Pac-10 Media Day: USC Picked to Win Pac-10 in Media Poll
In what wasn’t too much of a surprise to anyone, for the seventh straight year, USC was voted by the media to be the favorite to win the Pac-10 title this season.
Only four voters were brave enough to put a team other than USC in their top spot; three chose Cal and one chose Oregon.
USC’s schedule looks to be pretty brutal this season with both the Cal and the Oregon games coming on the road, and this is the most vulnerable the Trojans have looked in years. But can you really blame the 28 voters that stuck with USC? The talent pool is never ending, and six straight finishes at the top is hard to ignore.
The Media Poll has correctly selected the winner of the Pac-10 for nine years in a row, and is 26 of 48 in doing so all time. Here are the results of the poll; 10 points for 1st, nine points for 2nd, eight points for 3rd, etc.
1. USC (28 first place votes)… 316 points
2. California (3 first place votes)… 277 points
3. Oregon (1 first place vote)… 250 points
4. Oregon State… 216 points
5. Arizona State… 155 points
6. Stanford… 150 points
7. UCLA… 145 points
8. Arizona… 142 points
9. Washington… 74 points
10. Washington State… 35 points
Unfortunately, www.allpac10.com’s invitation to media day apparently got lost in the mail this year. Alas, there is always next year. Just for fun, here is how the two of us would have voted had we filled out a ballot today.
| Dave | Sam |
|---|---|
| 1. USC | 1. USC |
| 2. California | 2. California |
| 3. Oregon | 3. Oregon |
| 4. Oregon State | 4. Oregon State |
| 5. Stanford | 5. Arizona State |
| 6. Arizona | 6. Arizona |
| 7. Arizona State | 7. Stanford |
| 8. UCLA | 8. UCLA |
| 9. Washington | 9. Washington |
| 10. Washington State | 10. Washington State |
Those top four and bottom two teams seem pretty engrained in almost everyone’s heads; as for the middle of the pack, we’ll probably be mixing and matching for the whole month of August.
Arizona State Sun Devils, Arizona Wildcats, California Bears, Oregon Ducks, Oregon State Beavers, Stanford Cardinal, UCLA Bruins, USC Trojans, Washington Huskies, Washington State Cougars
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Football, Media Day, Pac-10, Poll, Rankings
I can’t believe neither of you guys realized that Oregon State is going to finish second in the conference this year. We always beat Cal when the game is in Berkeley, as it is this year. (You can find me on Tightwad Hill this year mixing it up with the hippies and potheads)
And the Civil War belongs to us this year as retribution for crushing our Rose Bowl aspirations last year. Plus, Oregon is breaking in a new head coach while the Beavers have upgraded their staff with hiring the Special Teams coach away from the Dallas Cowboys.
I’m sure we’ll finish up 7-2 in conference play just like last year, with an inevitable loss to USC in L.A. and probably some silly loss such as to Arizona or Arizona State. But we’ll beat Cal, and we will DESTROY the Ducks, and will have second place based on the head to head record.
You heard it here first, in the comments section of All Pac-10.com
Oregon State loses 8 starters and your own buildingthedam.com site ranks almost all of them as downgrades. How are you going to finish second?
UCLA 8th? Really guys? We are on like 10,000 most improved lists for 2009 and better at pretty much every position.
Thanks for the comments guys!
Peter – Oregon State always finds a way to exceed expectations, so I suppose this year may be no different. Time will tell!
Josh – Buildingthedam isn’t our site, just a very good Beavers blog that we are readers and supporters of.
You may be right! Things certainly can’t be any worse on offense, and the LB core looks flat out scary and could pave the way to a surprise season for the Bruins. Plenty of strengths and weaknesses on all of these teams; should be a blast of a season all around.