Veteran Big 12 reporter offers analysis on the evolving conference

Berry Tramel has served as a sports writer for publications such as Tulsa World and The Oklahoman for decades, covering the Big 12 since the league’s formation via merger in the 1990’s.

The Big 12 he saw presented when he attended Big 12 Media Days for football this summer is wildly different from what the league has looked like in the past. It's much larger, and the teams making up the league aren’t all quite the same as before. But when giving analysis on his view of the Big 12, Tramel finds himself excited at what is coming in the future for the conference.

"I think it's a fun league," Tramel said. "I don't know what's going to happen, but I think every game is going to be fun. The standings are going to be jumbled. In the SEC, I'll tell you what's going to happen, and you can ask me in August, March or February: Georgia is going to play Alabama (in the SEC championship game) and if a Joe Burrow is around, maybe LSU gets to go. To me, that's not fun. It's fun when I don't have any idea what's going to happen."

While Tramel admits he views the conference now as more of a new league than an extension of the one he spent so long covering, he thinks that the new look is “pretty cool” outside of the obvious travel concerns voiced by many.

"It's a new conference," Tramel said. "Six of the 16 members were in this league in 2011. Eight of the members were not in this league in 2022. That's two years ago.

"It's not the Big 12, but I actually think it's sort of a cool league," he explained. "The travel is going to be problematic, and I'm in the middle of it (living in Oklahoma) so it's not a big deal, but if you are on the edges I can understand it. Outside of that, it's pretty cool. What I like about it: one, for the first time with the schools I'm most familiar with – and the first time in their history – they are on a level playing field with everybody. There is no Texas with its $200 million athletic budget or OU with $175 million."

Because of that level playing field, he sees the race for this year’s championship -- as well as the race to be the top football program in the league long term -- to be wide open for the taking.

"Anybody can win," Tramel noted. "Aside from that, we've had this unbelievable parity the last four or five years anyway. We've had four different champions the last four years. We've had seven schools in the last four Big 12 title games. We've had teams come from way back in the pack to make it to Arlington (Texas) or win. In (2021), we had the No. 5 and the No. 7 teams picked in the media poll there.”