Big 12 Football 2013: Preseason Media Poll Released

The Oklahoma State Cowboys sit on top of the Big 12 preseason media poll and the Jayhawks are sitting in the basement. The Big 12 released the preseason poll this morning ranking the teams one through ten and six different teams received first place votes. The league that was the most balanced and produced the most bowl teams a year ago, might be sitting in the same situation in 2013.

Mike Gundy and the Cowboys received 15 first place votes. The challengers appear to be Oklahoma, TCU and Texas with each of those schools receiving 8, 9 and 8 first place votes respectively. Baylor checks in at no. 5 with two first place votes, while Kansas State comes in at number six after winning (or sharing depending on how you choose to slice it) the league a year ago.

The bottom four consists of Texas Tech, West Virginia, Iowa State and Kansas. For the Red Raiders, Mountaineers and Cyclones it's a situation of having lost a lot and having a fair amount of change and uncertainty heading into the season. Kansas on the other hand has done a lot to improve their talent, but this is still a 1-11 team and the last place ranking probably speaks more to the skepticism than anything. If the Jayhawks are going to begin to shift the momentum of the program, they need to circle games against Tech, WVU and Iowa State to start. Obviously Charlie Weis and his team also needs to target Kansas State in that mix and every league game is important, but step one is getting a few Big 12 wins and that needs to happen.