Ducks Fifth In Coaches Poll, Picked To Win Pac-12 North
by Rob Moseley
Editor, GoDucks.com
For the fifth straight season, the Oregon football team enters preseason camp as a top-five team nationally and the pick to the win the Pac-12’s North Division.
Media members covering the conference tabbed the Ducks to win the North, as announced today by the conference. Pac-12 Media Days begin Thursday in Los Angeles, with UO coach Mark Helfrich to meet with media Friday along with senior linebacker Rodney Hardrick and sophomore running back Royce Freeman.
Also, the preseason top-25 coaches’ poll was published Thursday by USA Today, with Oregon coming in at No. 5 after reaching last season’s College Football Playoff National Championship. The Ducks were preseason No. 3 in 2011, 2013 and 2014, and were also No. 5 in 2012.
Helfrich is a voter in the coaches’ poll. Oregon’s premier nonconference opponent this season, Michigan State, is preseason No. 6 in the poll, which also includes Pac-12 foes USC at No. 10, UCLA at No. 14, Arizona State at No. 16, Stanford at No. 21 and Arizona at No. 22.
For the first time in three years, however, Oregon is not predicted to win the Pac-12 title game. Conference media members picked USC to come out of the Pac-12 South and take the championship.
In full voting by the media, Oregon was picked to win the North by 37 of 45 voters; the other eight chose Stanford. The Ducks and Cardinal were followed in the voting by California, Washington, WSU and Oregon State.
In the South, USC received 32 first-place votes, Arizona State had seven and UCLA got six. That trio was following in the voting by Arizona, Utah and Colorado.
