FWST: TCU climbs as we tweak Big 12 football expectations for 2016

BY JIMMY BURCH jburch@star-telegram.com

As is the case every June, preseason college football magazines have arrived in droves at newsstands over the past week. Unlike in most summers, insight about the upcoming Big 12 race is horribly skewed and out-of-date in most of those publications because of recent events at Baylor.

The makeup of the Bears’ 2016 roster has changed on a recurring basis since last month’s departure of coach Art Briles, who was dismissed by the school’s board of regents in the wake of the Pepper Hamilton report into allegations of sexual assaults by Baylor players and possible cover-up actions taken by football staffers in response to those allegations.

The bottom line is that Baylor, a near-unanimous second-place finisher to Oklahoma in most preseason projections about the 2016 Big 12 football race, should no longer be viewed in that light. Not with an interim coach (Jim Grobe) in charge of players he met less than two weeks ago, coupled with whatever additional roster deletions happen between now and the start of fall drills.