Athlon Sports releases preseason All-Big 12 team for 2025

In just over two months, the 2025 college football season is going here. So, now is as good a time as any to take a deep dive into what to expect from the upcoming year. That includes looking at some of the best players around the Big 12.

Athlon Sports recently released their preseason All-Big 12 team for the 2025 season. This comes as rosters have solidified following the spring Transfer Portal window. It also comes prior to practice for the season starting up in a few weeks, though, as anticipation continues to grow to see what these players are going to be able to do next season.

The Big 12 remains one of the most interesting conferences in the Power Four. It’s a conference driven by parity and it appears that several teams are going to be in the conference championship race this season. These preseason All-Big 12 players are certainly hoping to make their impact felt on that conference championship race.

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First-Team All-Big 12 offense, quarterback

QB – Sam Leavitt, Arizona State.

The Arizona State Sun Devils are coming off a season where they won the Big 12 Championship and went to the College Football Playoff. Much of that success was due to the play of Sam Leavitt at quarterback.

Leavitt now returns for the 2025 season. A duel-threat quarterback who has proven himself more than capable of performing under pressure, nobody is going to be surprised with how talented he is this season. At the same time, there’s no doubt that he can meet those expectations.

Running Back

RB – Jahiem White, West Virginia. Bryson Washington Baylor. Dylan Edwards, Kansas State.

Three running backs highlight Athlon’s All-Big 12 team for the 2025 season. Jahiem White of West Virginia is highlighted on the list following his back-to-back seasons rushing for better than 800 yards and receiving more than 100 yards.

Behind White, Bryson Washington and Dylan Edwards are also in the running back room. Washington is coming off a 1,000-yard season while Edwards has shown plenty of promise in both the running game and the passing game. The hope is he can live up to it next season.

Wide Receiver

WR – Jordyn Tyson, Arizona State. Chase Roberts, BYU. Eric McAlister, TCU.

There are plenty of talented wide receivers around the Big 12. Still, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the top wide receiver that was highlighted comes from Arizona State. There, he has the preseason All-Big 12 quarterback throwing to him.

In fact, all three of these wide receivers have something in common. They’re going to be playing alongside returning starting quarterbacks. That gives them some long-term chemistry and has helped to make these some of the more explosive offenses in the conference.

Tight End

TE – Joe Royer, Cincinnati.

Athlon only had one tight end on its preseason All-Big 12 list. That was Joe Royer from Cincinnati, who is with the Bearcats for his second season with the program and fifth playing college football.

Royer finished last year with 50 receptions for 521 yards and three touchdowns. It amounted to being a major breakout for him after three seasons playing less than five games annually with Ohio State. Now, the hope is he can build on that in 2025.

Offensive Line

OL – Bryce Foster, Kansas. Jordan Seaton, Colorado. Spencer Fano, Utah. Caleb Lomu, Utah. Ben Coleman, Arizona State.

There is plenty of talent around the Big 12 on the offensive line. Athlon would single out Bryce Foster among the conference’s many centers for recognition here. Beyond that, there’s a variety of linemen worth mentioning.

Notably, Utah coming off a 5-7 season has two offensive linemen in on the preseason All-Big 12 team. If they can live to their potential, that would go a long way to helping a new quarterback and offensive coordinator combo get the Utes back into conference title contention.

Defensive Line

DL – Dontay Corleone, Cincinnati. Domonique Orange, Iowa State. Dean Miller, Kansas. Lee Hunter, Texas Tech.

Along the defensive line, the Big 12 has plenty of standouts, particularly coming from the Midwest. There, Athlon chose to highlight a blend of interior and edge players. Among those players highlighted, Dean Miller led the way in terms of sacks with six last season.

Corleone, Orange, and Hunter are all going to provide massive tests for opposing offensive lines as well this season. Hunter, in particular, is unique among the players on this list, having transferred from one Big 12 school, UCF, to another, Texas Tech, this offseason.

Linebacker

LB – Isaiah Glasker, BYU. Keaton Thomas, Baylor. Jacob Rodriguez, Texas Tech. Austin Romaine, Kansas State.

Linebacker has always been massively important. Often tasked with wearing the green dot on defense and communicating play calls, these linebackers are vital to their teams.

Athlon highlighted Isaiah Glasker, Keaton Thomas, Jacob Rodriguez, and Austin Romaine among the conference’s linebackers. Glasker led the conference with 15 tackles for a loss last season. Thomas led the conference with 56 assisted tackles. Rodriguez led the conference with 77 solo tackles. Then, Romaine didn’t lead the Big 12 in any individual category but did put up a massive 96 total tackles and eight tackles for a loss as a sophomore.

Defensive Backs

DB – Jontez Williams, Iowa State. DJ McKinney, Colorado. Xavion Alford, Arizona State. Bud Clark, TCU.

At defensive back, Athlon broke it down the preseason All-Big 12 list to two cornerbacks and two safeties. At cornerback, there was Jontez Williams and DJ McKinney.

The, there are two safeties. Xavion Alford and Bud Clark highlight the top players going into the season there. Both of them are extremely experienced on the back end and tasked with taking on a conference full of talented passing attacks.

First-Team All-Big 12 specialists

K – Will Ferrin, BYU. P – Palmer Williams, Baylor. KR – Mekhi Mews, Houston. PR – Josh Cameron, Baylor.

The specialists are high priority around the country, even though they have a tendency to be overlooked by fans. Still, games are often won in the margins and that’s where you can find these stars. Will Ferrin made all of his extra points last season and 88.9 percent of his field goals while Palmer Williams averaged 49.3 yards per punt.

For the returners, Mekhi Mews has returned punts and kicks both in the SEC and with Houston in the Big 12. Last season, he averaged 25.9 yards per kick return. Josh Cameron, for his part, had 20.7 yards per punt return.