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Phil Steele releases 2023 preseason All-Big 12 team

Alex Weberby:Alex Weber•07/08/23
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Nick Tre. Smith | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

The upcoming 2023 season has a chance to be one of the more special years in the history of the Big 12. It is certainly unique, since the conference will have a combination of teams they’ve never had before and won’t have again. They just added BYU , UCF, Cincinnati and Houston and are losing Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC next fall.

So for just this year, the Big 12 has 14 teams after they had 10 for a long time. Then, starting next year, the universe will be at peace as the Big 12 drops back to its fitting tally of 12 total teams. The eight remaining teams who were there before all the realignment and will still be there after: Texas Tech, TCU, West Virginia, Kansas, Oklahoma State, Baylor, Kansas State, Iowa State.

With so much talent packed into the conference for just this one season, college football guru Phil Steele decided to name four All-Big 12 teams. You can check those out right here:

First Team Offense

In their final year with the conference, Oklahoma once again has the top passer in the conference, at least in Steele’s eyes. He clearly foresees the Dillon Gabriel-Jalil Farooq combo to work wonders in Norman this fall.

Elsewhere, there’s a surprising name up there in BYU’s Aidan Robbins. The Louisville, KY native is a hoss in the backfield at 6-foot-3 and just put up a 1,000-yard season with UNLV last season. It’s unseen if he can be as productive at the power conference level, but Phil Steele has plenty of faith in the journeyman senior.

First Team Defense & Specialists

Some more love for a BIg 12 newcomer here by Phil Steele as he predicts a pair of Bearcat D-linemen as first-team all-conference. He also has a lot of faith in the Kansas secondary, with a cornerback and a safety from the Jayhawks both making the list, one of which is named Cobee Bryant. Surely, he’ll be a fan favorite.

Overall, the first team is pretty balanced, with no single team earning more than four nominations. The two that did were Texas and Kansas State, and one of the Wildcats’ selections is their long-snapper.

And yes, there’s three more teams worth of long snappers and All-Big 12 selections from Phil Steele. You can check out his All-Big 12 second, third and fourth team nominations below:

Second Team

Offense

Defense

Specialists

Third Team

Offense

Defense

Specialists

Fourth Team

Defense

Specialists

Whew, that is quite a bit of names. As mentioned, it’s a pretty balanced list that doesn’t just have the obvious choices penciled in. Like we mentioned with Aidan Robbins, there’s some pretty dark horse selections from Steele. He even made sure to represent every single team in the conference numerous times throughout the list.