Pac-12 Team Season Grades: North
Pac-12 Season Grade: B+
It was weird, it was random, it was off, and it could be argued that the fourth-best team in the conference won the Pac-12 title, and …
It was a BLAST – at least on the field.
The Pac-12 packed in a whole slew of fun into a short season. No other conference had as many wildly entertaining games, so who cares if the teams weren’t all that great? Arizona was awful, but it gave USC a tough run. UCLA, Stanford’s win over Cal, Oregon vs. Oregon State, Arizona State vs. USC, the league played good game after good game.
2019 Final Grade: C
California 2020 Season Grade: C
2020 Record: 1-3
CFN 2020 Preseason Ranking: 38
CFN 2020 Final Rankings: 72
2019 Final Grade: B
It’s not fair – the team never had a chance to get its season going. It lost in tough heartbreakers to Oregon State and Stanford and beat Oregon, but it played just four games. The record was a disappointment, but it was a better team than that.
Oregon 2020 Season Grade: B-
2020 Record: 4-3
CFN 2020 Preseason Ranking: 9
CFN 2020 Final Rankings: 28
2019 Final Grade: A
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Oregon won the Pac-12 Championship, but this year that game at USC was just another conference battle. The Ducks were without a slew of key parts from the start, managed to get their shot, and they won. However, they lost three of their last four games, were outclassed by Iowa State, and lost to rival Oregon State.
Oregon State 2020 Season Grade: C+
2020 Record: 2-5
CFN 2020 Preseason Ranking: 54
CFN 2020 Final Rankings: 51
2019 Final Grade: B-
The Beavers might have played well in several games, and they were competitive in almost all of the losses, but they dropped five of them. The win over Oregon is always going to make the season, but they lost their last three games after it.
Stanford 2020 Season Grade: B
2020 Record: 4-2
CFN 2020 Preseason Ranking: 35
CFN 2020 Final Rankings: 31
2019 Final Grade: D+
The Cardinal quietly had a nice run in the shortened campaign. They didn’t have starting QB Davis Mills for the opener against Oregon, and lost a fight against Colorado, and then ripped off four straight wins in a very fun bounce-back campaign.
Washington 2020 Season Grade: B+
2020 Record: 3-1
CFN 2020 Preseason Ranking: 21
CFN 2020 Final Rankings: 26
2019 Final Grade: B-
It wasn’t bad considering it was just a four game run. New head coach Jimmy Lake was able to get out to a 3-0 start but lost in a tight battle against Stanford. Just as it was expected to go play for the Pac-12 Championship, it couldn’t, and the season was over. It was a good tone-setter, though for 2021.
Washington State 2020 Season Grade: C
2020 Record: 1-3
CFN 2020 Preseason Ranking: 46
CFN 2020 Final Rankings: 76
2019 Final Grade: C
Don’t just look at the 1-3 record under Nick Rolovich in his first season. There was a good win over Oregon State to start things off, and that was it. Yeah, the Cougars were only able to play three more games and lost them all, but they were to Oregon, USC and Utah. That’s forgivable.
2020 Team Season Grades
ACC | American | Big Ten East | West
Big 12 | C-USA East | West
Independents | MAC East | West
Mountain West | Pac-12 North | South
SEC East | West | Sun Belt East | West