The Tulsa World compiled all of the preseason magazine rankings, at least the national magazines and being a blogger, I thought this information was useful, but more useful if the rankings were averaged so that we had a consensus:
Athlon | Lindy's | Phil Steele | Sporting News | Average | |
Oklahoma St. | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1.25 |
Texas | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2.25 |
Oklahoma | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2.50 |
TCU | 4 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 4.75 |
Baylor | 6 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4.75 |
Kansas St. | 5 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 5.50 |
Texas Tech | 7 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 7.25 |
Iowa St. | 9 | 7 | 9 | 8 | 8.25 |
West Virginia | 8 | 9 | 8 | 9 | 8.50 |
Kansas | 10 | 10 | 9 | 10 | 9.75 |
I do think that it appears that most national magazines are comfortable with 1-3 being UT, OU and OSU with TCU, Baylor and Kansas St. being on the second level with Texas Tech, Iowa St., West Virginia and Kansas being in the third set of teams.
Now that really all of the national magazine have weighed in, I am sure that I'll get the comments that Magazine A , B and C are all wrong and are drinking the kool-aid, but this is the trend. I don't know how someone goes about trying to figure out the best and worst teams before a game is played. I've always tried to have my own theories as to how things should happen, but I'm not consistent on those.
I don't understand how Oklahoma St. can be picked to win the conference when they are replacing both coordinators, but I've made that statement before about OSU and been absolutely wrong. They end up being okay. I don't understand how Oklahoma is really going to be with Bell at quarterback as OU is either going to drastically change their offense or Bell is going to become Joe Namath (or some other quarterback that can pass). You get the idea. Every team has their questions.
So, now you get your chance. How do you think the conference shakes down in 2013 and more specifically, tell us why you think that a team will be good or bad in 2013.