No top 10 teams means someone could rise quickly in the Big 12

By foxsports
Published

 Predictions of a down year for Big 12 football took on a more tangible edge over the weekend when not a single team from the league appeared in the top 10 of the Associated Press preseason poll.

A conference that was once a regular in the national championship game couldn't even break the top dozen among AP pollsters. The highest-rated Big 12 team heading into the season is Oklahoma State at No. 13.

And that's a shaky No. 13 because, like the majority of the Big 12, there's some question about the quarterback position at Oklahoma State.

The next-highest rated Big 12 schools are Texas and Oklahoma, a package duo at No. 15 and No. 16, respectively. Then comes TCU at No. 20 and that's it for the Big 12.

The lack of respect for the Big 12 is not unexpected. The conference is down to 10 teams, and two former members are ranked: Texas A&M at No. 7 and Nebraska at No. 18.

When your flagship programs, Oklahoma and Texas, are in transitional phases and the rest of the league can't tell you who the starting quarterback will be, well, that doesn't impress voters.

But the low rankings also present an opportunity to make a good impression once the games begin.

Oklahoma State could bolster its status with a season-opening win over Mississippi State from the highly revered SEC.

TCU could do the same with a high-profile matchup the same day, Aug. 31, against No. 12 LSU.

Texas has notable non-conference opponents in BYU and Ole Miss, while Oklahoma faces Notre Dame on Sept. 28.

If any of the above Big 12 schools win their high-profile non-conference matchups, it sets them up for a run to the top of the polls.

If the Big 12 is as down as the pollsters say it is, then a team that proves to be better than predicted could make a run through the league. Not that it will be easy, but there isn't a Top 5 matchup looming this season in the Big 12.

At the end of the season, any Big 12 team that's still undefeated will be part of the national title conversation. The league may be in a down year, but it's still respected as one of the top conferences in the country.

The odds are greater that this will be a messy season with the Big 12's better teams knocking each other off. With no dominant team but a handful of good teams, the chances of an undefeated Big 12 champion appear slim at this point.

However, if one of the Big 12's ranked teams can gain a foothold early, it can ride the momentum all the way to the top of the polls. It's just a matter of one of those four exceeding expectations, which happens all the time in college football.

It's a glass-half-full proposition. Sure, the league is down. But that also means less of a challenge in getting back to the top.
 
Follow Keith Whitmire on Twitter: @Keith_Whitmire