2026 College Baseball Preview: Big 12

We’ll start with the Arizona Wildcats, the only school from the conference to make it to the College World Series last season.

Arizona lost many of its big bats from 2025, including Mason White, Aaron Walton, and Brendan Summerhill, to the pros. It’ll be up to the returners, plus newcomers like Carson McEntire from Oregon State, to pick up the slack. The good news is that the school did get ace Owen Kramkowski back for his junior season.

Unfortunately for the Wildcats, the school won’t have reliever Tony Pluta for 2026. Pluta, who struck out 34 over 37 innings last season, underwent elbow surgery and miss all of this year.

Arizona State

The Sun Devils made the 2025 NCAA Tournament thanks to what was a strong team on paper. However, Arizona State will have to adjust after losing several notable talents, including Brandon Compton, to the pros.

Among the notable returning players are Landon Hairston and Nu’u Contrades. Hairston, a sophomore at ASU, hit .333 for the Sun Devils last season, while Contrades picked up 24 extra-base hits last season.

Cole Carlon and Easton Barrett are among the notable returning pitchers.

Baylor

The Baylor Bears had a good season in 2025, despite not making it to the NCAA Tournament. Baylor won 33 games, although only 13 of those wins came through Big 12 play. The school will look for better in what will be a difficult conference.

Unfortunately, the Bears won’t have arguably their best hitter from 2025, Tyriq Kemp, who is now a member of the Kansas City Royals. However, Baylor did return Travis Sanders, who hit .335 for the school last season.

Senior pitcher Ethan Calder, the team’s strikeout leader from 2025, is on the roster for 2026, as well.

BYU

While BYU’s football team was one of the best in the Big 12 this past season, the Cougars will look for better in 2025 after the school went 10-20 in conference play. But as noted earlier, it won’t be easy this year.

The school did return two of its best hitters from 2025, senior outfielders Luke Anderson and Bryker Hurdsman, the latter of whom finished last season with the highest OPS (.956) on the team. Hurdsman batted .337 over 51 games for BYU.

Garrison Sumner and Payton Gubler, two of BYU’s top three starters from 2025, are also on the roster for 2026.

Cincinnati

Two of the Bearcats’ top players from 2025 were preseason All-Big-12 players: Jack Natili and Nathan Taylor. And, for good reason.

Natili, as noted in our fall preview article, had a fantastic 2025 season, both in the regular season and in the Cape. The former Rutgers catcher hit .338 with nine home runs and was a key component of Cincinnati’s 2025 team that made it to the NCAA Tournament last season.

Taylor, meanwhile, struck out 91 over 87 innings last season for the Bearcats.

Houston

Houston will need to rebound after losing pitcher Antoine Jean, one of the best overall pitchers in the Division I ranks last season, and now a member of the Colorado Rockies (Jean will also pitch for Team Canada this coming March in the WBC).

The good news for the Cougars, though, is that the team has several notable returning hitters for this upcoming season.

Kansas

Outfielder Brady Ballinger is the name to watch for Kansas.

Ballinger, a likely 2026 MLB Draft pick, hit 16 home runs and .353 for Kansas last season, a year that helped push him on the preseason watch list for the Golden Spikes Award.

Aside from Ballinger, pitcher Dominic Voegele, and Dariel Osoria are among the other notables for Kansas, one of the major success stories in the Big 12 over the last two seasons.

Kansas State

KSU’s roster over the past few seasons has produced a lot of pro talent. That’s a good thing, as even though it means turnover, it also means that the program has been successful. Given what the program has done in postseason play of late, that’s obvious.

The Wildcats have several notable, productive hitters who returned to 2026, including Kyan Lodice and Dee Kennedy.

Kansas State’s pitching staff also has potential, especially if the Wildcats can get Carson Liggett, recovering from elbow surgery, back and productive in 2026.

Oklahoma State

It’s been all about the offense these past few years for the Oklahoma State Sooners. That may very well be the case again in 2026.

Avery Ortiz, TP Wentworth, Colin Brueggemann, and Brock Thompson are among the returning hitters for the OK State roster, which also includes sophomore Garrett Shull. Brueggemann has been one of the school’s best home run hitters over the past few years.

Hunter Watkins and Hudson Barrett are among the new pitchers on the 2026 roster.

TCU

TCU enters the 2026 season with sky-high expectations.

The Horned Frogs are loaded from top to bottom. Starting with the offense, TCU’s prospective lineup will include Sawyer Strosnider, Noah Franco, and Chase Brunson, all of whom could be future Day 1 picks in upcoming MLB Drafts.

As for the pitching, it’s led by Tommy LaPour and Mason Brassfield. Brassfield, a heavy fastball/slider pitcher, and LaPour, who was hitting 96-97 MPH with his fastball, make up what should be a strong rotation on paper.

Texas Tech

Like the Horned Frogs, the Texas Tech Red Raiders have one of their own superstar college hitters.

Outfielder Logan Hughes returned for his junior season as he looks to solidify his prospect stock for the 2026 MLB Draft. Last season was a big one for Hughes, who hit 19 home runs and posted an OPS north of 1.100 for Texas Tech.

There’s also junior catcher Matt Quintanar, who had a team-high 95 hits at Blinn College in 2025 and was one of the headlining transfers for TTU, alongside ex-Maryland slugger Hollis Porter.

UCF

As we noted in our UCF fall preview, there are a lot of new faces for the Knights, particularly on the pitching side of things.

However, UCF did bring its big bat back for 2026.

That would be outfielder Andrew Williamson, who tore it up in the Sunshine State last season. Williamson hit .352 with 13 home runs and 36 extra-base hits last season for UCF.

Utah

The Utah Utes aren’t exactly a baseball powerhouse. However, the program has done well with producing pro talent, including in 2025 when infielder Core Jackson was drafted by the Yankees.

Austen Roellig and Tyler Quinn are also gone. However, the school did bring back Matt Flaharty, who finished fifth on the team in hits last season.

Pitcher Colter McAnelly, who struck out 92 over 92.2 IP as the Utes’ staff ace, is also back for the 2026 season.

West Virginia

Our last team in our Big 12 season preview is West Virginia, a school that’s done very well over the past few seasons.

Returning for 2026 is Chase Meyer, who struck out a lot of batters for the Mountaineers last season despite walk troubles. Meyer will be joined by Seton Hill transfer Ian Korn and Adelphi addition Dawson Montesa.

Outfielder Armani Guzman headlines the offense.