3 Hot Seats for the Big 12 Heading Into the 2024 Season

The Big 12 Conference is set to be the most competitive conference in the nation, with the conference title being essentially anyone's game. There is a lot of pressure that comes with that competition though, and if you can't handle the heat, you'd best stay out of the kitchen.

For these three coaches, the heat is rising ever higher and could soon be too hot to bear. Which three coaches could find themselves going up in flames this season?

Hot Seat No. 1: Dave Aranda, Baylor Bears

The Baylor Bears used to be one of those programs that would regularly compete with the titans of the conference. In 2021 they won the conference and the Sugar Bowl, under the coach whose name is the topic at hand.

Let's face it, Dave Aranda has a ton of work to do if he wants to keep his job. He let a good thing go bad and now he's picking up the pieces. A disappointing 6-7 campaign in 2022 was followed up by an even more disappointing 3-9 campaign in 2023. Baylor and Aranda took a major gut punch post-2021, and in Year 3 since that fateful 2021 season, it's time to put up or shut up.

Aranda did not help his case with his blunder at Big 12 Media Days, which while he did later clarify, was still a painfully awkward and perhaps telling moment. He admitted to being behind on NIL and paying players, wanting a more "transformational, not transactional" environment for his players. Obviously, the whole job of a coach is to be a teacher and mentor as well as foster a good environment for their players. That's not what drives recruiting though in this day and age.

This being said, Baylor and Aranda have made strides over the past month. They've recruited well, leaned into the NIL environment and embraced positive change for college athletics. In the Big 12, that's more important than ever given the progressive nature of the conference. If you can't change with the times, you'll get left in the dust. Aranda can learn this the easy way or the hard way, and it seems he's chosen the easier path. We'll see if it succeeds and results in wins, however, it may be too little, too late.

Hot Seat No. 2: Kalani Sitake, BYU Cougars

Sitake is in an interesting spot. His BYU Cougars found themselves in new territory last year coming to a new conference after being Independents for more than a decade. The change thus far has seemed to dampen the BYU program's ability to win games, going 5-7 and losing plenty of winnable games. While yes, the Big 12 is an adjustment, it isn't like the Cougars haven't played and won against power conference competition before.

The Cougars were decimated by injury last year which made it a lot harder. Coming into this year fully healthy will help, but how much? Should the Cougars have another losing season as they are predicted to have, how hot does that make Sitake's already warm seat? Do the Cougars look elsewhere after this year should they not make a bowl?

As CBS reporter Dennis Dodd puts it, "Did the Big 12 expose BYU or was 2023 a dip in the Cougars' fortunes? This season will go a long way in answering that question."

A couple big wins this year and Sitake just might be safe, but another losing season may be more than BYU's administration is willing to afford.

Hot Seat No.3: Scott Satterfield, Cincinnati Bearcats

Another Big 12 newcomer that got a reality check, the Cincinnati Bearcats went a dismal 3-9 in their debut season in the conference. Lack of passing game, a secondary that got burnt on the regular by the pass-heavy Big 12 offenses and overall, a lack of identity doomed the Bearcats in 2023.

This year, with quite a bit of experience and a few decent transfer pieces added, should be different. It falls on the shoulders of Satterfield, the second-year head coach of the Bearcats. Satterfield carved out fairly decent tenures with the Appalachian State Mountaineers and Louisville Cardinals, and while he had just those years at Louisville for power conference coaching experience, Cincinnati had just lost arguably their best head coach this century in Luke Fickell to the Wisconsin Badgers.

Not that Satterfield was a huge downgrade, but he was certainly different from Fickell, in a bad way. Louisville went 25-24 during Satterfield's tenure and went 1-1 in bowl games, so it wasn't exactly a home run hire who was used to winning at a high level. Satterfield having little power conference experience did him no favors, and while he is only in his second season as Cincinnati's coach, it's looking like "win now" territory rather than "develop and win later" territory already at a program that was getting used to being in the limelight regularly.

It isn't looking like Satterfield is the guy to get them back there. If things don't turn around soon and Cincinnati doesn't have more than an inkling of promise after this season, it may be time to pack some bags.

Living Up to Expectations

The Big 12 doesn't have a coach that is in immediate danger of losing his job, to be frank. All three of these coaches, should they have a fairly promising season or even just a season that lives up to expectations, will likely not lose their positions.

Athletics administrators are fickle beings, with fans and alumni being even more capricious. Who knows what might happen that could drive the final straw into the camel's back, breaking it beyond repair? These coaches would likely rather win now than continue to struggle until a solution is found, because a solution may be relieving them of their duties in search of someone that can get the job done quicker and better.