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A Few Arguments with Big 12 Predictions
Published: 7/21/2012 11:54 AM
Last Modified: 7/21/2012 11:54 AM

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.




Reader Comments 1 Total
colhi64 (7 months ago)
Move OSU up a couple of spots. Texas could beat OU this year. The two new schools should be right in the mix also. What a great season its gonna be.
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Klein's Korner

Tulsa World senior sports columnist John Klein is in his fourth decade of covering sports. He started his newspaper career at The Daily Ardmoreite in 1977 and moved to the Tulsa World in 1978. He served 10 years as sports editor for the Tulsa World before being named to his current position in 2005. He also spent five years as the Southwest Conference beat writer for the Houston Post. He has won many writing awards and is a former Oklahoma Sports Writer of the Year.

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