No. 6 Texas Leads Four Big 12 Teams in ‘JP Poll’ Top 25
On Sunday Night, the honorary commissioner of college football and president of the Pate State Freights, Josh Pate, released the JP Poll, or his rendition of the AP Poll.
Based on a unique model, which he will update as the season rolls along, Pate does as good a job as anyone in presenting college football fans with up-to-date rankings, statistics, and lines for Saturday games throughout the fall, making this poll something that carries weight.
Here’s a look at the Top 20 teams in the poll, courtesy of Pate’s Twitter account on Monday morning.
Four Big 12 teams are featured in this poll, with Texas, the preseason favorite to win the conference being way out front at No. 6. With upgraded depth and talent at the line of scrimmage, plenty of folks are high on Texas heading into 2023, and Pate’s model certainly agrees.
The next Big 12 team featured in the poll doesn’t appear until No. 16, with TCU. The Horned Frogs were a bit of a surprise for Pate when he announced their appearance on the list.
“Oh, I disagree with this so much,” Pate said. “JP Poll, baby, what is you doing here? The JP Poll has TCU at No. 16? Are you kidding me? Let’s see what it says. The AP and JP Poll, embarrassingly enough, agree on TCU. I wouldn’t have TCU in my Top 20 right now.”
Oklahoma is the next team to appear in the JP Poll, coming in at No. 19. The Sooners have had major turnover on their roster this offseason, and hope to be back among the nation’s best after finishing 6-7 last season. Pate’s model believes that they will do just that.
While they don’t appear in the graphic above, Texas Tech is the fourth and final team to appear in the Top 25 of the JP Poll, coming in at No. 24. Joey McGuire and the Red Raiders are feeling good about things in Lubbock heading into 2023, and it appears that Pate’s model does as well.
Perhaps the biggest surprise from this list was the omission of Kansas State, who didn’t even appear inside the Top 30, but there are several question marks in Manhattan, the biggest of which is how they will replace key pieces like Deuce Vaughn and Felix Aniduke-Uzomah in 2023? While things will change after a few weeks of play, it appears that the Big 12 has a good presence in the JP Poll heading into the season, giving fans of the conference something else to follow as the year progresses.
