By Jackson Posey | Sports Editor, Braden Murray | LTVN Executive Producer
Baylor will retain head football coach Dave Aranda for a seventh season, university President Linda Livingstone confirmed in a statement Friday.
The university athletics department is in upheaval after Mack Rhoades resigned amid investigation Thursday night. Livingstone acknowledged fan frustrations with the football program under Aranda, who has long been on the hot seat, and said university leaders “share in them.”
“We recognize this decision will generate strong opinions,” Livingstone said. “Let me be clear: Baylor expects excellence, accountability and competitiveness at the highest level. We are not complacent, and we are not settling for mediocrity.”
Aranda is 36-35 in six seasons at Baylor since his hiring in 2020, including a school-record 12 wins in 2021. That season featured victories in the Big 12 Championship and Sugar Bowl.
Since then, things have gone downhill. The Bears are 22-26 since that Sugar Bowl victory and appear to be headed toward their third losing season in four years. (Baylor is currently 5-5 and will likely be underdogs in its final two games of the season.)
“We acknowledge the frustrations many of you feel, and we share in them,” Livingstone said. “Baylor Football has experienced both historic highs and challenging seasons under Coach Aranda. While we celebrate the Big 12 Championship and Sugar Bowl victory in 2021, we know this season has not met our shared expectations.”
Aranda was nearly fired after a disastrous 2023 season, which saw the Bears lose to Texas State and finish with a 3-9 record. He turned the ship around in 2024, ending the regular season on a six-game win streak, but fell short of expectations to compete for another Big 12 title in 2025.
Livingstone noted three main factors for keeping Aranda: stability during transition atop the athletic department; protecting the nation’s No. 29-ranked recruiting class and retaining the current roster; and “financial stewardship.”
“In an era of extreme volatility in college athletics with NIL, the transfer portal, revenue-sharing, and much more, this approach allows us to invest wisely in the program’s future rather than incur significant buyout costs during an unprecedented turnover of coaches across the country,” she said.
Baylor has one bowl win in six seasons under Aranda, the aforementioned 2022 Sugar Bowl. The Bears are on the verge of missing the postseason entirely for the third time in the past four seasons. They’ll go on the road to Arizona (7-3, 4-3 Big 12) as significant underdogs on Saturday before playing their regular-season finale at home against No. 23 Houston (8-2, 5-2).
