STILLWATER -- They always call them "way too early" predictions, but I'm going to call these post spring Big 12 football picks because it allows for me to come back later and make preseason Big 12 picks, which I know I will want to do. Believe it or not, some things will change over the summer, not a lot, but there are always a few developments. Heck, we've even had coaching changes take plays in the summer like in 1984 Oklahoma State went from Jimmy Johnson (left for Miami, Fla.) to Pat Jones and more recently Bob Stoops made his AARP membership official and Lincoln Riley took over after spring in 2017.

The overall theme for the Big 12 heading into the 2019 football season is renewal and change. Texas believes they have renewed their claim to being in contention at the top of the league and four schools Kansas with Les Miles, Kansas State with Chris Klieman, Texas Tech with Matt Wells, and West Virginia with Neal Brown have new head coaches and in some cases culture and scheme changes. Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy, the dean of football coaches in the Big 12, said it best on the conference's spring football coaches teleconference.

"All very quality coaches and deserving of their jobs, and it will be an interesting year," Gundy said. "We’ve been in a pattern in our league where we knew each other really well for a number of years, so this will throw a little curveball to everybody in the league for a couple of years."

TCU head coach Gary Patterson has actually been a head coach at his school longer than Gundy, but TCU joined the Big 12 after Gundy had been at Oklahoma State for seven years in the 2012 season.

"It’s always good for a league to have new blood come in, new ideas," Patterson said on the teleconference. "Now we have to get used to the new coaches and what they do and how they do things and their teams."

Nothing has changed at the very top as Lincoln Riley at Oklahoma fresh off another Heisman Trophy and first pick of the NFL Draft quarterback as Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray have down that double back-to-back has proven winner and Alabama transfer Jalen Hurts ready to go.

The questions abound, is Texas really going to stay at the top to battle Oklahoma? Will the Big 12 see a reduction in offense and an increase in defense? Will young, but talented coaches Matt Campbell at Iowa State and Matt Ruhle at Baylor keep their programs on the ascent?

I'm not saying we have all the answers, but we have some educated guesses after being around this league since it's inception in 1996 and covering it for all 24-years thus far.

By the way, here was the final count in our predictions for Big 12 games last season, proof we have a clue as to what we are talking about.

2018 Big 12 Football Predictions, week by week

How Robert Did the Last Two Weeks:

Championship Saturday

Straight Up: 2-0 1.000 Against the Spread: 2-0 1.000

Championship Saturday Results (Our picks)

Saturday, December 1

Dr Pepper Big 12 Football Championship

#5-Oklahoma (-8) 39 #14-Texas 27 (Our pick was 58-35 Oklahoma)

at Arlington, Texas (AT&T Stadium)

@#-23 Iowa State (-42) 27 Drake 24 (Our pick was 35-27 Iowa State)

Bowl Results (Our Picks)

Wednesday, December 26 Cheez-It Bowl, Phoenix, Ariz.

TCU (+1) 10 California 7 OT (Our pick was 23-20 TCU)

Thursday, December 27 Academy Sports + Outdoors Texas Bowl, Houston, Texas

Baylor (+4) 45 Vanderbilt 38 (Our pick was 27-24 Vanderbilt)

Friday, December 28 Camping World Bowl, Orlando, Fla.

#20-Syracuse 34 #16-West Virginia (+1.5) 18 (Our pick was 34-27 Syracuse)

Valero Alamo Bowl, San Antonio, Texas

#13-Washington State 28 #24-Iowa State (+3) 26 (Our pick was 38-34 Iowa State)

December 29 CFP Semifinal at the Capital One Orange Bowl, Miami, Fla.

#1-Alabama 45 #4-Oklahoma (+14) 34 (Our pick was 42-31 Alabama)

Monday, December 31 AutoZone Liberty Bowl, Memphis, Tenn.

Oklahoma State (+8) 38 #23-Missouri 33 (Our pick was 41-38 Oklahoma State)

Tuesday, January 1 Allstate Sugar Bowl, New Orleans

#15-Texas (+12.5) 28 #5-Georgia 21 (Our pick was 31-24 Georgia)

Bowl Season Selections

Straight Up: 4-3 .571 Against the Spread: 7-0 1.000

The Season Overall

Straight Up: 56-26 .683 Against the Spread: 45-30 .600