ESPN polled 12 of their "experts" for their picks of conference championships and 9 of 12 picked Nebraska. 2 picked Missouri. The other expert's choice? Would you believe Kansas? That's right: Todd McShay of Scouts Inc. picked Kansas. Insane? Not so fast. First of all, they play Nebraska at home and Missouri at Arrowhead. They don't play Texas or Oklahoma either. Then when you consider how the last three Kansas-Nebraska games went (my blood pressure would rather that we didn't), it's not completely insane.
All 12 experts selected the Big XII South champion to win the title. 10 picked Texas, only 2 picked Oklahoma. And all 12 picked USC to win the national championship. 3 of the 12 pick the Ohio Bobcats to repeat as MAC East champions, by the way.
JJ over at CornNation found a rather comprehensive preview from Blair Kerkhoff of the Kansas City Star, where he thought we had the best linebackers in the Big XII and 3rd best offensive line, running backs, and believe it or not, secondary. I don't disagree; when I did my predictions I found holes in just about everybody's secondary. Kerkhoff either doesn't feel sure that Sam Keller is going to start or he's not buying the hype, ranking the Huskers 7th in the conference. I think Kerkhoff is very generous with our special teams play; our kickoff returns were nothing special last season and our kickoffs were downright horrible as well. That's a huge concern in 2007 with kickoffs being moved back 5 yards.
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Kansas was actually closer to winning the North last year than most people think. Had they won the overtime game at Nebraska and had Nebraska lost the A&M game, there would have been a four-way tie at 4-4 between Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas, and Kansas State. I'm not sure how the tiebreakers would sort that out. KU also lost to Baylor by a point, so had they won that game in addition to what I mentioned above, they would have won the North outright. They were less than a touchdown away from winning the division. I think that says a lot about how weak the Big 12 North is.
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