First off, Rising not finishing the season health or being out for a considerable amount of time was easy money to bet on... and EVERYTHING about the preseason predictions was based on Rising.
Utah wasn't that great of a team last year either... in fact they were pretty average. In fact, Utah has been just an average team since 2019... and their 2019 team was their best team they had.
Utah is going to hit the transfer portal pretty hard this year... we'll see what it produces but I just don't see Utah having all that great of a season next year either. It won't be as bad as this season was, but I do not believe Utah will be in contention for the BIG12 next year.
Baylor could actually be a scary team next year, so will Arizona State. Cinncinati could be really good, they are a bit of a young team as well. TCU could actually be a decent team also, I think they return a lot of players next year. Kansas State... if they can figure out some of their offensive problems, they too could be really good.