This year’s PAC-12 Media Day took place at LA Live on July 29th and was headed by Conference Commissioner George Kliavkoff as well as all twelve head football coaches and two student-athletes from each school. You’ll find the broad conference strategy in the commissioner’s comments and occasionally specific team insights from the coaches. I learned a lot from Chip Kelly’s presentation because unlike Whittingham, who doesn’t really want to provide a lot of specifics regarding his team and Lincoln Riley who is starting fresh, Kelly knows his team and got right into the details. I know Lincoln Riley to USC and USC to the Big Ten is a huge deal and will certainly impact the Trojans on a national level far sooner than later. But don’t be surprised to see the Bruins, short of a miracle also headed to the Big Ten, have a better year than their cross town rivals—maybe even a conference championship year. They should have a lot of confidence with three easy opponents prior to meeting Colorado in what should be an easy win. After that all of their most difficult opponents, two with new head coaches and staff, (Washington, Utah, Stanford and USC) will have to face UCLA at home.
Media Day Comments
(To view, copy and paste links into your browser)
Commissioner Kliavkoff http://asaptext.com/asap_media/media/1078/1300/transcripts/123246.pdf
Cal Head Coach Justin Wilcox http://asaptext.com/asap_media/media/1078/1300/transcripts/123269.pdf
Oregon’s new head coach Dan Lanning http://asaptext.com/asap_media/media/1078/1300/transcripts/123251.pdf
Oregon State Head Coach Jonathan Smith http://asaptext.com/asap_media/media/1078/1300/transcripts/123270.pdf
Stanford Head Coach David Shaw http://asaptext.com/asap_media/media/1078/1300/transcripts/123261.pdf
Washington’s New Head Coach Kalen DeBoer http://asaptext.com/asap_media/media/1078/1300/transcripts/123253.pdf
Washington State Head Coach Jake Dickert http://asaptext.com/asap_media/media/1078/1300/transcripts/123268.pdf
Arizona Head Coach Jedd Fisch http://asaptext.com/asap_media/media/1078/1300/transcripts/123260.pdf
Arizona State Head Coach Herm Edwards http://asaptext.com/asap_media/media/1078/1300/transcripts/123267.pdf
Colorado Head Coach Karl Dorrell http://asaptext.com/asap_media/media/1078/1300/transcripts/123257.pdf
UCLA Head Coach Chip Kelly http://asaptext.com/asap_media/media/1078/1300/transcripts/123273.pdf
USC’s new head coach Lincoln Riley http://asaptext.com/asap_media/media/1078/1300/transcripts/123274.pdf
Utah Head Coach Kyle Whittingham http://asaptext.com/asap_media/media/1078/1300/transcripts/123249.pdf
Media Prediction
In spite of my feelings that UCLA may have a banner year, out of the 33 media members who cover the league not a single vote for the projected conference champion went in favor of the Bruins. 26 of the first place votes went to Utah, USC received 5 in spite of there being a shitload of new players on that team, with Oregon taking the last two. But as I have mentioned in the past, the predictive success of the media is pretty much a coin flip having been correct just 32 of the last 61 years.
No More North vs South
If you haven’t heard already, the PAC-12 Conference Championship will no longer take place between the winners of the North and South Divisions. Those designations have been eliminated and the championship will be determined between the two teams with the highest conference winning percentage. This change took place as the result of a PAC-12 motion to the NCAA Division 1 Council that individual conferences should have the autonomy to choose which teams should participate in their championship game. The motion was supported by all FBS conferences and approved by the council in May.