It was a quiet day regarding news, so only a couple of links today.

Conference Realignment

St. Paul Pioneer Press’ Charley Walters has a small note about how the Big 12 is said to be wooing the Golden Gophers:

The Big 12 Conference is said to be quietly seeking the Gophers, but Minnesota can’t afford the revenue loss of a new Big Ten Network deal, which, with the expansion of USC and UCLA in two years, could be worth nearly $100 million a year.

I’m trying to figure out the play here, other than teams like Minnesota could be left in the cold at some point, but that seems like a stretch.

Football

Athlon Sports examines the Big 12 win totals:

Texas Tech (Over 5.5 -110…Under 5.5 -110)
Non-Conference Games: Murray State, Houston, at NC State
Schedule Notes: The Red Raiders get Houston at home for their second game after beating the Cougars 38-21 last season. The trip to Raleigh to face NC State begins a stretch of three of four on the road. After an Oct. 15 bye week, four of the final six games are in Lubbock.
QB: Tyler Shough
Roster Notes: Shough wasn’t bad for this Red Raiders offense last season, but he got hurt and Henry Colombi and Donovan Smith took over. Colombi has transferred (Marshall) but Smith is back and after accounting for 10 touchdowns last season he has a shot at beating out Shough. The top three RBs return, which is good because the WR corps is without its top two targets. The defense returns a fair amount of starting experience but none of the top three tacklers from last season. Tim DeRuyter is the new defensive coordinator while OC Zach Kittley hopes to recreate the same success he had at WKU in 2021 for new head coach Joey McGuire.

Prediction: I like the under here. Might be my favorite play in the conference.

Athlon Sports has the win total at 5.5 so it’s bowl game or bust for the win total. After the first game, Murray State, the following five games of Texas Tech’s schedule are pretty brutal: Houston, @ NC State, Texas, @ Kansas State, and @ Oklahoma State. I don’t know if Texas Tech will need to rebound after that, but if they do, then that could be pretty tough to do.