MORGANTOWN — A year ago, the Big 12 released its 2022 preseason football poll as forecast by the conference media and, if history is any kind of guide, looking back at that ought to lend some hope to West Virginia for the upcoming season.
Call it grasping at straws, perhaps, for the Mountaineers were picked to finish 14th and last in this year’s media poll, which was released on Thursday.
Of course, last year TCU was selected seventh — just one place and two points ahead of West Virginia.
And you know how that turned out, the Horned Frogs went on to win the Big 12 regular season championship by going 12-0 before falling in the Big 12 Championship Game to Kansas State.
Despite that loss, TCU went to the NCAA Playoff Championship Game but was demolished by Georgia, 65-7.
So, as you probably had figured out a long time before last year’s poll, the media is not always right.
But there’s no way to make much more than obvious out of being voted 14th in a 14-team conference, 73 points behind 13th place Cincinnati.
A couple of weeks ago Brown addressed preseason predictions and how he handles them.
“You can use some things (to motivate the team), but it’s pretty simple to me – either you prove them right or you prove them wrong. The goal is to prove them wrong. They know about the preseason predictions, and we’ll bring it up, but there is no hidden information anymore,” he said.
“We’re going to have a group that has a chip on its shoulder because of some of the good that has occurred, how we finished the year, people tend to forget that or not talk about that as much because it doesn’t have as much juice.”
“Negative stuff picks up faster. I told somebody else this, the loudest, most-heard voice doesn’t mean it’s the most accurate voice out there. I do think we have a much better football team than what some of the preseason people think, but it’s up to us to go out and prove it.”
The Texas Longhorns were the choice of the conference’s combined media, collecting 41 points for first place and finishing with 866 points in their final Big 12 season before leaving for the SEC with Oklahoma.
Kansas State finished second in the poll with 14 votes for first place and 858 points while Oklahoma and Texas Tech each grabbed 4 first-place votes and 758 and 729 points respectively.
None of the four new teams in the conference this season is expected to contend with Central Florida picked 8th with 453 points and BYU, Cincinnati and Houston 11th, 12th and 13th.
2023 Big 12 Football Media Preseason Poll
1. Texas (41), 886
2. Kansas State (14), 858
3. Oklahoma (4), 758
4. Texas Tech (4), 729
5. TCU (3), 727
6. Baylor, 572
7. Oklahoma State (1), 470
8. UCF, 463
9. Kansas, 461
10. Iowa State, 334
11. BYU, 318
12. Houston, 215
13. Cincinnati, 202
14. West Virginia, 129
