One tradition every year at media days is the release of the media poll. It's one of the first indications of the new season as to how a team might fare in their respective conference.
National media as well as those who cover teams in the Pac-12 on a local level get to vote and decide where each team will finish as well as a hypothetical champion. This isn't an exact science and really it's just glorified educated guessing but it's still interesting to see where Arizona State currently ranks in the minds of the media.
North Division (first place votes)-total points
1. Oregon (37)-232
2. Stanford (2)-192
3. Washington-142
4. Oregon State-125
5. Washington State-87
6. California-41
South Division
1. UCLA (37)-231
2. USC (1)-181
3. Arizona State (1)-163
4. Arizona-119
5. Utah-82
6. Colorado-43
Pac-12 title game champion: Oregon (24 votes) Others receiving votes: UCLA (13), Stanford (1), USC (1)
The Pac-12 media poll has correctly picked the champion 28 out of 53 years, but has also been right in 11 of the past 14 years. This is the fourth time in five years that Oregon has been picked to win the league. UCLA and Oregon were picked to win the north and south divisions last year and we all know what happened there.
There aren't any huge upsets or surprises here, perhaps just a few teams that could flip flop. I would be interested to find out who gave the Sun Devils a first place vote. Another thing that sticks out to me is the discrepancy between first and second in the north. Writers must think that the loss of Shayne Skov, Anthony Wilkerson and Tyler Gaffney will be too big to overcome for Stanford, or could also just think really highly of Marcus Mariota.
Give us your thoughts below.