While the Big 12 may lack a college football “blue blood” heading into the 2024 season, the league has no shortage of proud football programs.
Oklahoma State, TCU, Kansas State, and Utah have been some of the winningest programs in the country over the past two decades, while some teams are now starting to come into their own success in recent years.
However, the opposite was true for several programs last year as well, with schools like Cincinnati and Houston having tough inaugural seasons in the Big 12. According to Phil Steele’s Stock Market Indicator (SMI), though, things could be looking up for those programs in Year 2.
Steele’s SMI, which is calculated using the previous year’s win total compared to the two years prior, has generally provided a good forecast for what a team’s record should look like in the year ahead. For example, since 1990, there have been 51 teams with a stock market indicator of +6.0 or higher, and 43 of them saw an improved record in that given season.
Four such teams exist heading into the 2024 season, three of which are in the Big 12.
The top bull market team in college football is Cincinnati, who checks in with an SMI of +8.0 after going 3-9 a season ago. The Bearcats aren’t used to missing out on bowl season, as they lost as many games last season as they had in the four seasons prior combined.
Cincy is almost guaranteed to improve its record this season, though, with the SMI pointing that far in a positive direction.
Two more Big 12 programs check in as the third and fourth-most bullish teams in college football this season, with Baylor and Houston both checking in at +6.0 on SMI after disappointing years in 2023.
Baylor is a few seasons removed from a 12-2 season that included a Big 12 title, while Houston was also 12-2 in 2021. Indications suggest that things are looking up in 2024 for both the Bears and the Cougars, which should make fans of both programs feel a little better about things going into 2024.
