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Oklahoma football: What do ‘way too early’ top-25 rankings say about Big 12 for ’23

By Chip Rouse

Oct 3, 2015; Arlington, TX, USA; A view of the Big 12 logo on the field after the game between the Baylor Bears and the Texas Tech Red Raiders at AT&T Stadium. The Bears defeat the Red Raiders 63-35. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 3, 2015; Arlington, TX, USA; A view of the Big 12 logo on the field after the game between the Baylor Bears and the Texas Tech Red Raiders at AT&T Stadium. The Bears defeat the Red Raiders 63-35. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports /
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Recently we shared with you “way too early” college football top 25 projections for the 2023 season by 10 different national media outlets. Only five Big 12 teams were listed in any of the top-25 rankings, including Oklahoma football, and only two (TCU and Kansas State) were included in all 10.

Only one college team was listed in the same spot in all 10 “way too early” rankings: No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs. Ohio State, Michigan, and Alabama were the top four teams, but not necessarily in that order, in most of the early top-25 projections.

TCU was the highest-ranked Big 12 team in any of the rankings. The Horned Frogs were listed at No. 6 in the top 25 published by CBS Sports. TCU was ranked 8th by Sporting News, 9th by Sports Illusrated and 10th by The Athletic.

No other Big 12 school was ranked in the top 10 in any of the other rankings.

Based on the 10 media outlets that we know of that have issued way-too-early top-25 rankings for the 2023 season, the top half of the Big 12 could look something like this:

  1. TCU Horned Frogs (average top-25 ranking 12.9)
  2. Texas Longhorns (16.6)
  3. Kansas State Wildcats (17.8)
  4. Texas Tech Red Raiders (20.6)
  5. Oklahoma Sooners (22.5)

The four new teams (UCF, Houston, Cincinnati and BYU) that will join the Big 12 in the 2023 college football season were not included in any of the 10 media polls.

It will be interesting to see how these early projections compare closer to time when the same national media sources issue their 2023 preseason top-25 rankings. I would expect they will be fairly similar barring any unexpected developments between now and then.

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