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Chapter 1 of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s experience in the Big 12 should be titled “Strangers in Our Midst.â€�

Do you know who won the most Big 12 conference championships? Texas Tech. Yes, Texas Tech. The Red Raiders won league titles in softball, women’s tennis, men’s and women’s outdoor track and men’s and women’s indoor track.

That’s not exactly the old Pac-12, in which you knew the names of the coaches and athletes, the Olympians, the NFL quarterbacks, first-round NBA draft picks, World Series champs, and a history of each school’s sports successes from Jackie Robinson to Gronk.

It’s a solid bet that most UA fans have been to at least one or two games on every campus in the old Pac-12, most of which were destination journeys.

Have you ever been to Lubbock, Texas? A few years ago, I punched up a list of the Bottom Four, the least favorite cities I had visited in decades of sports writing. Lubbock was No. 1, a shade ahead of Stillwater, Waco and Manhattan, Kansas — all Big 12 encampments.

No wonder Texas and Oklahoma sought more elite companionship in the SEC.

I bring this to your attention because the Big 12 completed the year with four total NCAA championships: BYU won men’s and women’s cross country, TCU won beach volleyball and Oklahoma State won men’s golf.

That would be a good year for USC or Stanford or Oregon.

The old Pac-12 partners combined to win 514 NCAA championships, the new Big 12 (or 16, if you’re counting) has won 238. And it’s not pretty.

Oklahoma State, the Big 12 leader in NCAA titles, won 34 in wrestling and another in equestrian. West Virginia has won 20 NCAA championships, which you probably think is a typo. But 19 of the Mountaineers’ championships are in men’s rifle competition.

Kansas State is one of three Power 4 schools to never win an NCAA championship, although typical of the Big 12’s lack of appeal, KSU has been the new Big 12’s leading football school for 30 years, since Bill Snyder made K-State a consistent Top 25 program.

Yet BYU, not Kansas State, is the most appealing name on ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s home football schedule, and probably in the Big 12 altogether. The Cougars still get mileage from their 1984 football national championship, but otherwise have 13 NCAA championships — seven in men’s cross country and six in women’s cross country.

That’s barely half of ASU’s 26, and ASU hasn’t been an elite athletic program since 1980.

If we are to believe that Texas Tech had the Big 12’s most successful sports season, 2024-25, with six conference championships and an impressive bolt to the Women’s College World Series finals, it must be noted that this was probably the top season in Tech sports history. Across 100 years, Texas Tech has only won three NCAA titles: women’s hoops, 1993; men’s track, 2019, 2024.

If Texas Tech is your sports leader, ESPN is going to look the other way.

Oh, well. At least UA fans will have a chance to get a look at Big 12 competitors up close next May when the Wildcats are host to the Big 12 Track and Field Championships. This may be difficult to believe, but the Big 12 now has more Top 25 track teams (men’s and women’s) than the old Pac-12, and by quite a margin. Track and field might be the Big 12’s best sport. The final regular-season rankings:

Men: 1. USC; 14. Texas Tech; 16. BYU; 19. ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥, 25. Houston.

Women: 3. USC; 4. Baylor; 5. Oregon; 8. Texas Tech; 10. BYU; 14, TCU.

It may be the most encouraging development of the year. See you at Drachman Stadium next May. Introductions may be in order.