Pat Sullivan Now that it is July, and we have entered the final month until college football starts, there is no better time to preview the upcoming season than now. It’s been all Alabama, Clemson and Oklahoma the last few seasons, but there are some bright futures on the west coast that might have their say in the College Football Playoff discussion come December. Today we preview the Pac-12 in part 1 of our Power-5 preview. This conference has been represented only twice in the five years of the playoffs: 2014 with Oregon and 2016 with Washington. Both teams finished 12-1 those seasons, and any of these universities hoping to make it in this year will likely need to finish with one-loss again to even sniff the playoffs. Before we breakdown the two divisions, it’s worth noting that the Pac-12 teams play one more in-conference game than any other Power-5 conference. For example, Oregon, who is one of the favorites to win the division, will play 9 conference opponents in a row from week 4 until the end of the season. Now let’s look at Auburn, the team who plays Oregon on opening day. They play 8 SEC games and have the luxury to slide Samford (yes, Samford not Stanford) into week 12, right before they play Alabama. While this may not seem like a big deal, it is, and it’s one of the reasons why the Pac-12 has only had 2 representatives out of the 20 possible CFP spots. So, let’s get into 2019, where the Pac-12 has some exciting storylines to look forward to. Oregon returns stud quarterback Justin Herbert for his senior season, and they lead the pack for my predictions here in July. The North Division
The South Division
Read More 990WBOB |
WBOB
|