Utah, the two-time defending Pac-12 champion, isn’t predicted to win a third straight, at least not according to the league’s preseason media poll.
The Utes are picked to finish third in the poll, which was released Thursday, ahead of the conference’s annual Pac-12 football media day in Las Vegas on Friday.
USC is predicted to win the conference title — the Trojans received 25 of the possible 36 first-place votes in the preseason poll and had 413 total points.
Washington is picked to finish second, just ahead of Utah. The Utes actually received the second-most first-place votes (six to the Huskies’ four), but Washington had 367 points to Utah’s 359.
The rest of the preseason poll follows with No. 4 Oregon, No. 5 Oregon State, No. 6 UCLA, No. 7 Washington State, No. 8 Arizona, No. 9 California, No. 10 Arizona State, No. 11 Colorado and No. 12 Stanford.
Last year, Utah was picked to repeat as conference champions in the 2022 Pac-12 preseason poll.
The Utes went 9-3 during the regular season, finished in a tie for second in the league standings and — by virtue of a series of tiebreakers going their way — earned a berth to the Pac-12 championship game.
Utah then beat USC in the Pac-12 title game and made its second-straight appearance in the Rose Bowl, losing to Penn State.
Including last year, the Pac-12 media have accurately picked the league champ six times in the 12 seasons since the league instituted a conference championship game.
Utah is expected to contend again in what will be a loaded Pac-12 — as many as five teams are projected to start the year in the top 25.
The Utes return senior quarterback Cam Rising, who is rehabbing from a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee suffered in the bowl loss. He recently told ESPN 700’s Bill Riley he believes he’ll be ready for the team’s Week 1 game against Florida.
Utah is represented by 12 players on this year’s Pac-12 preseason all-conference team, which was released Tuesday. The Utes placed a league-high six players on the All-Pac-12 first team, including tight end Brant Kuithe and defensive tackle Junior Tafuna.
Pac-12 media day will be held Friday at Resorts World in Las Vegas. In addition to head coach Kyle Whittingham, Rising and safety Cole Bishop will represent Utah at the event.
Pac-12 football preseason media poll
(first-place votes in parentheses)
- USC (25), 413.
- Washington (4), 367.
- Utah (6), 359.
- Oregon (1), 344.
- Oregon State, 309.
- UCLA, 248.
- Washington State, 186.
- Arizona, 176.
- California, 132.
- Arizona State, 122.
- Colorado, 98.
- Stanford, 54.