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Oklahoma football picked to finish No. 1 in Big 12 for 5th straight year

By Chip Rouse

ARLINGTON, TX - DECEMBER 07: (L-R) Todd Hudson #23 of the Oklahoma Sooners and teammate Nick Basquine #83 celebrate the teams 30-23 win over the Baylor Bears following the Big 12 Football Championship at AT&T Stadium on December 7, 2019 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images)
ARLINGTON, TX - DECEMBER 07: (L-R) Todd Hudson #23 of the Oklahoma Sooners and teammate Nick Basquine #83 celebrate the teams 30-23 win over the Baylor Bears following the Big 12 Football Championship at AT&T Stadium on December 7, 2019 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images) /
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Oklahoma football is the overwhelming favorite to win the Big 12 for a fifth straight year in the 2020 Big 12 Preseason Media Poll.

Related Story. Five Sooners selected to 2020 Preseason All-Big 12 Team. light

The Sooners received 80 of the 90 first-place votes and will be shooting for a sixth consecutive Big 12 crown in 2020. Oklahoma State garnered six first-place votes and finished second to the Sooners in the preseason media poll, and Texas received the final four first-place votes and is projected for a third-place finish.

Iowa State was picked to finish fourth and Baylor fifth. The bottom five, in order, are TCU, Kansas State, West Virginia, Texas Tech and perennial cellar-dweller Kansas.

This is the eighth time since 2011 that Oklahoma has finished first in the Big 12 Preseason Media Poll and the 15th time in the 25-year history of the conference that the Sooners have been projected as either the outright conference champion or a division champion.

Eleven of the 15 times the Sooners have been projected as a preseason favorite they have gone on to finish the job and win the league crown.

Oklahoma owns 13 Big 12 championships, four times as many as any other conference team. Texas is the next closest with three league titles.

Lincoln Riley’s Sooners have completed three consecutive seasons with 12 wins and have appeared in the College Football Playoff all three years.

The Sooners return 16 starters this season (eight on offense and eight on defense). For the fourth consecutive season, OU will have a new starting quarterback. The previous three Sooner signal-callers have won back-to-back Heisman Trophies (Baker Mayfield in 2017 and Kyler Murray in 2018) and finished as the Heisman runner-up. Former five-star prospect Spencer Rattler will be in the quarterback’s shoes for the Sooners this season.

The last three seasons, Oklahoma has finished third, fourth and seventh, respectively in the final Associated Press College Football Top 25.

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