Big 12 coaches put BYU sixth in their 2026 preseason soccer poll. Then they put three Cougars on the 24-player preseason all-conference team.
That is not a contradiction. It is a fairly clean description of BYU entering Jennifer Rockwood’s final season: the Cougars have proven players in every line, but they still have to turn a dangerous tournament team into a steadier regular-season one.
Presley Freeman, Lucy Kesler and Ellie Walbruch received the individual honors. Together they give BYU an outside back who has started 45 straight games, a holding midfielder with U.S. youth national-team experience and a 16-goal forward. The poll says the league remembers BYU finishing eighth last fall. The selections say coaches also remember who won the Big 12 Tournament.
Sixth is reasonable. It should not feel comfortable.
The poll gap is smaller than the place number
TCU received 13 of 16 first-place votes and led the poll with 222 points. Colorado followed at 187. West Virginia and Kansas tied at 182, Texas Tech had 180 and BYU had 164.
That leaves the Cougars 16 points behind fifth, 18 behind the third-place tie and 23 behind second. KSL’s Sean Walker noted that BYU had the second-highest point total among teams that did not receive a first-place vote. Coaches did not treat the Cougars like a middle-class afterthought. They placed them just behind a packed group of contenders.
| Preseason place | Team | Poll points | BYU’s 2026 meeting |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | TCU | 222 | Sept. 28 at South Field |
| 2 | Colorado | 187 | Not on the regular-season schedule |
| T-3 | West Virginia | 182 | Oct. 8 in Morgantown |
| T-3 | Kansas | 182 | Oct. 22 in Lawrence |
| 5 | Texas Tech | 180 | Oct. 16 at South Field |
| 6 | BYU | 164 | 11-match Big 12 schedule |
The schedule makes the poll more interesting. BYU plays four of the five teams ahead of it, including TCU and Texas Tech at home. It does not play Colorado. In a 16-team league where each school plays 11 conference matches, the table will be shaped by more than one tidy round robin.
BYU has direct chances to move past the preseason forecast. It also has no excuse to wait for the November tournament to look like a contender.
Freeman, Kesler and Walbruch form a real spine
Preseason teams often become a pile of names. BYU’s three selections fit together better than that.
Freeman is the continuity piece in back. BYU’s release credits her with 1,682 minutes, two goals, four assists and eight shots in 2025. More useful than any one total is her availability: she is the only current Cougar to start every match over the past two seasons. Forty-five consecutive starts give Rockwood one role she should not have to rediscover in August.
Kesler works in front of that defense. She started 22 matches last season and missed two while attending a U.S. U-20 national-team training camp. Her two goals and three assists do not fully describe a holding midfielder’s job. BYU needs her to connect the first pass out of pressure, close the space before an opponent reaches the back line and keep possession from becoming a series of sprints.
Walbruch supplies the finish. BYU’s current official release lists her 2025 totals at 16 goals, 91 shots and 41 shots on goal. She scored five times during the Big 12 Tournament and was named its most outstanding offensive player. Her Blue-White goal on Saturday came from Kesler’s service on the right, a small preseason example of why individual awards matter more when the players can solve the same possession.
This is the useful version of a three-player preseason honor. One defender, one midfielder and one forward give BYU structure through the center of a match, even if Freeman’s listed position is outside back and Walbruch starts her work higher up the field.
It does not settle goalkeeper, center-back partnerships, the second attacking option or the minutes for seven freshmen. The current roster still has choices to make. It does mean the Cougars are not asking every line to find its identity from scratch.
Sixth is a regular-season warning
BYU’s 2025 run can tell two different stories. The flattering one starts with a Big 12 Tournament championship and an NCAA trip. The less flattering one starts with an eighth-place conference finish that left no margin before the postseason.
Both are true.
A team with Walbruch’s finishing can win three tense tournament games. A team with Freeman and Kesler can survive stretches without the ball. That combination already has a trophy receipt. The 2026 question is whether BYU can avoid needing a late rescue.
The full schedule gives the Cougars an immediate test before conference play. They open at UCLA on Aug. 12, visit Wisconsin a week later and then host USC. BYU’s official schedule release says UCLA and Wisconsin finished 2025 ranked in the top 25. Those matches should reveal whether the veteran spine is helping seven newcomers and one senior transfer settle quickly enough.
The conference checkpoints are even clearer. TCU visits South Field on Sept. 28. BYU goes to West Virginia on Oct. 8, hosts Texas Tech on Oct. 16 and visits Kansas on Oct. 22. Those are four direct meetings with teams picked above the Cougars, compressed into 25 days.
A sixth-place finish would probably mean BYU handled the lower half but failed to take enough points from that group. A climb would require more than one upset. It would require fewer ordinary dropped points.
Idaho State is the first public rehearsal
BYU hosts Idaho State in an exhibition Saturday at 7 p.m. Mountain on South Field. The result will not count, but the shape will.
Freeman, Kesler and Walbruch do not need to dominate an exhibition for their preseason honors to look correct. Fans should watch whether the space between them stays connected. Can BYU move out of the back without asking Kesler to retrieve every loose possession? Can Kesler receive facing forward? Can Walbruch get service before the defense crowds her?
The goalkeeper minutes and freshman attacking roles also deserve attention, but the three all-conference selections give the rest of the lineup a reference point. New pieces can be evaluated by how well they connect to that spine, not by a generic tally of who looked lively.
Coaches picked BYU sixth because the regular season supplied that evidence. They selected Freeman, Kesler and Walbruch because the roster supplies a higher ceiling. Rockwood’s final team now has four months to decide which judgment lasts.
Sources and further reading
- Official BYU Athletics: 2026 Big 12 preseason poll and all-conference team
- KSL Sports: Where Big 12 coaches picked BYU in Jennifer Rockwood’s final season
- Official BYU Athletics: 2026 women’s soccer schedule release
- Official BYU Athletics API: 2026 women’s soccer schedule, ID 1624
- BYU Sport Nuts context: women’s soccer hub, roster, schedule and Rockwood’s final-season roster file
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