Pac-12 media preseason poll: Oregon to beat UCLA for championship, Stanford & USC lurk

The Pac-12 media poll has been released! View it here.

Oregon is expected to win the division and the conference, getting the majority of Pac-12 North and Pac-12 champion ballots. UCLA is also expected to win the South by a wide margin and received a significant portion of the Pac-12 champion votes (13, compared to 24 for Oregon). The majority of the media are pencilling in an Oregon-UCLA battle at the beginning of December in Santa Clara.

The media is taking a wait-and-see approach with Chris Petersen. Washington is predicted to finish 3rd again, but the Huskies are much closer to 4th place Oregon State than 2nd place Stanford. Ditto with Steve Sarkisian and USC, who finish 2nd but are still aligned pretty far away. The defending Pac-12 champions get very little love, with Stanford receiving only two first place ballots and finishing about 40 points behind the Ducks, but they are still considered solid favorites to finish second.

Here are the ballots.

Pac-12 North standings

1. Oregon Ducks: 232 (37 1st place ballots)
2. Stanford Cardinal: 192 (2)
3. Washington Huskies: 142
4. Oregon St. Beavers: 125
5. Washington St. Cougars: 87
6. California Golden Bears: 41

Pac-12 South standings

1. UCLA Bruins: 231 (37 1st place ballots)
2. USC Trojans: 181 (1 1st place ballot)
3. Arizona St. Sun Devils: 163 (1 1st place ballot)
4. Arizona Wildcats: 119
5. Utah Utes: 82
6. Colorado Buffaloes: 43

Pac-12 champion: Oregon (24 votes), UCLA (13), Stanford (1), USC (1)

For those who want to see how it compares with our Pac-12 media polls, click here.