Tag: Pac-12 rankings

Pac-12 football power rankings after eye-opening Week 4

Remember: These rankings are based on actual results vs given opponents. They are not predictions or projections. USC is therefore not close to No. 1 in the #Pac12.

After three weeks of nonconference football and a lot of Week 3 cupcakes, the Pac-12 entered full-on conference action in Week 4. This meant teams played considerably better opponents than in previous weeks. It therefore means the caliber of resumes in the conference took on different — and in many cases, improved — dimensions.

As always, we remind you these rankings are based on actual results against specific opponents. They are not predictions or projections of the future. They are not based on betting odds or lines. They are not measurements of which teams are most likely to make the College Football Playoff.

These are results-based rankings. They will change each week, and are meant to change each week, since that’s how rankings are supposed to be done.

Here we go for Week 4:

Pac-12 football power rankings after Week 3 of 2023 season

Eight #Pac12 teams are unbeaten through Week 3, but so many of their opponents look awful. Which team has the best resume? Look inside:

If you watched Week 3 of the 2023 college football season, you might have arrived at the conclusion that nearly every team is less than great.

Florida State played around with its food and very nearly lost to Boston College, a team which struggled with Northern Illinois and Holy Cross in previous weeks.

Texas was tied with Wyoming at home after three quarters.

Ohio State needed a full half before it finally turned on the engines and pulled away from Western Kentucky.

Michigan’s offense looked ordinary once again.

Penn State did what it had to do against Illinois, but little more. A 30-point performance won’t impress anyone.

Even Georgia struggled profoundly for a half against South Carolina before putting the game away in the fourth quarter.

Everyone has an opinion on which teams are the best, but in terms of actual results and actual performance, each week should bring forth a fresh reconsideration of rankings from scratch.

We’re not ranking based on projections or picks. We’re ranking based on current accomplishments against opponents played.

Here are the new Pac-12 football rankings after Week 3 of the 2023 season:

Pac-12 football power rankings after Week 2

USC looks good, but the quality of its schedule is still limited due to playing bad teams. Remember: Rankings are resume-based.

The Pac-12 Conference is 20-3 in nonconference games through Week 2 of the 2023 college football season. It’s a terrific start for a dying league. Annoyance at the Pac-12 CEO Group for allowing this conference to die will remain considerable throughout the season no matter what, but the intensity of that annoyance will grow if the Pac-12 makes a serious run at the College Football Playoff.

With Oregon winning at Texas Tech and Utah winning at Baylor, two playoff contenders remained on course. Washington State also beat Wisconsin. All the really good teams in the league handled their business. Let’s now see how teams stack up in a 1-through-12 rankings list.

Remember: Rankings are not postseason projections. They are not indications of who would be favored in Las Vegas on a neutral field. Rankings are — and should be — reflections of resumes, what teams have accomplished. We stick to that approach and advise you to do the same.

Here are our latest Pac-12 power rankings — not the measurements of the best teams, but of the best resumes — through Week 2:

Ranking Pac-12 and Big 12 football teams together after Week 1

Since 4 #Pac12 teams will join the #Big12 next year, let’s rank every team from both conferences and give you more to think about.

Now that we have played a full college football weekend (minus the Clemson-Duke game on Monday night), every college football fan wants to see some rankings and discuss them. Rankings can and do take on various forms and iterations. There are national rankings, Heisman rankings, hot seat rankings, and team rankings.

What’s less conventional — and more interesting — about this 2023 season is that a lot of schools will switch conferences next year, in 2024. Because of all these switches, it is irresistible to look at conferences in different combinations.

In this article, we’ll rank not just the Pac-12, and not just the Big 12, but the two conferences together.

Of course you want to know how Utah and Colorado compare to Oklahoma and Texas. Of course you want to know how Arizona and Arizona State compare to Texas Tech and West Virginia.

Here are our combined Big 12 and Pac-12 rankings, involving all schools currently in both conferences:

Pac-12 football power rankings for the only unbeaten Power Five conference

The #SEC isn’t unbeaten after Week 1. Not the #B1G or #ACC. Definitely not the #Big12. Let’s rank every team.

The Pac-12 won’t exist next year. It’s a real shame, because Pac-12 football is kicking butt right now. The Pac-12 is the only unbeaten Power Five conference in college football after Week 1. More than that, its teams regularly thrashed opponents. Colorado beat TCU by only three points, but as a 20-point underdog. Other Pac-12 teams won big in games which were expected to be close. It’s not just the winning, but the emphatic nature of the victories, which has affirmed the Pac-12 as a strong conference in the early part of the season.

This league was expected to be good … and that might have been an underestimation of its quality. This conference has a chance to be legitimately great. Think about the Heisman Trophy candidates in this conference. Think about how difficult it will be for any team, including USC, to go through this conference unbeaten. The obvious concern is that the Pac-12 will be so tough that the conference champion will have two losses and thereby miss the playoff. We will just have to wait and see.

