Looking forward

Big 12 media days begin Monday in Frisco, Texas.

Big 12 Media Days arrive Monday. Those six words are always fun to type. They signal that college football is just around the corner. They indicate that the fun and the games are soon to arrive on our sports scene.

But before we get to that, we have lots of questions about football in the Big 12. Some will have to wait until the season to be answered, but others will be explained over the next couple of days at the Ford Center at The Star, the Dallas Cowboys mammoth indoor practice and event facility in Frisco.

Here are 10 questions — one for each team in this numerically challenged conference — that can be tackled at media days.

1. Can league leaders better handle queries about the Baylor scandal?

A year ago, Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby struggled to discuss the sexual assault cover-up at Baylor. He brought up “raging hormones.” He waffled on whether Baylor had been forthcoming with the league. He admitted the league didn’t have a vision for an end game with the school. It wasn’t good. A year later, the scandal is still making headlines, and while we know new Baylor coach Matt Rhule is used to answering questions about it, Bowlsby is sure to be asked again about it. With a year to prepare, you’d hope he’d be a lot more informed and a little less tone deaf.

2. Who the heck is Dorance Armstrong?

Maybe it’s a signal of where the Big 12 is defensively, but the Preseason Defensive Player of the Year is the junior defensive end from (wait for it) Kansas. This is not a drill. This is the real world. Thing is, Armstrong was a unanimous first-team selection, the only one on the defense, so he didn’t get the preseason nod by default. Every coach in the league thinks he’s big time.

3. What will Lincoln Riley be like?

Oklahoma’s rookie head coach has never been to a conference media day. Will he embrace it? Will he endure it? His former boss, Bob Stoops was actually at his most relaxed at Big 12 Media Days. Even though he never loved talking with reporters, Stoops would joke and laugh and actually let his guard down a bit. As a coordinator,

[PHOTO BY BRYAN TERRY, THE OKLAHOMAN] Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury, center, and Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield shake hands after last season’s game in Lubbock. Has the thaw in Kingsbury-Mayfield relations continued? Big 12 Media Days will give us an indication.