Pre-Pre-Season Football Rankings Are Out

by RedOscar on May 26, 2025 12:57 PM PDT

With everyone all settled down from Spring practices, around now is when every media member will have filed their post-spring pre-season football rankings. The Salt Lake Tribune has done a great job of compiling divisional rankings for both the Pac-12 North and South as we head towards the summer.

For the most part, Stanford is ranked second in the North behind Oregon, which isn't too terribly surprising. If both Stanford and Oregon have the same record going into their November matchup, you may as well flip a coin to determine who comes out on top at the end of November. Some brave souls even picked Stanford over Oregon.

There are a few, let's just say, head scratchers, though. First up, Bud Withers of the Seattle Times.

South
1. ASU
2. Arizona
3. Utah
4. USC
5. UCLA
6. Colorado

Nothing too unusual there. If anything, he put USC in fourth, which is somewhat surprising, but who knows how USC will come out now that they effectively have nothing to play for next season.

North
1. Oregon
2. Washington
3. Stanford
4. Oregon State
5. Washington State
6. California

Washington ahead of Stanford? Wazzu ahead of Cal? OK, I'm willing to chalk up the 2nd place ranking for UW as mere homerism. Not going to complain bitterly about it, considering he writes for a Seattle newspaper. But Cal in dead last? Is he expecting great things from the Cougars? Does he have a thing against teams from California? What's going on there, Mr. Withers?

Next up, the esteemed Stewart Mandel of Sports Illustrated.

South
1. ASU
2. Arizona
3. USC
4. Utah
5. UCLA
6. Colorado

No surprises. Let's look at the North.

North
1. Oregon
2. California
3. Stanford
4. Washington
5. Oregon State
6. Washington State

Did I miss something? I can't blame this ranking on homerism. He writes for a national audience. Sure, Cal got a good recruiting class, but ranking them second in the North? Ahead of Stanford and two other teams who beat them last year and another team who lost to them by a TD with five minutes left to go in the fourth quarter? Zach Maynard must have been real amazing in those closed practices (yes, that's sarcasm). Tis a mad, mad, mad world, Mr. Mandel.

Poll

Based off of what you know so far, where do you think Stanford will finish in the Pac-12 North?

1st

276 votes

2nd

339 votes

3rd

83 votes

4th

10 votes

5th

3 votes

6th =(

36 votes

747 votes | Poll has closed

Tweet Comment 13 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Read More: pac-12, preseason rankings, Utah Utes, Oregon St. Beavers, Washington Huskies, Colorado Buffaloes, Washington St. Cougars, Oregon Ducks, UCLA Bruins, Arizona Wildcats, California Golden Bears, Arizona St. Sun Devils, USC Trojans, Stanford Cardinal

Comments

FWIW

I don’t consider the variation in predictions surprising, or an especially big deal. It’d be boring if everyone just did:

1 Oregon
2 Stanford
3/4/5 Cal/Oregon St/Washington (in some order)
6 Wazzu

Mr Pac Ten's Blog - 2007 2008 2009 2010

by MrPacTen on May 26, 2025 4:08 PM PDT reply actions

Mr. Withers is the Seattle Times primary correspandant of the Cougars

And he also writes about the UW. Therefore he very rarely rights about the Cougs, they get a new blog once every two weeks if we are lucky. So I think putting the Cougs over the Bears is a partial apology. And I think, he thinks, WSU’s passing attack will kick ass and with Galvin back the running game should be…okay.

Plus it doesn’t help the bears to have closed spring practices.

Attractive, Intelligent, Smart A**

by Neil Vincent Roberts on May 26, 2025 8:44 PM PDT reply actions

Shoot ment to capitalize Bears

Attractive, Intelligent, Smart A**

by Neil Vincent Roberts on May 26, 2025 8:44 PM PDT up reply actions

and it should say writes*

this is an epic failure of a debut on Rule of Tree, my apologies

Attractive, Intelligent, Smart A**

by Neil Vincent Roberts on May 26, 2025 8:45 PM PDT up reply actions

No worries, Neil.

