USC is the Preseason Pick to Win 2023 Pac-12 Title
USC is the conference media’s preseason pick to win the 2023 Pac-12 Football Championship. The Trojans were the overwhelming selection when it came to first-place votes. USC was the top team on 25 of the 36 ballots.
This is expected to be a tight race between four teams that will likely find themselves firmly among the top 20 programs in the nation when the first national preseason polls are released. And, reflecting that, four teams earned preseason first-place votes.
Utah received six first-place votes. The Utes are the two-time defending conference champion and beat USC twice during the 2022 season. The first was a one-point win in Salt Lake City and the second came in the conference championship game this past December.
Washington earned four first-place votes and came in as the No. 2 team overall in the preseason rankings. The first-place votes provided USC some distance ahead of Washington. But the Nos. 2-4 teams are all jumbled close together in total points.
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Oregon earned the final first-place vote and sits at No. 4 in the Pac-12 preseason rankings. Oregon State is in at No. 5, with UCLA, Washington State, Arizona and California all behind the Bruins. The bottom three teams are the three that went through coaching changes this offseason. Arizona State is at No. 10. Colorado comes in at No. 11 and Stanford is well clear at the bottom at No. 12.
| Total Points | |
| 1. USC (25) | 413 |
| 2. Washington (4) | 367 |
| 3. Utah (6) | 359 |
| 4. Oregon (1) | 344 |
| 5. Oregon State | 309 |
| 6. UCLA | 248 |
| 7. Washington State | 186 |
| 8. Arizona | 176 |
| 9. California | 132 |
| 10. Arizona State | 122 |
| 11. Colorado | 98 |
| 12. Stanford | 54 |
Recent Pac-12 Preseason Polls
Utah was the preseason pick to win the Pac-12 last season and the Utes became the sixth team in the 12-year history of the Pac-12 title game era to prove the media correct.
This is the first time USC has been selected the preseason outright champion since the 2017 season, when the Trojans also won the conference title game. The Trojans were picked to win the South Division in 2018, 2020 and 2021. USC made it to the championship game in 2020. Utah beat them for that spot in both 2018 and 2021.
