Good News: Oklahoma State Not Last in Big 12 Preseason Poll; Weird News: There's No Poll

STILLWATER – I have to admit that looking it up and looking back on it, the 2024 Big 12 Football Media Preseason Poll is as ugly now as it was at the end of the 2024 season when my first-place pick and the third-place selection of the 61 voting members of the Big 12 media, Oklahoma State, finished in last place with a 3-9/0-9 season record. Oddly enough, that was the record that I projected for Arizona State, the team that I picked last. It was also the team that the Big 12 poll picked last.

Bruce Waterfield/OSU Athletics

Arizona State has QB Sam Leavitt back.

The Sun Devils under head coach Kenny Dillingham and with running back Cam Skattebo as their on-field emotional leader finished 10-2 in the regular season and 8-2 in the Big 12. In postseason, Arizona State hammered Iowa State 45-19 in the Big 12 Championship Game and lost in the CFP in the Peach Bowl to Texas 39-31 in double overtime.

How bad was the Big 12 preseason poll and my picks below?

“They (Big 12 media) were so bad last season that they discontinued the poll,” former Colorado, Washington, and UCLA head coach) Rick Neuheisel said on Sirius-XM radio. “They aren’t going to do a poll. I get it, this is the conference were almost any team can win the league.”

My inquiry to the Big 12 Conference office was short and to the point.

“The preseason poll has been discontinued.” 

Here is how bad it looked.  

You can’t get much more topsy-turvy or incorrect that all of that above even if you tried.

I’m determined so I will keep my preseason poll alive and rather than wait, I will deliver it now at the normal time the poll came out in the past. I will not put out a preseason all-conference team as that is kind of what we are doing in a bigger format with our Big 12 Preview and Rankings by position. Here is where you can read the most recent, defensive line.

Here is my preseason poll, complete with records. I had done very well with this over the many years I’ve been in this business until last season, and as you can see above I was awful. I will admit that the transfer portal and the make up of this league makes it hard, but there were times in the past where the Big 12 picture was fuzzy.

I went through and picked every game, so it all adds up, and in the end it is a huge jigsaw puzzle. The good thing is it leaves four teams with 11-1 regular season records. The top two that play in the conference championship game should all get in. Then maybe one other into the CFP. 

Scott Sewell-Imagn Images

Kansas State will be tough this season.

As for Oklahoma State, I like their schedule and their two bye weeks, one very early after the non conference Oregon road trip. The other late in the season between the game at Kansas and the home game with Kansas State. That could lead to an upset, although I didn’t pick it that way. The start of the Big 12 schedule is soft and favorable right up to the trip to Texas Tech on Oct. 25. The schedule is tough after that. OSU is at Kansas, bye, Kansas State, at UCF, and Iowa State at home.