Big 12 football preview, predictions: Can anyone stop Oklahoma?

Previously: AAC, C-USA, MAC, Mountain West, Pac-12, SEC, Sun Belt

The 2021 college football season is right around the corner and this week we will be previewing each of the Power Five conferences. On Monday we broke down the SEC. On Tuesday it was the Pac-12’s turn. Up next is the Big 12.

Below, Yahoo Sports’ Sam Cooper and Nick Bromberg provide their thoughts on each Big 12 team before predicting where those teams will finish in the conference and if they will go over or under their projected preseason win total.

Betting odds and win totals are provided by BetMGM. Teams are listed in alphabetical order.

Oklahoma: -165
Iowa State: +260
Texas: +1200
Oklahoma State: +1200
TCU: +1200
West Virginia: +2500
Kansas State: +5000
Baylor: +5000
Texas Tech: +10000
Kansas: +25000

Sam Cooper’s Big 12 title pick: Oklahoma

Nick Bromberg’s Big 12 title

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College Football Odds

Maryland college football preview 2021: How far along is Mike Locksley’s rebuild?

August 9, 2021 - by Ludivina Leveto

Mike Locksley has already assembled an impressive collection of raw talent in just two years at Maryland, and in 2020 we saw brief glimpses of what it could become.

Playing an abbreviated five-game conference only schedule due to the pandemic, the high points came in back-to-back weeks when they: 1. Overcame a 17-point fourth quarter deficit to topple Minnesota 45-44 in overtime and 2. Utilized a ridiculous receiving day by prized five-star prospect Rakim Jarrett to down a hapless Penn State team 35-19.

However those wins were sandwiched between plenty of bad as they were steamrolled by Northwestern 43-3 in the season opener, and ended the campaign with back-to-back losses to Indiana and Rutgers. But the Terps continue to build under Locksley and with a promising quarterback with a famous last name, they’re looking to continue to climb the Big Ten ladder in 2021.

2020 Season Review

2-3 (conference

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College Football Odds

FBS Mathematical Preview: College Football Playoff and New Year’s Six

August 2, 2021 - by Ludivina Leveto

So far this summer, I have performed an in-depth, data-driven analysis of Michigan State’s football schedule, the Big Ten race, the rest of the Power Five and the FBS independents and Group of Five. Today, it is time to put all of those pieces together and to make some predictions as to what teams will make the College Football Playoff as well as the other four New Year’s Six bowl games.

In the previous parts of this series, I have presented data tables for every conference that included College Football Playoff odds for all 130 FBS teams. Table 1 below shows the 25 teams with the best odds to make the playoffs along with each team’s preseason ranking, strength of schedule (with the national ranking in parenthesis) and the odds for those teams make the final game and to win the national championship.

Note that my strength of schedule calculation

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College Football Odds

Mississippi State college football preview 2021: The Air Raid is in Year Two in Starkville.

July 27, 2021 - by Ludivina Leveto

The Air Raid heading to the SEC produced some mixed results in Mike Leach’s first season in Starkville.

The Mississippi State Bulldogs weren’t great by any metric except passing yards in 2020, but there is reason to be intrigued by this roster. Virtually every skill player on offense was a freshman or sophomore a year ago, and they now know what SEC football is like. That experience will be critical to the growth in the second year of the Leach experiment in the SEC. Can they make the traditionally-also-ran school more competitive?

2020 Season Review

4-7, 3-7 in SEC, 7th in SEC West, Bowl result: Defeated Tulsa in Armed Forces Bowl
Grad transfer KJ Costello was supposed to lead the Bulldogs to a decent year under center, but an early-season injury forced him to miss time and he eventually lost his job outright to freshman Will Rogers.

2021 Talent

2021

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College Football Odds

LSU college football preview 2021: Question marks abound in Baton Rouge

July 26, 2021 - by Ludivina Leveto

The 2019 version of the LSU Tigers just about perfected college football, as they ran through entire sport without many issues. For a variety of reasons LSU did not come close to that level last season. The Tigers lost a ton of talented players and coaches, key players opted out of the season assistant coaching hires fell flat and it led to a 5-5 record for for the Bayou Bengals.

Where does this leave the Tigers in 2021? That is anyone’s guess. The range of outcomes for what this program can be this season is significant. LSU could be anywhere from a .500 team to a national championship contender.

The Tigers are still among the best recruiting programs in the sport, so the talent is certainly going to be there. But LSU had a ton of talent on their roster in 2020, and they struggled all season long. Ed Orgeron

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College Football Odds

Kentucky college football preview 2021: Can UK score enough to compete for the SEC East?

July 25, 2021 - by Ludivina Leveto

The Kentucky Wildcats are heading into their ninth season with Mark Stoops as the head man, and he’s elevated the program into a consistent bowl team. Kentucky will always be a basketball school, but the football team no longer can be overlooked as a second-class citizen thanks to some outstanding recruiting and changing a culture. The ‘Cats are highly likely to reach a bowl game for the sixth consecutive season.

Kentucky developed a defense that can hang with some quality programs in the SEC, but the offense has struggled to match that success on their end. Stoops is looking to change that by firing the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in favor of Los Angeles Rams assistant Liam Coen to lead the offense in 2021.

2020 Season Review

5-6, 4-6 SEC (4th in East), Won Gator Bowl (23-21 vs. NC State)
Won two straight games and lost two consecutive

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