All but two of the CBS College Football writers pick Arizona 15th or last out of the 16 teams in the conference in their "Big 12 expert picks 2025: Most overrated and underrated teams, projected order of finish, bold predictions."
David Cobb picks Arizona to finish 10th in the Big XII and Brad Crawford picks the Wildcats 11th in the conference. Arizona is mostly an afterthought in the CBS Sports Big XII expert picks. Arizona is not mentioned in the projections about Most overrated team, Most underrated team, or Bold predictions.
Iowa State, Kansas State, Texas Tech and Utah were chosen by four different writers as their projected conference champion. Texas Tech was chosen as both the most overrated and underrated team in the Big XII entering the 2025 season by two different writers.
Arizona State, BYU and Iowa State were chosen as the other most overrated teams in the Big XII entering the 2025 season. Baylor, Houston, Kansas State and TCU were chosen as the other most underrated teams in the Big XII. Arizona plays all of the above teams in 2025 except Utah and Texas Tech.
Utah is the team most frequently mentioned under bold predictions. Houston, whom Arizona defeated in 2024, is a team that was often mentioned by the CBS Sports experts as having the potential to improve in 2025 and possibly shake up the Big XII Championship race over its final five games.
Iowa State, Kansas State, Texas Tech and Utah were the four teams picked by the experts to win the Big XII. Iowa State is the only team Arizona plays in a conference game. The game versus Kansas State on September 12 is a non-conference game that was scheduled before Arizona joined the Big XII.
Four CBS Sports experts picked Utah first, three picked Texas Tech first and one each picked Iowa State and Kansas State. Iowa State plays Kansas State in Dublin, Ireland, on Saturday in a game that could have a major impact on the competition for a Big XII Championship Game berth.
With one conference game against the consensus teams picked to finish at the top of the Big XII, Arizona could have an opportunity to surprise. Arizona State won the Big XII in 2024 after being picked to finish last.