By JOHN KLEIN Sr. Sports Columnist on Jul 21, 2012, at 11:54 AM Updated on 7/21 at 11:54 AM
KLEIN'S KORNER
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Oklahoma and Oklahoma State are in fairly appropriate spots in the Big 12 Conference preseason polls.
The Sooners are picked first and OSU fourth in the preseason poll. Considering all of the factors, those are fairly close to what most believe.
That doesn’t mean the preseason poll doesn’t have some baffling choices.
Kansas State, runnerup in the Big 12 a year ago and with one of the top all-around players in college football, is picked sixth. Collin Klein was virtually ignored in the all-Big 12 quarterback discussion although many believe he is in the same league, and is the same style, as former Florida Heisman winner Tim Tebow.
Texas Tech has many of the same weapons, including quarterback, that won in Norman a year ago but the Red Raiders, who are expected to be considerably better, are picked ninth.
Iowa State, who has a habit of knocking highly-ranked teams including No. 2 Oklahoma State last year, has the core of its team returning but is picked eighth.
Baylor lost a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback and record-setting receiver and running back. Still, the Bears have been steadily improving their overall talent, similar to OSU, but is picked seventh.
In other words, there are reasons to fear the bottom half of the Big 12.
That may say more about the overall quality of the Big 12 than it does about teams being picked too low.
We’d love to move all of those teams up in our preseason poll but who do you move down?
Oklahoma is a consensus pick to win the league and should be.
After that, there are probably five teams that could be thrown up in the air and however they land in the preseason poll would be fine.
There wouldn’t appear to be much difference between No. 2 pick West Virginia and No. 6 pick Kansas State.
Texas at No. 3 is a virtual tossup with No. 4 OSU and No. 5 TCU.
There are no huge surprises in the preseason poll.
But, there are plenty of reasons to believe the final standings could look nothing like the preseason.
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