From TV ratings to the Top 25, TCU and the Big 12 have a media problem
TCU’s best chance to make its biggest impression this entire 2025 season is turning out to be the first half of its first game.
The same could be said of the entire Big 12, at least until the playoffs.
As the 2025 college football season moves into its second half, the gap that TheBigSEC10 created, with the complicit approval of broadcast partners ESPN and Fox, has widened to levels that should (and do) only continue to trouble every member of the ACC and the Big 12.
There is no need of a “super conference” since it effectively already exists.
From The Associated Press to ESPN, and countless talking heads, both the ACC and Big 12 continue to suffer from a serious media problem that has them both just barely ahead of the Group of Five.
According to Nielsen’s rating, so far this season there have been 28 college football games that have eclipsed 5 million viewers. The Big 12 has one: TCU at North Carolina, on Sept. 1.
The interest in that game was driven by the debut of UNC head coach Bill Belichick; TCU led 20-7 at the half, at which point most of America changed the channel.
America watches the SEC, and the Big Ten. Records don’t matter much. This is about big names, perception and the party atmosphere, the latter of which the SEC does better than any sports league in America.
Iowa State’s game against Kansas State on Aug. 23 is the second-highest-rated Big 12 game this season. That was the game played in Ireland when it basically was the only game on; it is the 33rd-highest-rated in college football this season.
Texas Tech’s game at Utah on Sept. 20 is the other Big 12 broadcast that had 4 million or more viewers.
Not even Deion Sanders’ Colorado Buffaloes have moved the needle. ABC has not picked one Big 12 game to be on its network this season.
This is about names, and conference affiliation. The Big 12 is 8-6 in games against other Power Four conference teams, whereas the Big Ten is 5-7.
“People are going to have to readjust [their] assumptions. For years, you look at SEC and there would be all of these undefeated teams, and the bottom teams weren’t that good. Well, now Vanderbilt is the favorite against LSU,” TCU head coach Sonny Dykes said this week during his weekly press conference.
“Now that league is starting to have some of the problems that we’ve had in the Big 12 when it comes to when you look up and how many undefeated teams are there?”
One. No. 4 Texas A&M is the only undefeated team in the SEC, but 10 schools from that league are ranked in The Associated Press Top 25.
Speaking of the Top 25, the Big 12 has no team ranked in the top 10; the Big Ten has three, including No. 1 Ohio State and No. 2 Indiana.
BYU is No. 11. Texas Tech (14th), Cincinnati (21st) and Arizona State (24th) are the other Big 12 teams ranked in the AP Top 25.
“I don’t know if many people pay attention to the Top 25 anymore. I don’t know if it’s an indicator of who’s good and who’s not,” Dykes said. “For a long time it meant more than it does now.”
This may be true, but ...
“I think perception matters particularly when you have a beauty contest,” Dykes said, “which is what the regular season is; trying to get yourself into the playoff.”
The Top 25 still matters. Despite its flaws, it’s still a data point, a source of influence.
TCU has not played a ranked team since the final weeks of the 2023 season. Two of its final five opponents are currently ranked, BYU and Cincinnati.
The eyeball test says BYU and Cincinnati are legit good, and Texas Tech belongs in that same discussion. But the college football season is again heading towards another debate that says a two- or potentially three-loss SEC team is better for the playoffs than a one-loss team from the ACC or Big 12.
“We need somebody, and hopefully it’s going to be us, to get in the playoff and beat a Michigan, or somebody like that,” Dykes said. “Arizona State was on the verge of beating Texas [in the ‘24 playoffs]. If that happens, people think this league deserves a little bit more respect than they’re getting.”
Nothing else works.
This story was originally published October 25, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
