{"id":338668,"date":"2026-07-13T17:58:26","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T17:58:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/338668\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T17:58:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T17:58:26","slug":"ucf-football-picked-to-finish-14th-in-big-12-media-poll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/338668\/","title":{"rendered":"UCF football picked to finish 14th in Big 12 media poll"},"content":{"rendered":"

UCF<\/a> was picked to finish 14th in an unofficial preseason Big 12<\/a> football poll organized by the Tulsa World and featuring votes by 16 reporters, each covering a different team.<\/p>\n

The Knights received 68 votes, ahead of Colorado (40 points) at No. 15 and behind West Virginia (76) at No. 13.<\/p>\n

The Big 12 did away with its preseason poll, which was determined by votes from the league\u2019s coaches, several seasons ago.<\/p>\n

Texas Tech, with 14 first-place votes, was the choice to repeat as conference champion. BYU was the only other school to receive two first-place votes. The Cougars, who were the runner-ups in the conference title game, were picked to finish second behind the Red Raiders.<\/p>\n

Arizona and Houston were tied for third in the poll with 207 points apiece, followed by Utah (198), TCU (166), Arizona State (161) and Kansas State (158).<\/p>\n

UCF is in its second season with head coach Scott Frost<\/a> since returning to the program after a seven-year absence. The Knights, who finished 5-7, were picked to finish dead last in last season\u2019s preseason poll.<\/p>\n

2026 PRESEASON BIG 12 MEDIA POLL<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the order of finish, with first-place votes and total points:<\/p>\n

1. Texas Tech (14) 254<\/p>\n

2. Brigham Young (2) 239<\/p>\n

3. Arizona 207<\/p>\n

3. Houston 207<\/p>\n

5. Utah 198<\/p>\n

6. Texas Christian 166<\/p>\n

7. Arizona State 161<\/p>\n

8. Kansas State 158<\/p>\n

9. Oklahoma State 124<\/p>\n

10. Baylor 88<\/p>\n

11. Cincinnati 85<\/p>\n

12. Kansas 79<\/p>\n

13. West Virginia 76<\/p>\n

14. UCF 68<\/p>\n

15. Colorado 40<\/p>\n

16. Iowa State 26<\/p>\n

Voters: Eric Bailey, Tulsa World; Jason Batacao, Salt Lake Tribune; Mike Casazza, Eer Sports (247); Jay Drew, Deseret News; Joseph Duarte, Houston Chronicle; Michelle Gardner, Arizona Republic; Henry Greenstein, Lawrence Journal World; Ben Hutchens, Quad Cities Times; Steven Johnson, Fort Worth Star-Telegram; Matthew Murschel, Orlando Sentinel; Leo Rivera, Buffstampede.com; Kellis Robinett, Kansas City Star\/Wichita Eagle; Jason Scheer, Wildcatauthority.com; Zach Smith, Waco Tribune-Herald; Scott Springer, Cincinnati Enquirer; Don Williams, Lubbock Avalanche Journal<\/p>\n

Please find me on X, Bluesky or Instagram @osmattmurschel. Email: mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com<\/a>. Sign up for the Sentinel\u2019s Knights Weekly<\/a> newsletter for a roundup of all our UCF coverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UCF was picked to finish 14th in an unofficial preseason Big 12 football poll organized by the Tulsa…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[111,28,114,1335,139,141,140,109,76046,110,3865],"class_list":["post-338668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-college-sports","tag-florida","tag-latest-headlines","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-social","tag-social-sports","tag-sports","tag-ucf-knights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}