Final Pac-12 football standings for 2022, compared to Pac-12 preseason media vote
We made it. We have arrived at the end of the 2022 Pac-12 football regular season. Our rankings of the 12 teams might change based on the outcome of the Utah-USC Pac-12 Championship Game on Friday night in Las Vegas, but the standings have no editorializing or analysis: They are cold, hard numbers fixed in the pages of time. Nothing can or will change them. They are set in stone.
If you had one team finishing sixth in the Pac-12 and that team finished second, you badly underrated it.
If you had a team finishing fourth and that team finished 10th, you badly overrated it.
Let’s see how the Pac-12 football preseason media vote compared to the actual order of finish.
We’ll give the media vote first and then present the final 2022 Pac-12 football standings:
PRESEASON PAC-12 MEDIA POLL 12TH-PLACE TEAM: COLORADO
The Buffaloes had 58 points in the voting system, which assigns 12 points to a first-place vote and 1 point to a 12th-place vote. A total of 33 Pac-12 media voters voted, so the Buffs got an average of just under two points per voter.
PRESEASON MEDIA NO. 11: ARIZONA
The Wildcats had 86 points, an average of under three points per voter.
PRESEASON MEDIA NO. 10: ARIZONA STATE
The Sun Devils had 123 points, just under four points per voter.
PRESEASON MEDIA NO. 9: CAL
154 points, under five points per voter
PRESEASON MEDIA NO. 8: STANFORD
159 points, under five points per voter
PRESEASON MEDIA NO. 7: WASHINGTON STATE
177 points, under six points per voter
PRESEASON MEDIA NO. 6: WASHINGTON
212 points, under seven points per voter
PRESEASON MEDIA NO. 5: OREGON STATE
246 points, under eight points per voter
PRESEASON MEDIA NO. 4: UCLA
289 points, just under nine points per voter
PRESEASON MEDIA NO. 3: USC
341 points, just over 10 points per voter
PRESEASON MEDIA NO. 2: OREGON
345 points, four points more than USC for second
PRESEASON MEDIA NO. 1: UTAH
384 points, just under 12 points per voter. Utah received 26 of the 33 first-place votes. USC had 5, Oregon 2.
FINAL 2022 PAC-12 STANDINGS: COLORADO, 1-8
The media correctly picked the Buffs last.
11 -- STANFORD, 1-8
The media overrated the Cardinal by three spots (predicted 8, finished 11)
10 -- ARIZONA STATE, 2-7
The media got the Sun Devils exactly right.
9 -- CAL, 2-7
Another direct hit for the media. The voters nailed Cal in ninth place.
8 -- ARIZONA, 3-6
The media underrated Arizona by three spots (predicted 11, finished 8)
7 -- WASHINGTON STATE, 4-5
The media correctly predicted Wazzu’s finish.
TIE, NO. 5 -- OREGON STATE, 6-3
The Beavers were placed sixth by the Pac-12’s tiebreaker formula, below UCLA. Both OSU and UCLA were 6-3 in the conference.
The media was right, having picked Oregon State fifth before the season.
TIE, NO. 5 -- UCLA, 6-3
The media slightly overrated UCLA, which finished fifth and was predicted fourth.
TIE, NO. 2 -- OREGON, 7-2
Oregon is officially the fourth-place team, but it ended in a three-way tie for second. It finished last in the three-team tiebreaker. The media predicted the Ducks to finish second. We’ll say the media was close, but it still slightly overrated the Ducks.
TIE, NO. 2 -- WASHINGTON, 7-2
The media did not see this coming. It picked UW sixth. The Huskies finished third (via tiebreaker), and in a numerical tie for second.
TIE, NO. 2 -- UTAH, 7-2
The Utes were the majority No. 1 pick. While they could win the Pac-12 title, they finished in a three-way tie for second in the standings and needed an epic collapse by Oregon to get into that three-way tie and find a path to Las Vegas.
The Utes were overvalued.
NO. 1 -- USC
The Trojans were the only Pac-12 team to finish 8-1 in the conference. How about them apples? The media picked this team third. It underestimated Lincoln Riley.
