CBS Way too early Bowl picks

@Philranger - Ticket City Bowl no longer has a Big 12 tie-in after Nebraska and Colorado left and the conference contracted to 10 teams.

The average rank of the Pass Defenses Weeden threw against this past season was 94. Texas at #42 was the only Top 50 Pass Defense we faced all year. We faced 7 Pass Defenses that ranked 100 or lower.

Correct. But Weeden threw for 364 yards per game vs. Barkley's 294 yards per game against essentially the same level of average competition. Weeden's week-in, week-out performances resulted in 26.5% more passing yards than Barkley, but you would never know it watching the media coverage last fall.

Barkley is hyped as one of the Top 3 QB's in the nation, but he has yet to back that up on the field. He only threw for 195 yards vs. Cal (#37 pass D) and 224 yards vs. ND (#38 pass D), the only 2 good pass D's he faced last year. He threw for only 174 yards vs. Washington's #116 pass defense and 227 yards vs. AZ State's #108 pass defense. Those last two are well below average performances given the level of competition.

Then it was not "one play" away, but TWO plays away from beating OSU.

Once again, OSU is overlooked and underrated.
These media people just can't seem to get over the old school mentality of football powers.

Well, once again, Mike Gundy will show them why he's the best coach in America. We'll fly under the radar and take the Big 12 again.

I'm just not convinced that WVU or TCU will come in year one and be able to play at that high of a level for an entire Big XII season. Especially with how good the teams are in the middle of the conference. The week to week competition in the BE and MWC just isn't the same. I think both will be successful, but I don't see them finishing two and three in the first year.

As for OSU, it really is impossible to predict because we have no idea who the QB will be and how effective they can be. And you have to say with almost complete certainty that the new QB will not be as good as Weeden, and certainly not in their first year. Losing Blackmon is also big, though our WR and IR corp is still very good with some experience and play in an offensive system that should work, but again, depending on QB play. The best I can predict would have us in the lower end of the top half of the conference. My way too early predicitons would be

1. OU
2. KSU
3. WVU
4. OSU
5. UT
6. TCU
7. ISU
8. Baylor
9. Tech
10. KU

West Virginia is a tad bit overrated by everyone next season it seems to me. Beating the crap out of Clemson is impressive, but the Big 12 had four teams ranked higher than Clemson...

I think at worst it will be the Alamo Bowl.

Until Gundy & Co. can get the team to keep performing like this consistently, I can't say I blame the media. They got burned in '08 for hyping us and the jury is out on how we'll look without Weeden, Blackmon, and an experienced O-line.

Not saying I'm predicting doom and gloom, because I'm certainly not. It's just that I don't think this is an instance of the media out to get us.

I'm not buying it. I watched them play last year and wasn't impressed at all. And Barkley is not that fantastic. More USC hype from ESPN.

He is the highest rated QB from a power conference returning next year. Who else should they hype?

They were wrong on Lienhart and Sanchez. It's like they are just trying to predict the second coming of Carson Palmer. I'm done with their dumb predictions about USC QBs.

And as to who to hype? Hyping is for dopes. If they had any brains they would quit catering to the fan bases and start being reporters. They are a national media source, they shouldn't have any bias towards any team, QB or Coach. ESPN is worthless

Figured this could go here.

CFN released their way to early bowl picks

http://cfn.scout.com/2/1169806.html

They have us in the Alamo and a rematch with Stanford. THAT would be very interesting.

I would advise against looking at their NCG pick, unless you like vomiting that is.

True - but all of our conference opponents played both OSU and OU. Those two games are going to hurt the pass defense stats of your opponents.

I understand what you're getting at but, sports and hype go hand in hand. College Gameday, March Madness, Superbowl, etc. As far as USC QB's they were good college players that didn't translate to the pros. Lots of them littering the road to the NFL. You only have to look south from Stillwater to see several of them.

So they have OU, Texas and OSU as the 1-3 teams in the Big 12. Really expecting Texas to solve a lot of issues next year.

They ranked lower because the Big 12 had the best QBs in the country. Griffin, Weeden, Landry Jones are all first round talents in the NFL.

haha, The NCG made me laugh. I can see OU losing like 3-4 games next year with how Landry was playing without Broyles. Chugging the OSU koolaid makes me believe that this is OSU's BIG 12 championship to lose.

I think it speaks volumes of CFN that they have us finishing 3rd in the conference, when everyone else is putting us around 5-6 or worse.

The media can suck it!

Oh, I'm sure CFN does their homework but, Texas had many issues on offense and on defense their secondary was hit an miss all year. Just seems like a big jump. I really expect the top half of the league to be a dog fight with several teams having a shot at the title.