Bill Connelly’s famed 128-team countdown hits its second-to-last conference. Follow along each weekday, and catch up here!
UW lost 3 All-Americans, but Petersen’s building
Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY SportsConfused? Check out the advanced-stats glossary here.
It’s hard for a hire to make more sense than Washington hiring Boise State’s Chris Petersen. Petersen produced incredible results at a smaller school 500 miles southeast of Seattle, unearthing diamonds in the rough and crafting teams with talent, chips on shoulders, and unexpected athleticism.
Read Article >Utah’s a pretty good Pac-12 team! Now what?
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Both TCU and Utah were showing some cracks before leaving the Mountain West. The Frogs were still good, but with attrition and quarterback issues, they were destined to falter no matter what conference they were in. Thanks to the upgrade in schedule, that resulted in a combined 11-14 record in 2012-13 before last year’s surge.
Read Article >Arizona, annual Pac-12 South contender
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Computer rankings look at how frequently you’re awesome. There are plenty of codas to that sentence: “... and how frequently you stink,” or “... and against whom,” for example. But since these types of ratings are designed to catch every play, every drive, and every game -- not just a head-to-head matchup, not just the handful of games you saw on TV -- they’re going to come up with anti-social opinions.
Read Article >Arizona State’s rebuild is over. Look out!
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In 2014, Arizona State won 10 games for the second straight year and came within seven points (on the road in Tucson) of winning the Pac-12 South. I’d say Graham can keep that mulligan for later use.
Read Article >The Pac-12’s top tier is loaded
At the end of each conference preview series (here’s the whole Pac-12), I look at how I perceive the conference’s balance of power heading into 2015. This is in no way based on schedules. These are not predictions. They’re just how I would rank the teams after writing thousands of words about each.
In previous conference power rankings, I put four teams in the ACC’s top tier, three in the Big 12’s and one in the Big Ten’s. I’m putting five in the Pac-12’s. I nearly talked myself into a sixth.
Read Article >Beavers made a good hire, but the Pac-12 is hard
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On paper, it was a steal. Oregon State lost a guy who had won 29 games in five years and replaced him with a guy who’s won 30 in three. When Mike Riley surprised many by both being offered and accepting the Nebraska job in last year’s coaching carousel, the Beavers yanked Gary Andersen out from Wisconsin’s grasp.
Read Article >Colorado is improving! Really!
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It’s cruel when a rebuilding team gets hit with loads of bad luck at once.
Read Article >This is the year the Pac-12 shines
