Oklahoma football: Sooners picked 3rd in 2023 Big 12 Football Preseason Poll

Oklahoma football is picked to finish third in the 2023 Big 12 Football Preseason Media Poll.

It is just the third time in the last 13 years that the Sooners have not been the favorite to win the conference in the annual preseason media poll.

Texas got the nod to win the Big 12 in 2023 based on the vote of the writers and broadcasters who participated in the poll. Kansas State is picked to finish second, followed by the Sooners, Texas Tech and TCU. The Longhorns received 41 of the 66 first-place votes cast. K-State received 14 first-place votes, Oklahoma and Texas Tech each got four and TCU received three.

This will be the final year as a member of the Big 12 for both Oklahoma and Texas. The Sooners and Longhorns will become members of the SEC beginning with the 2024 season.

In the first 15 years of the Big 12 (1996 through the 2010 season), the conference operated in two separate divisions. During those years, Oklahoma was picked in the preseason football poll to win the South Division seven times and finish second four times. Since 2011, when the divisional format was discontinued, The Sooners have been picked to finish first nine times, second twice and third twice.

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Since the Big 12 was formed in 1996-97, Oklahoma has won 14 of the 27 Big 12 football championships, including six years in a row between 2015 and 2020.

The Sooners return 10 players (five on offense, including QB Dillon Gabriel, and five on defense) who started at least nine games in 2022 for first-year head coach Brent Venables.

Oklahoma will open the season at home on Sept. 3 against Arkansas State.