Thanks for stopping by.

by Scott Allen on May 26, 2025 9:27 PM PDT up reply actions

well

if you’re going to fail, it might as well be epic :P

Mr Pac Ten's Blog - 2007 2008 2009 2010

by MrPacTen on May 26, 2025 10:16 PM PDT up reply actions 1 recs

If you want my suggestion on who would be a good Washington reporter to look at..

Bob Condotta, Seattle Times, is a good one (Beware of homerism, although Condotta probably wouldn’t put UW above Stanford IF he does a power ranking). Another good one, if he does a power rankings, would be Vince Grippi of the Spokes-man Review.

Attractive, Intelligent, Smart A**

by Neil Vincent Roberts on May 27, 2025 6:34 AM PDT up reply actions

So, Cal either fights for the top of the division, or whimpers along at the very bottom.

You gotta love these so-called “experts”.

There’s not much doubt that, given last year, Oregon and Stanford should be 1 & 2 in some way. Loads of returning vital talent and momentum. Beyond that, 3 - 6 in the division are basically a crapshoot, and drawing schools from a hat is as valid a way of ranking them as any other.

I guess, though, the reason there is such disparity over Cal is because there are so many unknowns. Zach Maynard may either thrive or flame out as QB. The defense has a LOT of young talent - maybe they develop maybe they don’t. The return of OL and Receiver coaches could mean a return to solid play or not.

Eh.

I'm thinking of having a little party down in Newport.

by SoCal Oski on May 27, 2025 2:09 PM PDT reply actions

Plus, closed spring practices does not help.

Attractive, Intelligent, Smart A**

by Neil Vincent Roberts on May 27, 2025 7:53 PM PDT up reply actions

I don't think the closed practices were the biggest problem with Cal this Spring

There were some open practices around Northern California in order to drum up support, but they had a huge QB question that they had to answer to which no one could give their own opinion except for Tedford and his staff. The only thing that the public and the media knew about the QB competition was what Tedford told us. Even after he named Maynard, it didn’t sound like he was 100% confident in him like he was in some of his previous QBs.

I think everyone is pretty aware that Cal has a lot of talented athletes, but we just don’t know how they’ll play. Not having a spring game (why doesn’t Cal have one again?) doesn’t help.

by RedOscar on May 28, 2025 11:17 AM PDT up reply actions

Actually, I don’t rate spring practices nearly as much as everyone else - particularly “experts” - seems to. Maybe that’s my failing, but I honestly don’t see any correllation as to how some drills and scrimmages 6 months before the season starts equates to final results.

I personally place a lot more stock in fall practice, since it’s more intense and more immediate. Spring is almost a way to warm up and get in some conditioning and early peeks at basic sets, schemes, and plays. Seems like a mugs’ game to try and use that as a basis for expectations and predictions.

But, as I said, that just may be my failing.

I'm thinking of having a little party down in Newport.

by SoCal Oski on May 31, 2025 8:45 AM PDT up reply actions

Pencil Cal in for 4th or 5th.....

And I DO mean 4th or 5th, because anyone thinking UW, OSU and WSU aren’t all question marks is sorely mistaken. Judging schedules, talent and trajectories, my guess would be UW grabs 3rd ahead of Cal and the rest of the second tier. Irrespective Riley’s performance against Tedford, I’m not particularly impressed with the Beavers this year, and I don’t see WSU re-emerging quite yet.

As much as we Cal fans dream of OL chemistry and Maynard being more than a mid-major QB, that chemistry DOESN’T exist and must be developed (probably over the first 6 games of the season) and that, if the cryptic practice reports are any indication, Maynard ISN’T the second coming of AR (or even Reggie R). Add in that your lead RB is a scat back who can’t reliably run between the tackles and you have the makings of another crappy season on O. Best case, we win a bunch of 14-10 battles and make 7 wins.

by Calpbk91 on May 31, 2025 12:02 PM PDT reply actions