Oklahoma football: ESPN has little respect for Big 12 or its champion

The ESPN college football studio crew is at it again in 2018. It’s been fairly obvious for several years, but once again they are showing little love, let alone respect, for Oklahoma football or the Big 12 heading into the new season.

ESPN’s bias towards the Southeastern Conference has been apparent for years and the subject of much criticism from fans whose football affiliation falls outside of the SEC. In recent seasons, that same favoritism seems to have carried over to the Atlantic Coast Conference, especially the Clemson Tigers, and insofar as the Big Ten is concerned, Ohio State can do no wrong.

Maybe if ESPN recruited a former player or coach out of the Big 12 as part of the “College GameDay” crew or as a studio analyst (Mack Brown doesn’t count), the Big 12 wouldn’t be so overlooked or picked on.

Oklahoma has participated in two of the four College Football Playoffs (as the No. 4 seed in 2015 and No. 2 in 2017). Yes, Alabama has played in all four, and Clemson has appeared three times, but the Sooners’ two appearances is as many times as Ohio State has been there. But to hear the comments of the ESPN “College GameDay” and “College Football Live” on-air personalities, it’s as if Oklahoma, let alone anyone from the Big 12, is not a legitimate College Football Playoff contender.

Oklahoma Sooners Football

And the shaming of the Big 12, which, of course, includes Oklahoma, is even more obvious heading into the new season, based on the ESPN 2018 preseason College Football Playoff Predictor. 

Everyone on the continent — including even the college football gang at ESPN — seems to agree that OU is the prevailing favorite to win the Big 12 again in 2018. for a fourth consecutive year. Yet, the Sooners chances of reaching a second consecutive College Football Playoff this season are only 26 percent, according to the ESPN College Football Playoff Predictor.

Six other teams are given much better odds of making the CFP this season than the Sooners, led by the Clemson Tigers (67 percent). Alabama is at 47 percent, just barely ahead of Georgia (46 percent). The team with the fourth best chance is Notre Dame (42 percent). The Washington Huskies, out of the Pac-12 (41 percent), followed by Ohio State (37 percent).

Based on these projections, the SEC would have two teams in the Playoff, the ACC one and Notre Dame, which is an independent in football. Three Power Five conferences (the Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-12) would be left out of the Playoff picture.

Another ESPN college football metric is the Football Power Index, which is a prospective measurement, looking ahead after every game and predicting a team’s performance for the rest of the season. Using this metric, the FPI has determined that 15 of the 16 College Football Playoff teams so far with a top-four have entered the postseason with a top-four strength of record.

According to the ESPN 2018 preseason FPI, the Big 12 has the lowest chance of the Power Five conferences plus Notre Dame of producing at least one team with a top-four strength of record at the conclusion of the 2018 college football regular season. The Big 12 is given a 26-percent chance of its conference champion having a strong enough record and overall body of work to make into the top-four Playoff teams.

That 26-percent Playoff projection for the Big 12 represents the Sooners’ chances, and only if OU wins the Big 12. If any team other than the Sooners wins the Big 12, the chances of the Big 12 sending a team to the CFP are projected at slim to none, based on the ESPN preseason FPI and the Playoff Predictor.

That is not at all good news for the Big 12 and further evidence, in my view, of ESPN’s bias against the brand of Football played in the Big 12.

Despite being ranked seventh in the 2018 Associated Press Preseason Poll and fifth in the Preseason Coaches Poll, ESPN’s Football Power Index projects Oklahoma as the ninth best team in the country heading into the new season.

In the final analysis, it doesn’t matter what anyone is saying about the Sooners or the Big 12 at this stage of the season, before a single game has been played. If Oklahoma wins its all of its 2018 games, or even all but one, and wins its 12th Big 12 crown, things will most likely take care of themselves.