Homecoming
This is our favorite time of year, too. 116 years (and counting) of welcoming home Baylor Alumni is finally upon us, and don’t worry, because we have a guide for the perfect homecoming week.
Baylor enters the matchup after a 41-20 loss at No. 21 Cincinnati and a 42-36 loss at TCU. The homecoming game will kick off at 11 a.m. against UCF at McLane Stadium. The Bears last faced the Knights in 2023, earning a tight 36-35 win.
As the nation’s first collegiate homecoming calls for plenty of traditions – the bonfire, Pigskin Revue, and the parade. And yes, some traditions are stranger than others. An odd tradition that caught, freshmen once guarded the bonfire from rival schools, and the only way to pass through the barricade was to kiss the keeper.
Share your favorite homecoming traditions, old and new, with us during our post-homecoming parade brunch.
We Know Ball
Baylor basketball is back! No.16 Baylor women’s basketball had an 86-46 win over West Texas A&M during an exhibition last Saturday afternoon at the Foster Pavilion – highlighted by graduate guard Jana Van Gytenbeek’s long-awaited return.
Baylor women’s basketball has plenty to celebrate this past week. Senior guard Bella Fontleroy has been named to the 2025-26 Preseason Watch List for the Cheryl Miller Small Forward of the Year Award. Coming off of a Katrina McClain Award finalist and WBCA honorable mention All-American, Senior guard Darianna Littlepage-Buggs has been named to the 2025-26 Preseason Watch List for the Katrina McClain Power Forward of the Year Award for the third-straight season. Littlepage-Buggs is also named on the Naismith Trophy WBB Player of the Year Watch List.
Starting with a fresh roster, men’s basketball fell 76-74 against Indiana in an exhibition on Sunday. It’s not the greatest start to their non-conference half of the season, but let’s not forget the Bears took home Silver in the Rhine-Ruhr 2025 FISU World University Games this summer.
Senior guard Michael Rataj was recognized as one of the 20 candidates on the Karl Malone Award watchlist. Before transferring from Oregon State, Rataj was named the NABC All-Pacific Second Team, in addition to the All-West Coast Conference First Team for the 2024-25 season. Freshman guard Tounde Yessoufou was named on the Julius Erving Award, which recognized the best small forward in men’s college basketball every year.
Times Up for Aranda?
Pressure continues to build up on head coach Dave Aranda after a string of losses these past few seasons. Following up on the 41-20 loss at No.21 Cincinnati, in which the Bears trailed 24-0 early on. CBS Sports listed Aranda among college football’s coaches on the hot seat.
If nothing more unexpected could happen, Baylor offensive line coach Mason Miller is no longer with the program due to a “personal matter.” The news comes amid a 4-4 record and a two-game loss heading into homecoming.
Aranda led the Bears to a Big 12 title and Sugar Bowl win in 2021, now faces the challenge of steadying a program that’s struggled to regain its footing since. Of course, being a coach over the past few years hasn’t been ideal: with a global pandemic, the rapid rise of NIL and the transfer portal. Aranda never learned to embrace these while recruiting players, which may have helped lead to a 3-9 season in 2023.
An article from CBS Sports said, “Aranda has repeatedly learned from his mistakes, adapted and made the right moves — just always too late.”
From a Baylor Lariat Instagram story post earlier this week, the student body polled, “Should Dave Aranda be fired?” The popular vote: yes.
Icy Comeback
Former Baylor track athlete Darryl Payne Jr. is trading in his cleats for the ice. With dreams to run in 2016 Olympics in Rio, after realizing the other runners were faster, he got a call from Team USA about a scouting camp Next Olympic Hopeful – a televised event for athletes to try and win a funded training spot on the bobsled team.
Payne said in a broadcast from Central Texas Local News, “Right now, it’s become my mission to inspire the black youth to pursue other sports beyond basketball, track and football. This is something that’s bigger than me.”
If he earns a spot at the 2026 Winter Olympics, Payne would become the first African American man to represent Team USA in skeleton.
