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By JIM BUTTA
MORGANTOWN -- The 2016 Big 12 Media Days had its fair share of news breaking stories, but one wasn't the program the vast majority of writers covering the 10-team league expect to hold up the championship trophy and hopefully earn a berth in the College Football Playoffs.
Named as the team to beat by all but two of the 26 media members that vote, Oklahoma (258 points) was a 36-point favorite on TCU, which amassed 222 points and garnered the other two first-place votes. Third place went to Oklahoma State with 202 points, however only 30 points separate the next four programs -- Baylor (156), Texas (151), Texas Tech (141) and West Virginia (126) -- which should make for some interesting contests when those four hit the field against one another.
Rounding out the preseason poll is Kansas State (88), Iowa State (59) and Kansas (27). Of course upsets, winning on the road is never easy, or unexpected injuries to star players could play a major role in the league's final standings.
"It's a group of guys, a good number of them back from last year's Big 12 Championship team and Final Four team are back, but it's still a new team," veteran Sooners coach Bob Stoops said. "There are enough new pieces that it's a new team all together.
"But I've been really pleased with the overall intensity and the effort and the winter conditioning and spring practices, and what they've been doing here this summer."
That may be so, but you can bet any success the Sooners enjoy this fall will center around the play of the school's nine preseason All-Big 12 selections.
Tops among that group will be Preseason Offensive Player of the Year Baker Mayfield, a repeat first-team selection at quarterback, junior running back Samaje Perine, senior linebacker Jordan Evans and junior defensive backs Steven Parker and Jordan Thomas. Rounding out the Sooners' first-team picks are sophomore tight end Mark Andrews, sophomore offensive lineman Orlando Brown, junior defensive lineman Charles Walker and sophomore punter Austin Seibert.
Mayfield completed 269 of 395 attempts for 3,700 yards and 36 touchdowns with only seven interceptions while Perine amassed 1,349 yards and 16 touchdowns on 226 attempts. Neither of those were the top performances in the conference, however, as Texas Tech's Patrick Mahomes connected on 364 of 573 passes for 4,653 yards and 36 touchdowns while WVU's Wendell Smallwood led all rushers with 1,519 yards and nine touchdowns, as the Mountaineers finished with a 4-5 mark in the conference.
Oklahoma isn't the only team with its starting signal caller returning in 2016. In fact only TCU's Trevone Boykin closed out his playing days during the Horned Frogs 11-2 campaign. OSU's Mason Rudolph, the Mountaineers' Skylar Howard, Ryan Willis from Kansas, Joe Hubener of Kansas State, Baylor's Jarrett Stidham, Jerrod Heard from Texas and Iowa State's Joel Lanning will again look to lead their programs to the top of the league standings.
Boykin isn't the only offensive weapon veteran TCU coach Gary Patterson has to replace, as league-leading receiver Josh Doctson and his 79 catches for 1,327 yards and 14 touchdowns will also be missing when the Horned Frogs open the season at home against South Dakota State.
"No. 1, the greatest part about it is basically every ball caught and all the balls thrown, every ball caught in the bowl game, was a freshman, Austin Schlottmann. Joey that's up at Seattle, our starting center, he didn't play our last three games," Patterson said. "Austin started against Oklahoma.
"And so did Matt Pryor, so the offensive line and the quarterback position are two places we feel like we have to grow up. We have some guys, you know, obviously it's hard to replace Josh Doctson or things he was able to do, but two years ago we didn't know who Josh Doctson was. He walked on to our place and kept growing and building. For us to have good seasons going forward, you're going to have to have that next guy to go ahead and do things."
Former Texas A&M quarterback Kenny Hill appears to be the player that will look to lead TCU back to the top of the Big 12 while sophomore Shaun Nixon will look to add to his 2015 totals of 47 catches for 501 yards.
Baylor's K.D. Cannon, Iowa State's Allen Lazard, OSU's James Washington as well as West Virginia's Shelton Gibson will give the conference just enough explosive receivers to keep it ranked among the top offensive conferences in the country. And, despite the loss of WVU's Smallwood, the league will have a number of talented running backs led by ISU's Mike Warren, who rushed for 1,339 yards and five touchdowns.
Defensively, preseason Player of the Year Malik Jefferson will look to return Texas to the top of the Big 12's prevent units. In his only season in Austin the 238-pounder played in all 11 games, earning Freshman All-American honors as well as being named the conference's Freshman Player of the Year.
That defense will get a formidable test right off of the bat when Texas opens the season by playing host to Notre Dame.
"I look at last season and I know this: We've gotta be better than what we were the last two years," third-year coach Charlie Strong said. "We've got to elevate. We've got to elevate this program and it's about making sure that our players understand it's about accountability, about responsibility, and it's about moving this program forward."
Winning on the road will also be key to any team's success. Last year Baylor lost its last two conference tilts -- at TCU (28-21 in 2OT) and at Texas (23-17) -- to lose any chance it had of snatching a share of the title while knocking of the Cowboys from OSU, 45-35, on the road to end their hopes of catching the Sooners.
"You have to protect your home," West Virginia's Dana Holgorsen said. "Then if you can play well and catch a few breaks when you are on the road, winning a championship will take care of itself."
A feeling echoed by every coach in the Big 12 looking to unseat the Sooners in 2016.