As the offseason in college football rolls along, one of the main things that fans and media members try to do in their spare time is figure out which teams are going to be the best in the upcoming season. There may be new coaches at different places or top-ranked recruiting classes that can be used to encourage many, and give hope to certain fan bases, but one of the biggest factors in determining which teams will have a leg up going forward is returning players.
Quite simply, the teams who bring back the highest number of players from the previous season will typically be better suited to find success going forward. It’s not hard to see why — continuity often breeds comfortability; if you have players and coaches that are used to playing with each other, and are familiar with the system, then more time can be spent on perfecting intricacies, rather than working to nail down the basics.
So when looking at the 2023 college football season, one of the best ways to predict who some of the top teams in the nation will be is to look at the returning production on the roster. ESPN recently broke down how many returners each FBS team in the nation has for this season, ranking them based on the overall percentage of holdovers, both on offense and defense.
We wanted to take a more specific look at the Pac-12 conference and see who has the most continuity out west. While our previews and preseason power rankings are already out there, how do those predictions stack up against the rankings of returning production? Let’s take a look.