Not a good sign

I was at the local Walmart yesterday for some insane reason of my wife, and managed to escape long enough to check out the magazine and book section.

The football magazines are starting to fill up space in a quick manner.

Without putting a whole lot of effort into it, I glanced at three different magazines and saw each one had a different pick for national champions.

First off, I think it is ridiculous to pick a national champion in the summer before a game has been played. Same deal with the rankings.

But they do encourage people to read and BUY the magazines, and also gave me something to write about, not that I need a whole lot of prompting.

The three teams predicted to win national championships are Oklahoma, Alabama and LSU.

All three teams have a lot of potential and talent returning, but I would have to say there are some 10 teams capable of winning the national championship and while I hope OU brings home the gold, I have some doubts of that happening.

First off, the Sooners' defense has to start dominating its opponents like they did in Bob Stoops' early years. The loss of Austin Box will not help. Plus, they need to perform better in away games. Yeah, they did close out the year with wins at Baylor and Oklahoma State, plus the Fiesta Bowl win over UCONN.

But their road performances prior to that time were not exactly overwhelming. Plus, OU will have to win on the road at Florida State, in Dallas against Texas and in Stillwater again, because of some scheduling snafu. Plus, there is a road game late at an improving Baylor team for the second straight year, along with trips north to Kansas and Kansas State.

The Sooners do get Texas Tech and Texas A&M, along with Missouri at home.

It will be interesting to see if the loss of the Big 12 championship game has any effect on the chances of playing for a national championship. The shootout at OSU is on the date of the other conference games so the Sooners should be in the headlines.

But it is never easy for the Sooners to win at OSU. And the weather will probably be brutal on that date with the wind blowing 40 mph and wind chills nearing 0.