Let’s rank all of the Pac-12 teams after their wins in Week 1:

Way-too-early 2023 rankings, record predictions and bowl projections for each Pac-12 team

Who wins the Pac-12, USC or Oregon? Can Washington or Oregon State crash the party? We give our way-too-early Pac-12 predictions.

The 2022 college football season officially came to a close, and the 2023 offseason is now upon us. While you would think that means we are done talking about football for a bit until spring ball rolls around, you’re wrong.

It simply means that now when we talk about football, we are looking to the future, rather than evaluating the past.

We are going to dive deep into the future today, taking a look at the Pac-12 conference as a whole in 2023. It is going to be among the most anticipated seasons we’ve had in a long time out west, with some high-profile quarterbacks like Heisman winner Caleb Williams leading a group of passers that includes Bo Nix, Michael Penix Jr., Cameron Rising, and D.J. Uiagalelei, among many others.

There’s a chance that the Pac-12 could be as competitive and ruthless as we’ve ever seen it, with a real possibility that 5 or 6 teams will end up being ranked inside the top 25 to start the season.

So who will be at the top of the food chain in 2023, and what will everyone’s records look like when all is said and done? Let’s make some predictions. Here is how I see the Pac-12 shaking out when it comes to final record predictions and bowl game projections.

NOTE: Bowl projections are based on current Pac-12 bowl tie-ins and will be updated if those change.

Pac-12 football rankings: USC plays Utah for the title, but Washington rises

#USC and #Utah will decide the #Pac12 champion, but the #Huskies could become a huge winner of the 2022 season in a few days.

When two teams in a conference play for the championship, one would naturally think they should be ranked No. 1 and No. 2, especially if that conference’s championship game matches the top two teams in the standings and doesn’t use divisions the way the Pac-12 used to.

Yet, life isn’t always that simple.

We rank teams based on resumes, not projections or anticipated results. Therefore, we can’t look ahead in terms of the current rankings we assign to teams.

However, we can certainly tell you if our rankings will change. This is a good time to do that.

There won’t be any Pac-12 rankings next weekend because only one game will be played in the conference, the Pac-12 Championship Game between USC and Utah.

We’re going to rank the Pac-12 this week, and we’ll tell you how the rankings will change based on the outcome of the Pac-12 title game.

Here we go:

USC football and Lincoln Riley refuted the very skeptical preseason media polls

Never forget: In the summer, #USC was picked 3rd in the #Pac12 by local+national media plus the coaches. Utah and Oregon were picked higher.

Beating the UCLA Bruins is a very sweet feeling for any USC fan. What adds to the sweetness of the win over the Bruins is the berth the Trojans have gained in the 2022 Pac-12 Championship Game, set for Friday, Dec. 2 in Las Vegas.

USC will play in the Pac-12 title game for the first time since 2017 and just the second time overall.

Playing in the Pac-12 Championship Game was a central preseason goal for this team. It means USC will be playing for either the Rose Bowl or the College Football Playoff. This is the expected USC standard. Team goals can be achieved.

However, there’s another dimension to this moment for USC which makes the Pac-12 title game extra special. We’ll give you the answer below, but not until after we rank the Pac-12 teams heading into the final full weekend of the regular season. Read the rankings, then keep scrolling down:

Pac-12 Power Rankings: Oregon Ducks now undisputed No. 1 team out west

The top-half of the Pac-12 rankings are pretty fluid. Except for the No. 1 spot. That belongs to Oregon, and nobody can argue at the moment.

Despite two of the top four teams in the conference not playing on Saturday, this was one of the more impactful days of the year in the Pac-12 conference.

It solidified what fans in Eugene have felt for a few weeks now — the Oregon Ducks are the best team out west.

With the No. 9 Ducks’ 45-30 dismantling of the No. 10 UCLA Bruins, it’s clear that Dan Lanning’s squad holds the top spot in the power rankings for the second week in a row, and gives them pole-position in the race to get to the Pac-12 Championship game.

Both USC and Utah were on bye weeks after the Utes’ upset over the Trojans last week, so there was no movement there. However, teams like Oregon State, Washington and — shockingly — Stanford all pulled off important victories.

It caused a bit of a shakeup in the bottom-half of the standings. Here is where everything lies after Week 8 of action in the Pac-12.

Oregon Ducks picked to finish 2nd in preseason Pac-12 women’s basketball poll

The preseason coaches poll is out, and it has Oregon finishing 2nd behind defending national champion Stanford Cardinal. Here are how the rest of the rankings shake out.

With the 2021 season now just a few weeks away from officially kicking off, the preseason coaches poll has finally been released, giving us a good barometer for where teams stand in the Pac-12 going into the season, and where they are likely to end up.

For the Oregon Ducks, the coaches predict right now that they are the No. 2 team in the conference, sitting behind only the defending national champion Stanford Cardinal.

Oregon, coming off a Sweet 16 appearance last March, earned one first-place vote and 108 points overall.

So how does the rest of the conference stack up? Here are the full rankings, according to the coaches poll: