a stacked team, as evidenced in my rankings article. Headed into the Big 12, the conference title has seen four different teams win since 2020 with Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, Missouri, and most recently Iowa State. This year all of those teams are bringing back heavy-hitting squads, and that’s before you consider teams like South Dakota State and Northern Iowa who can’t be overlooked this season either. Long term it only adds to the growing strength of the conference. Oklahoma State is a popular pick to contend for a title soon and Iowa State is coming off a trophy performance at NCAA’s. Arizona State had some changes with the closing of Sunkist Kids this summer, but they have the framework to get the conference even closer to the top. 2. How quickly do we see the impact of coaching changes? Utah Valley and Oklahoma State both brought in new coaching staff's this offseason. California Baptist brought in new high-profile assistants recently. Roger Kish and Obe Blanc are headed into the second year at their new schools. In the new age of college athletics, results are expected sooner than ever; which leaves the question of when and how much of an impact occurs? Oklahoma State may have the highest expectations with the Olympic-caliber staff brought in. On top of that, they brought in a number of high-profile transfers which has them looking like a trophy team with sky-high expectations. Utah Valley may have a longer build, but brought in a high-profile transfer with Terrell Barraclough. CBU brought in Mark Munoz and Nathan Tomasello, which now gives them strong coaching options throughout the weight classes. The Lancers fly a bit under-the-radar at the moment, but I expect them to build off of getting their first qualifiers last season and return a handful of wrestlers to look out for. Roger Kish and Obe Blanc are both now second-year head coaches but in different positions. Kish had immediate success with their highest finish since 2016 and is looking to keep the roster strong amidst transfer portal additions and subtractions. Blanc is doing an admirable job at NDSU, adjusting after losing a number of wrestlers in the portal. They have a solid stable of middleweights and young talent spread throughout the lineup that could grow into contenders. At one point the general thought process was it took five years to truly give coaches a chance to enact their changes and build their team. With the pre-built foundation at many of these schools, that timeline may be shortened. Keep a close eye on these teams to see how results and expectations adjust over the course of a season. 3. How many true freshmen could we see? On the 2024 Big Board nine of the top 25 committed to a Big 12 school, just three behind the Big 10. There’s a good distribution within that as well with Oklahoma State (2), Oklahoma (2), Missouri (1), West Virginia (1), Arizona State (1), Air Force (1), and Iowa State (1). While many of these young wrestlers will likely get mat time with their five dates while redshirting, there are a few that seem primed to be seen early and often. Cody Merrill is the highest ranked on the board at #2, but should be behind Wyatt Hendrickson at heavyweight. Also at OK State is JJ McComas, who could contend for a 133 spot depending on how weight changes go. Missouri’s Brian Smith mentioned that Aeoden Sinclair is likely going to get early-season opportunities. Arizona State’s Kyler Larkin or Pierson Manville could challenge for an open 149 spot in the lineup. A sleeper to look out for is Paul Kelly at CBU, the #46 ranked wrestler, and is another 149 wrestler to look out for. 4. Who wins the Big 12 title? Iowa State won the 2024 Big 12 title, breaking Missouri’s 12 consecutive conference titles streak (3 Big 12, 9 MAC). Just 11 points behind them was Oklahoma State, with a record 53 conference titles. And don’t forget SDSU, who outplaced Missouri and returns another stacked lineup. Based on tournament rankings, OK State has a significant lead followed by Missouri and SDSU. Arizona State is just behind them, and UNI is actually ahead of returning champs Iowa State. Rankings are sure to change and many of these lineups have pivotal wrestle-offs and lineup changes that will occur. Right now it’s hard to pick against a stacked Cowboys roster with a 20-point lead on paper. 5. How many qualifiers does the Big 12 get this year? Last year the conference had 57 automatic qualifier allocations and 10 At-Large bids for a sizable 66 total qualifiers. That was still second to the Big 10 with 85 automatic bids and 11 At-Large bids for a whopping 96 total qualifiers. The Big 12 will get immediate help with the addition of Arizona State, who had seven wrestlers auto-qualify and one At-Large bid. If they repeat that, the conference will be pushing for 70+ qualifiers. Adding in the expected improvements across the conference and the gap between the Big 12 and Big 10 could continue to close. 6. What is the ceiling for South Dakota State and Northern Iowa? Two teams that have been mentioned multiple times in this article are the Jackrabbits and Panthers. Both are coming off some of their best years in recent history, with SDSU finishing 13th and UNI just behind at 14th. SDSU has eight ranked wrestlers while UNI has nine. UNI returns eight starters from last season and reintroduces Colin Realbuto into the lineup. Keckeisen leads the way for points, but they bring back three wrestlers who made the bloodround last year (Cael Happel, Ryder Downey, Jared Simma). I’m on the Trever Anderson hype train after a wild freshman year at 125 to make some noise. If the Panthers can push some of those wrestlers through to a podium finish, this team could finish in the top ten. There’s a different story for SDSU, who actually graduated one of their top point scorers from last year in Tanner Sloan. They do return All-Americans Tanner Jordan, Cade DeVos, and Bennett Berge. They took advantage of the transfer portal with high-level wrestlers slotting in at 157 and 197. Look for them to score some dual upsets this season and carry that into another strong March to make a play for a top-ten finish.

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The Biggest Questions Around the Big 12 in 2024-25

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