There's Plenty of Experienced Teams in the Big 12 in 2026 — Where Does Baylor Fit In?
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The Big 12 is packed this season with experienced players and the expectations that come along with having them. Baylor sits in a peculiar middle ground: high up in one, middle of the road in another, and even low in one category. We'll be running through the numbers of career starts, snaps, and games for teams in the Power 4 conferences. Let's begin.
They've Seen This Before
When it comes to total career starts by players, Baylor moves down in the rankings to 55th most (or 14th fewest) career starts out of all teams in a Power 4 conferences with 345. That isn't to say that the Big 12 doesn't have their representatives near the top of the list though.
Six of the top nine team career starts are Big 12 teams, Oklahoma State with a staggering 650 cumulative career starts by its players sits at the top spot, Texas Tech at 3rd with 614, Houston at 5th with 564, Cincinnati at 6th with 558, Colorado at the 7th spot with 542, and UCF at 9th with 538 career starts.
Be Honest, When Would you Lose Count?
37,456 career snaps has Baylor at 33rd most for the Power 4 conferences. Virginia having the most snaps overall for a Power 4 conference at an astonishing 54,375 total snaps. The Big 12, though, has four teams of the top six in terms of total snaps taken with Oklahoma State at 2nd most with 53,040, Texas Tech at 3rd with 51,165, Colorado at 5th with 45,900, and Houston with 45,806.
Other Big 12 teams also show up on the list as having more total snaps than Baylor, with UCF at 11th, Cincinnati at 17th, Arizona at 20th, and Arizona State at 29th. The team rosters from last season may not line up identically for these teams from last season to now, but whether with the same team as last year or a completely new one, the experience that these teams and players have is an invaluable intangible that can't be taught.
Put me in Coach, I'm Ready to Play
When it comes to cumulative career games played by a team in a Power 4 conference though, Baylor is 9th most overall with 1,512. Four other Big XII teams remain ahead of Baylor with Oklahoma State in a commanding lead at 1st overall with 1,846 cumulative career games played by the players, Texas Tech sits at 4th with 1,618 games played, Iowa State at 7th with 1,535, and Colorado at 8th with 1,533 games played.
Does Experience Lead to Success?
Incumbent CFB champion Indiana at 44,500 career snaps sits at 8th most, rounds off the top ten with 532 career starts, and 13th most career games with with 1448. Whether the most beneficial and efficient plan is to form a team with the most experienced role players or the youngest players that may be unproven but with the most potential is an ever on-going discussion to which no real answer may present itself.
However, it will be worth watching this season to see how the CFB playoff picture shakes out later in the season and where those teams sit in terms of total experience.
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Brad is a writer and contributes to the Baylor Bears on SI, with aspirations to share his own unique thoughts and perspectives with fans. Whether through the facts and figures of the past or the untold potential and triumphs of the future, sports have always been a large influence on Brad's storytelling and life overall. His inspiration to write began while watching sports when he first noticed the highs and lows of each game, each quarter, each play; there's a story in each of them worth telling, and he wanted to tell them.
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