Now being named the preseason favorite in a new conference is not unprecedented — See: Louisville, 2005 — and WVU did not add to that Thursday when the Mountaineers were picked No. 2 in the media’s preseason poll.

Still, this coupled with Eu’s prize and the all-conference announcement yesterday would seem like a fair to fairly accurate representation of what the residents in the Big 12 think of the people who are moving into their neighborhood.

No surprise, really, as Oklahoma figures to be a preseason top 10 to top five team in most polls, but don’t expect the Mountaineers to be too far behind. Oklahoma did its damage in the poll with 32 first-place votes, but WVU, with just seven (of the 41 available) ended up just 57 points back.

Makes you wonder where the nine that didn’t pick the Sooners as No. 1 had them.

The Mountaineers also find themselves behind the only teams to win more than one Big 12 title in the BCS era as Texas, without a first-place vote, is No. 3 andjust48 points back.

It’ll never happen, but I’d love to know who votes. I mean, how many Texas writers vote? TCU and Kansas State had first place votes and finished Nos. 5 and 6, respectively.

I wondered about the same things yesterday. How many WVU writers, who cannot have a very thorough knowledge of the Big 12, swayed those results? Does Iowa State have as many voters as Oklahoma?

I didn’t vote because I didn’t think I could fill out a complete and fair all-conference team — I honestly could not name the five best linemen in the Big 12, which means I shouldn’t be picking the best offensive, defensive and first-year players.

That then makes me wonder how many WVU and TCU writers declined and how that affected players on their teams.  

Hey, preseason polls. They’re what makes July tick by.