West Virginia Picked to Finish Seventh in Big 12 Football Media Preseason Poll

The Big 12 Football Media Preseason Poll was released on Tuesday, with West Virginia football finding itself roughly in the middle of the pack in the new-look Big 12.

Of the 16 teams slated to compete in the conference this season, WVU was voted to finish seventh-overall and received zero first-place votes. While not a pick to be among the league's worst programs this season, some could perceive the prediction as a slight, considering the Mountaineers finished in a tie for fourth-place last season and return a number of impact players from a team that ended the season 9-4 with a Duke's Mayo Bowl victory.

However, such preseason polls can mean very little in the long run. For example, WVU was picked to finish in last place amongst 14 teams in the conference last season, which as previously mentioned did not play out as the polls expected. Last year, head coach Neal Brown and his staff used the dismal prediction to motivate his team -- if this year's roster sees themselves as a Big 12 Championship competitor after last season's solid performance, the same could be done again this year.

The full poll can be found below, with the teams and vote totals listed in order from first-to-last.

2024 Big 12 Football Media Preseason Poll

First-place votes in parenthesis.

1. Utah (20) 906

2. Kansas State (19) 889

3. Oklahoma State (14) 829

4. Kansas (5) 772

5. Arizona (3) 762

6. Iowa State 661

7. West Virginia 581

8. UCF 551

9. Texas Tech 532

10. TCU 436

11. Colorado 400

12. Baylor 268

13. BYU 215

14. Cincinnati 196

15. Houston 157

16. Arizona State 141