If the Big 12 Conference wants to play the underdog card all year, it can probably get away with it. That’s what happens when your two best teams — Texas and Oklahoma — leave for the SEC.
If preseason rankings like the one just released from ESPN’s Greg McElroy prove accurate, the underdog card might eventually have to go out the window.
McElroy placed six teams from the Big 12 in his preseason Top 25, although none in the Top 10.
The Big 12 teams who made the rankings were No. 16 Oklahoma State, No. 18 Utah, No. 19 Kansas State, No. 22 Arizona, No. 23 West Virginia and No. 24 Kansas.
Utah and Arizona are both in their first year in the Big 12 after coming over from the Pac-12 Conference.
McElroy was a Rhodes Scholarship finalist in 2010 when he quarterbacked the Crimson Tide to a BCS national championship and played two years in the NFL for the New York Jets. He’s been with ESPN since 2014.