Big 12 Football: Media Predicts Oklahoma Sooners as 2012 Champs

With the SEC's media days officially over, we will now begin to turn or attention to the Big 12 media days, that kickoff on July 23rd and July 24th. But before the fun of the interviews begin, the media has locked in their votes for who they believe will win this year's conference.

It is really no surprise that the favorite to win the Big 12 is once again the Oklahoma Sooners. Bob Stoops club received 32 of 41 first-place votes, as they try to make up for a horrible ending to last year.  The Sooners are returning 15 starters, including eight on the offensive side of the ball.

West Virginia is one of the newbies in the conference and is predicted to finish second, receiving a total of seven first-place votes as well. The Mountaineers return 14 starters from a year ago, including eight from an offense that averaged nearly 38 points per contest last season.

The two other teams to receive first-place votes include TCU and Kansas State.

Overall Rankings

1. Oklahoma (32 first-place votes) Total: 396

2. West Virginia (Seven first-place votes) Total: 339

3. Texas - 291

4. Oklahoma State - 267

5. TCU (One first-place vote) Total: 260

6. Kansas State (One first-place vote) Total: 257

7. Baylor - 162

8. Iowa State - 121

9. Texas Tech - 116

10. Kansas - 46

Athlon Sports early predictions

Steven Lassan, of Athlon Sports made his Big 12 predictions earlier in the year, and ended up with very similar results. Much like the media, he had the Sooners winning the conference, the bottom part of the conference spot on and West Virginia in the top three. 

Although the media has the Mountaineers just falling short of a conference title, Lassan has the Texas Longhorns finishing second in the Big 12. He also has TCU, (Another Big 12 newbie) ahead of teams such as Kansas State and Oklahoma State. Despite a couple of minor changes, I think we can all agree that this is a very top heavy conference that seems to be getting better though.

My thoughts

I don't have many issues with the bottom of the conference, but do think we should be giving Texas Tech a little bit more credit? Quarterback Seth Doege is a very underrated player, who can help this Red Raiders team overachieve in 2012.

But we of course are here to talk about who will win the conference, and that's where I agree with the seven voters that had West Virginia taking it all. I simply don't see many defenses (especially in the Big 12) being able to slow down that high-scoring offense. Not to mention that Baylor, Oklahoma, Kansas State and TCU all have to travel to Morgantown.

It should be a great year of Big 12 football, but my money is on Geno Smith and company in the Mountaineers first season.