The Big 12 North does not belong to the Missouri Tigers, according to media members who cover conference’s football teams. The pre-season conference poll was released on Monday and MU is picked to finish fourth in the division.
After winning eight games in 2003 and earning its first bowl berth in five years, MU was expected to challenge for the Big 12 North in 2004, but endured a five-game losing streak en route to a 5-6 record.
Colorado is expected to finish first in the division, followed by Iowa State and Nebraska. Kansas St. is fifth and Kansas was picked to finish sixth. But it may be hard to put a lot of stock in prognostications of the media. Five of the six teams received at least one first-place vote—Kansas being the exception. Mizzou received five of the 50 first-place votes.
In the Big 12 South, the favorite is Texas, followed by Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma St. and Baylor.
Over the weekend, the Big 12 media released its pre-season all-conference team and just one Tiger made the grade—senior offensive lineman Tony Palmer.