If Neal Brown and West Virginia end up having a breakthrough in 2023 it will undoubtedly surprise a lot of people. Brown and the Mountaineers were picked to finish in last place, 14th, in the Big 12 media preseason poll released Thursday afternoon.
WVU’s 129 points were well behind 13th-place Cincinnati’s 202. Texas was selected atop the conference with 41 first-place votes and 886 points. Kansas State (14), Oklahoma (4), Texas Tech (4) and TCU (3) made up the rest of the top five, all receiving first-place votes.
Baylor was selected sixth and Oklahoma State was seventh, garnering a single first-place vote.
This season will be the conference’s first year with 14 members as BYU, Cincinnati, Central Florida and Houston officially joined last week and Texas and Oklahoma will not leave to join the SEC until 2024.
UCF was tops among the newcomers at eighth, followed by Kansas, Iowa State, BYU, Houston, Cincinnati and finally WVU.
In four years under Brown, WVU has finished fifth twice and seventh twice in the previously 10-team Big 12. The Mountaineers are 14-21 in conference play with Brown at the helm.
West Virginia is only one of two Big 12 teams that will play all four newcomers in 2023, joined by Oklahoma State. WVU again plays one of the hardest schedules in the country in 2023 as one of only six teams that will play 11 Power Five opponents.
Big 12 Football Media Days will be held in Arlington, Texas next Wednesday and Thursday with coverage on ESPNU and ESPN+. Brown and WVU players Zach Frazier, Doug Nester, Sean Martin, Lee Kpogba and Aubrey Burks are scheduled to speak on Thursday.
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