Pacific Takes Pac-12 Power Rankings: Post-Spring

Starting this season, Pacific Takes will be releasing a weekly Pacific Takes Pac-12 Power Rankings based on voting from a number of Pac-12 SBNation writers, providing truly unbiased rankings of the Pac-12 week after week. With Spring practices now finished we are ready to release our first rankings.

Thanks to David Piper (Addicted to Quack), Jack Follman (Pacific Takes), Sean Reynolds (Block U), Andy Wooldridge (Building The Dam) and Gekko Mojo (UW Dawg Pound) for contributing!

Some interesting notes about the post-Spring rankings

• Showing just how close the two are heading into Fall, Oregon beat out Stanford by just one point in the North for the top spot.
  • Similarly, Oregon State beat out Washington by just one point for third place and Arizona State edged USC by just one point for second place in the South.
• Establishing themselves as the clear cut favorite in the South, UCLA received every single first place vote for the division.
  • Clearly, no one is excited about Colorado under Mike McIntyre yet, as Colorado received every single last place vote in the South.

North

1. Oregon - Despite losing Chip Kelly, Pac-12 writers are still confident that the Ducks will continue to roll.

2. Stanford - The Cardinal are a hair behind the Ducks, but are still likely a Top 5 team nationally that just have a few more question marks than Oregon right now.

3. Oregon State - Despite still being unclear at quarterback, the Beavers have enough experience and talent to compete at the top of the conference.

4. Washington - Husky fans have long pointed to this as the Huskies' breakout season under Steve Sarkisian, but the teams above them in the North might be too strong for that to happen.

5. Cal - Sonny Dykes has some returning talent, but the North is strong and deep and the Bears won only three games last season with a more experienced and talented team.

6. Washington State - The Cougars could be a sleeper if Connor Halliday and their fleet of talented, young receivers can start rolling in Mike Leach's offense.

South

1. UCLA - An unanimous choice for the top spot in the South, the Bruins are now the frontrunners in the Southern half of the conference.

2. Arizona State - The Sun Devils might have the fewest questions about their roster heading into Fall.

3. USC - The Trojans may not be national title contenders anymore, but if they can have a quarterback step up and a little improvement on defense, they can challenge anyone in the conference.

4. Arizona - There is a huge question mark at quarterback, but the Wildcats are still very dangerous with Ka'Deem Carey and Rich Rodriguez' high-speed offense.

5. Utah - Big drop off from four to five here and there isn't much excitement around the Utes at all right now.

6. Colorado - Colorado is going to have to start competing and winning games before anyone is going to believe in them.