Missouri's Daniel enjoying the million-dollar Buffett

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Warren Buffett is impressed, so at least there's that.

"Chase Daniel, he's plenty smart, he wants to learn," the world's richest man said of the Big 12's best player. "He's not full of himself at all."

'Chase Daniel, he's plenty smart, he wants to learn,' Buffett says of Daniel. (Missouri Athletics)

Buffett knows a bit about investing money so why not go all in on the Heisman finalist who is money? A man who can influence the world economy with the wave of his wallet is enough of a college football fan to know this is the best preseason ever for the Big 12. There are likely to be three teams in the top 10, four in the top 12 and five in the top 15 to begin 2008. At least two schools -- Missouri and Oklahoma -- are getting national championship mention. There are five legitimate Heisman candidates leading off with Daniel, the conference's preseason offensive player of the year.

Daniel doesn't necessarily need Buffett's endorsement, there's plenty of love to go around. But the pair are an item, chummy BFFs, after meeting in the offseason. More to the point: What does it say about the best league this side of the SEC that Daniel and Missouri are getting more run than, say, the league's last national title holder -- Texas? That's kind of why we've gathered this week for the Big 12 preseason media days.

Missouri made its biggest football statement in four decades here last November by beating Kansas at Arrowhead Stadium and moving to No. 1 in the AP and BCS polls. Even though Oklahoma beat the Tigers the next week for its fifth Big 12 title this decade, the focus in 2008 is on -- and curiosity remains about -- those same Tigers.

"We're the ones with the target," Daniel said.

The rise of Missouri and Kansas last season gave the conference depth it never had. The difference is whether the Jayhawks, coming off their first BCS bowl, and Tigers, following a school-record 12 wins, can keep it going.

"I think it will take us five years to tell," Texas' Mack Brown said earlier this year. "You can have somebody who is good for a couple of years, but to me you look at five years."

Skepticism abounds within a league that is defined athletically, financially and recruitingly by its traditional power base -- Oklahoma and Texas. But things are equalizing. The power base is shifting to the long-laughable North Division. In 2004, the North (Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa State, Kansas State, Colorado) went a combined 3-15 against the South. All three victories were against Baylor.

The powers are still trying to figure out how it turned around so fast: The 2007 seniors at Missouri (and Kansas) were parts of recruiting classes that were rated in the 40s four years ago.

Both programs would not be what they are, though, without influence from the Longhorns and Sooners. Daniel became one of the leading operators of the zone read spread option offense, throwing for 4,306 yards and 33 touchdowns during Missouri's amazing run. The only blemishes on the record came courtesy of the Sooners in a 12-2 season. Both quarterbacks -- Daniel and Kansas' Todd Reesing -- were native Texans whose affections for the Longhorns went unrequited.

"I know I wasn't tall enough for them," said Daniel, who is listed at 6-feet but looks like a shade below 5-10.

Nevertheless, Daniel gave Missouri something it never had, at least since the days of Paul Chrisman, who finished fifth in the 1940 Heisman voting -- a charismatic, Heisman-worthy quarterback leading one of the nation's most high-powered offenses.