The Big 12 Football Media Preseason Poll wasreleasedon 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 tofinishin 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 staffusedthe 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
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