Pac-12 Football: Season preview and final standings predictions

Is Southern Cal the flavor of the month in this upcoming Pac-12 football season? The Saturday Blitz staff makes their conference picks.

With the rise of the ACC and the drama ever-present in the Big Ten the nation might have been sleeping on the Pac-12. Playing a good portion of their games during #Pac12AfterDark hasn’t helped, but that doesn’t devalue the quality of the competition.

The USC Trojans made a statement on the national stage with a thrilling Rose Bowl victory over Penn State last season. Will they continue their ascent to the Pac-12 title or will reigning champ Washington have something to say about that? Our staff has submitted their ballots. Here’s how things turned out.

Pac-12 South

The season has hardly even started and it feels like Sam Darnold has already won the Heisman trophy and the USC Trojans are already in the College Football Playoff. There’s a long ways to go before we reach that point of the season and there are way too many variables to lock the Trojans in this early.

For one, USC doesn’t have a bye week. They’ll play the full length of their schedule without a week to rest. That doesn’t sound so bad now, but a road trip to play Notre Dame is a bit more daunting when you’ve been grinding with no time off.

More: Game by game predictions for USC in 2017

Utah might be the most intriguing team in this half of the conference. The Utes have never won a Pac-12 South title, despite coming close several times. The loss of senior running back Joe Williams isn’t going to help, but adding stud Oregon transfer Darren Carrington will be a huge boon to their offense in 2017.

After Utah the rest of the field is a bit more murky. Colorado won the division a year ago with an 8-1 conference record, but quarterback Sefo Liufau has left for the NFL and the rest of the roster looks to have too many holes to be a real title threat. UCLA has Josh Rosen and not much else. Regardless, watching him duke it out with Darnold in the season finale is going to be fun to watch.

Then there’s the Arizona schools. Both teams are officially in win-now mode with coaches on the hot seat. Rich Rodriguez at Arizona hasn’t had a decent season since going 10-4 in his first year with the Wildcats in 2014. Todd Graham at Arizona State is in the same boat after posting back to back sub-.500 seasons. This division looks like USC’s to lose.