2025 Top 4 Preseason Predictions

I have a feeling ASU will be a contender every year, Dilingham has got his crap together. As long as he’s there they will compete at the top. I know nothing about returning production, obviously these are all just my own opinions.

ASU, BYU, Iowa State, and either K-State or Colorado. Colorado depends on if Deion stays or not.

ASU, BYU, KSU and Iowa St. all have starting QBs returning and that means a lot for the success of a team.

As long as it isn’t Utah in the preseason top 4 I like our chances.

Man, I remember those early days in the PAC-12. I’d look at every team in the conference. Who is coming back, who is leaving, who had young players who look like they could be great. I’d rewatch games on the PAC-12 network. Get magazines, listen to podcasts, etc.

USC, Oregon, Washington, UCLA, Stanford, Cal, the Arizona schools…all great programs with great history. Exciting stuff.

Now? It all just seems like work. I don’t want to watch Kansas St or Iowa St games. Those aren’t good games with great players.

This conference just sucks. So, who will finish top 4?

ASU, Colorado, Utah, Kansas St…unless Skattebo leaves but then again Leavitt is coming back.

Colorado – if Deion leaves, the program is a dumpster fire again. They’d lose 50%+ of their team overnight.

Kansas St is a contender due to their QB being a year older. He should take a big jump forward.

Utah – If they can score 24 points a game, they will be in contention as well.

BYU – Paper tiger. Their QB is mediocre, their HC and OC are mediocre and they lose their best defensive player in Batty. I could see them around 6-8 wins.

And the rest? Just mediocre.

So, top 4:

Kansas St, ASU due to their QB’s. Utah because our defense is too good and I just can’t believe our offense will be that bad three years in a row.

Nevermind, Utah ain’t gonna be top 4.

KSU, ASU, Baylor and TCU. They are just better offensively than Utah and I don’t think Whitt will figure out how to have an offense after 20 years.

I called out ASU as the sleeper in our conference this year. I felt that there was no way they would finish last. Of course, I had not idea that we would pretty much take their place! My sleeper next season is Houston. They are sneaky decent on defense already and I think they have a really good coach.

There is NO excuse for Utah to not be in the top four in this conference. However, I am a lot like Utah above here, in that this conference just doesn’t interest me much beyond who Utah is playing each week. I really don’t have any real interest in programs like WVU, UCF, etc. With the Pac 12, we had regional and historical ties to many of the programs pre-built in when we joined. We would typically play a Pac 10 team every year in at least one out of conference game, and we would very likely play one in our bowl game. With the Big 12, minus BYU, TCU, and the 4 corner schools, we have literally nothing that ties us to any of the remaining teams. It is just a big yawner for me.

My very early pre season predictions:

1. Colorado
2. ASU
3. KSU
4. Utah
5. Iowa State
6. TCU
7. BYU
8. Baylor
9. Texas Tech
10. Oklahoma St
11. West Virginia
12. Kansas
13. UCF
14. Houston
15. Cinci
16. Arizona

Most of our losses this season were within one score despite the fact our offense was terrible. I think we bounce back next season.

Living in Colorado I am surrounded by resurgent CU Buff fans. The older fans believe that Sanders has not just changed the willing column, but changed the culture, one far more appealing to blue chip football recruits. These fans had been waiting for the return of the McCartney era, but no longer. Sanders is the wave of the future. If he leaves, they want or will expect a Sanders clone rather than a McCartney. Colorado is ‘primed’ for the future, with a culture entirely suited to the NIL and the transfer portal. Colorado will dominate the Big 12.

Alternatively, Utah, in a similar vein, albeit two decades ago, hired Urban Meyer, improving upon Ron McBride’s success. But Urban also changed the culture, with winning expectations and the MUSS, notably. His replacement, Coach Whittingham, was not a clone, but a hybrid, and Utah has enjoyed success, until this year. Whittingham returns next year, but with a new look? Perhaps, but I expect more of the same culture, “next man up”, with a return to developing rather that hunting for the most talented. Utah will edge back up to front, but will never dominate the Big 12, any more than they did the PAC 12.

I think the culture at Colorado, at least from a distance, is kind of toxic. Fighting, hazing, flaunting of money (bankruptcies), huge ego’s etc. I think that is a high ceiling-low floor kind of program as it’s sitting now. If everything clicks, they’ll be great. If things start to go off the rails, they’ll really go off the rails.

I’m not trying to talk s**t, and who really knows what goes on behind closed doors, but just seems like there is always the bad kind of smoke coming out of that clubhouse.

I prefer Utah to be the underdog. Utah has a lot to prove next year, and that suits us well I think. This conference doesn’t have a dominant team right now, and any of those teams could end up at the top if a couple close games go their way. I think BYU and Utah were probably really close to each other this year, with BYU getting the benefit of a few calls and a few plays that had to go their way that did, and Utah getting a few bad bounces and poorly timed injuries that hurt them.