Big 12 Softball Media Days reveal preseason rankings; BYU checks in at No. 6

Big 12 Softball gathered its coaches and players Wednesday and Thursday for its annual media days broadcast to preview the upcoming season, which starts on Feb. 5.

The Big 12 released its preseason rankings and preseason All-Big 12 team during its media day broadcast.

BYU was picked to finish sixth this season.

Analyst Cat Osterman reacted and shared how she believes each team will perform.

“The thing that excites me the most is the competition level. Texas Tech added some big transfers that are going to elevate their game … Arizona being in their second year in the Big 12 now, finishing second last year - Do they have what it takes to be able to take that next step? Can they challenge Texas Tech?” asked Osterman, analyst for Big 12 Softball media days.

The Big 12 preseason poll is led by a strong Texas Tech team that was great last year and made it to the championship series of the Women’s College World Series, but eventually fell short to Texas in their three game series.

Coach Gerry Glasco joined Texas Tech in 2024. He immediately built a roster that was a championship caliber team.

Prior to the 2025 season, he brought in the number one transfer portal class in the nation and did it again this season.

“He put a roster together of essentially a series of all stars and he’s going to go to bat with them and so I think anything less than a national championship is a disappointment,” said Osterman.

However, there is plenty of talent in the Big 12 this year to be able to challenge Texas Tech.

University of Arizona finished second last year in the Big 12 and also retained a lot of their players for the 2026 season, which starts Feb. 5. They were predicted to finish third in the preseason poll.

Arizona head coach Caitlyn Lowe said, “We brought in ten new people to join nine returners and it could’ve taken us a few weeks to kind of get into our groove and I’ve loved how our transfers and freshmen fit in immediately”.

The program has reached its conference championship 12 times and has 35 consecutive NCAA tournament appearances.

Key returners for Arizona include senior Sydney Stewart, who was first team All-Big 12 in 2025, and junior Regan Shockey, who was second team All-Big 12 and part of the All-Big 12 Tournament team.

Oklahoma State has advanced to five Women’s College World Series tournaments in the past nine seasons. They were predicted to finish second in the conference this year.

“It’s just keeping the eyes on the prize and knowing that that’s kind of our standard,” said Ruby Meylan, pitcher for the Cowgirls. “We have that as a goal every single day. And we’re keeping that in the back of our mind and everything we work towards is for that end goal, the last game in [Oklahoma City].”

Arizona, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma State are also all in the NFCA Top 25 and look to build off of what they did last year.

Iowa State, who finished third in the conference last year, was predicted to finish seventh in the conference this year’s preseason poll, which raised some eyebrows across the league.

Osterman asked, “How do you put Iowa State seventh when they return almost everybody? They returned a lot and they bolstered their staff a little bit and so for me Iowa State is the question mark.”

Iowa State lost 2-3 to Arizona last year in the Big 12 tournament semifinals. They were not selected to the NCAA tournament, despite a great performance in Big 12 conference play.

Neither was BYU.

Photo by Kaden Cheshire

Finishing sixth in the conference last year, the Cougars were just outside the cusp of making the tournament due to some unfortunate midweek losses. They were predicted to finish sixth in the conference again this year.

Hailey Morrow, senior infielder for BYU said, “It stung the past two years being the first team out so we’ve used that to fuel our training and just be prepared.”

UCF was one of the five teams that made the NCAA tournament last year from the Big 12.

Head coach Cindy Ball-Malone led the Knights to a 33-21-1 overall record last year and went 12-12 in the Big 12. They finished seventh in the conference, but were ultimately given an NCAA tournament bid over third-place Iowa State and sixth-place BYU.

UCF had some key non-conference wins last year against teams like No. 15 Missouri and No. 4 Florida.

This year UCF was predicted to finish fifth in the conference.

“The Big 12 is so competitive so fifth in the Big 12 could typically mean like Top 25 or Top 20. But also we’re not here to be fifth,” said coach Ball-Malone. “The goal is to make it to the championship game in the Big 12 tournament and then playing on from there.”

Another question mark this year will be the Baylor Bears.

This is head coach Glen Moore’s 24th consecutive season. He coached the Bears to a Big 12 championship in 2007 and has led them to the playoffs three times in the last five years.

Baylor had a lot of veteran leadership last year and were ranked no. 19 nationally before the season started. Unfortunately, injuries led them to finish eighth in the conference last season.

This year, the team will be relying more on underclassmen.

“Last year I went to having the most veteran team that I have ever had here to this year having the youngest team," Moore said. "Eighteen of our roster members are sophomores and freshmen and there are so many unknowns, but it’s not where you start, it’s where you finish.“

The Big 12 with its strong depth and nationally ranked teams looks poised to finish strong this year and send more teams to the NCAA tournament.