With rankings playing such an important role in determining the participants in the BCS championship, some people have become offended by the notion of preseason polls.
Some of those same people, however, have spent the last couple of days arguing about why their team isn't getting more respect in the various preseason rankings that have already come out.
I appreciate preseason rankings for what they are -- a fun way to talk and debate about how teams might fare during the upcoming season.
And really, it's never too early to talk about the next college football season.
Several national writers have come out with their early predictions for the 2013 season.
Obviously, Alabama is a prohibitive favorite to repeat as national champ.
But it's interesting to see the range of opinion on the football future of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and the rest of the Big 12.
ESPN's Mark Schlabach ranks Oklahoma at No. 17 in his 2013 top 25, behind Big 12 foes Texas (11) and TCU (14). Oklahoma State comes in at No. 24.
(Check out ESPN's full preseason top 25 here.)Interestingly enough, David Ubben, who blogs on the Big 12 for ESPN, thinks OSU will be the league's top team in 2013. He ranks OU third in the Big 12, with TCU second.
(Check out Ubben's blog here.)NationalChamps.net has Oklahoma at 15. OSU isn't in the website's top 25, but is among 11 other school's receiving consideration.
(See the site's full top 25 here.)If you're a Cowboys fan, you have to hope the New York Times' Mike Huguenin knows his stuff. During a BCS championship game live blog Monday, he picked OSU third in his preseason top five, just behind Alabama and Oregon and just ahead of Georgia and Texas A&M.
(Read the full game blog here.)Matt Hayes of the Sporting News picked a preseason top 10 that omitted the Big 12, while the 2013 top 10 of CBSSports.com's Chris Huston includes TCU at No. 9.
If you want something a little more scientific -- or at least financially backed -- the guys in Vegas have weighed in. Online gambling site Bovada.com has OU as a 25-1 shot to win the national championship, the best odds of any Big 12 team.
Texas is 30-1, Oklahoma State is 40-1, TCU is 66-1, Kansas State is 100-1, and West Virginia is 150-1.
