15 Weeks Until Kickoff and TCU May Hold the Big 12's Future in Its Hand

The Beginning and The Now

TCU joined the Big 12 conference on July 1st, 2012, and being another Texas Team in the league, the Frogs could quickly get lost and pushed to the back of the line. However, it only took a couple of years, and in 2014, the Frogs became Co-Big 12 Champions, and with a Peach Bowl Championship to add to it, TCU’s name would stay in the mainstream.

TCU became one of the Big 12's flagship programs

Now, it's 2026, and TCU has been back to the Big 12 Championship twice since the game returned in 2017. The league has also been through tons of changes, most recently, Texas and Oklahoma leaving for the SEC, and new teams being added, the newest being Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah. Now more than ever, TCU has been overshadowed by the mainstream media, as other teams have risen to successful popularity.

New King of the Conference?

Texas Tech won its first conference championship last season and has carried that momentum into this season. TCU seemed to be the Texas team in the conference, but now, Texas Tech has kicked in the door and put its feet on the table. It's clear that if TCU wants to regain the conference title, the Red Raiders are standing in its way.

Texas Tech is chasing the throne TCU once held.

No bigger stage than a matchup between the Horned Frogs and the Red Raiders on November 26th, Thanksgiving night. Many families will have finished dinner and rejoined the couch to watch more football, and the Frogs’ final performance of the season may be the most important.

The Big 12 Has a Perception Problem

Thanksgiving is a long way away, Memorial Day hasn’t even passed yet, and still, the TCU schedule is built for them to control their destiny.

With how the College Football Playoff is built and constructed by a committee, the sport leans toward bias more than ever before. Frog fans know this all too well. The message has been clear: not only does TCU have to control itself in the conference, but the conference also has to make some noise for itself.

College football is a weird sport; strength of victory is a heavy piece of evidence for where a team gets placed in or out of the top 25 teams. The non-conference schedule for TCU, as well as the other Big 12 teams, could very well set the tone for the 2026 season.

The Games That Could Change Everything Early

Week One Tests

Baylor vs. Auburn (Atlanta)

Colorado at. Georgia Tech

Houston at Oregon State

TCU vs. North Carolina (Dublin)

Week Two Could Reshape Rankings

Arizona State at Texas A&M

UCF at Pittsburgh

Iowa State at Iowa

Kansas vs. Missouri

Oklahoma State vs. Oregon

Utah vs. Arkansas

The Match-ups Everyone Will Watch

Kansas State vs. Tulane

Colorado vs. Northwestern

BYU vs. Notre Dame

As the season approaches, the Big 12 finds itself lost, not being mentioned during the NFL draft when discussing the powerful conference in football. Since the expansion of the College Football Playoff, the Big 12 has only had two teams represent itself as the conference is guaranteed one spot in the playoff. This season, the goal for the Big 12 should be to have multiple teams make the bracket, and that is only possible if the conference has quality teams. The Big 12's reputation can either grow and have numerous teams in the rankings or its potential can be shattered by week two.

Why This Matters for the Horned Frogs

TCU has multiple chances to make the playoff if the conference is made up of quality teams. The aforementioned Thanksgiving game only holds its weight if TCU and Texas Tech are quality teams, and a potential spot in the title game is on the line. If both the Frogs and Red Raiders were 8-3 or 7-4 entering that game, the mainstream conversation would not care.

TCU Needs Help Beyond Fort Worth

Winning Brings Attention.

It’s not only Texas Tech that needs to win games to help the Frogs, but also Arizona State, which has a massive matchup against Texas A&M in week two of the season. The Aggies' making the playoffs last year holds power early in the season that the Sun Devils can take away. Even though the Frogs don’t play Arizona State in the regular season, they are a popular team to make the conference championship game.

Other teams that can make a splash this season are BYU and its matchup in week 7 against Notre Dame, and Baylor’s chance at an early-season victory over an SEC team.

Join the Conversation on Killer Frogs

Fifteen weeks before kickoff, the Big 12 feels like the forgotten member of a boy band when discussing the Power Four conferences, and TCU could be that team that brings glory and popularity back.

Do you think the Big 12 is discussed the same way as the other Power Four conferences? How does TCU take advantage of the parody in the Big 12?

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