ASU Football: Sun Devils picked fifth in Pac-12 South in Media Poll

Before Pac-12 Media Days kick off Wednesday, the 2017 preseason media poll was released with ASU football picked to finish fifth in the Pac-12 South.

Coming off a 5-7 season including a six-game losing streak to finish the season, ASU football was not predicted to finish near the top of the Pac-12.

That thinking came true Wednesday as the Pac-12 released the 2017 Preseason Media Poll in which the Sun Devils were picked to finish fifth in the Pac-12 South.

In the Pac-12 South, the media chose the USC Trojans to win the division and the Pac-12 championship with the reigning Pac-12 champions Washington Huskies picked to win the Pac-12 North division.

Both the Trojans and Huskies received 49 first-place votes with Stanford, Washington State, Oregon, Utah, UCLA and Colorado all receiving one first-place vote in their respective divisions.

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This should come as no surprise for Arizona State after the way last season ended and with the defense finishing as the second-worst in the nation.

In total, Arizona State received 109 points with Oregon State, Cal and Arizona as the only teams receiving fewer points from the media.

A surprise to some might be UCLA picked to finish third in the South after their poor season that saw injuries to some of their best players like quarterback Josh Rosen.

Rosen suffered a shoulder injury versus Arizona State last season, which saw him undergo season-ending shoulder injury.

There’s a lot of pressure in Westwood for UCLA head coach Jim Mora as he’s reportedly on the hot season.

For Mora and Todd Graham, the pressure is there for bounce-back seasons after both missed a bowl game for the first time in their tenure.

The reigning Pac-12 South champions, Colorado, finished behind UCLA in the preseason media poll picked to finished fourth in the division.

As the Pac-12 mentioned in their press release, the media has picked the correct champion 29 of the 56 polls, but only two of the last 10 have been correct.

So to sum it up, we have no idea what will happen in the Pac-12 this season (hello #Pac12AfterDark) and we could see some surprises as the season kicks off next month.

Next: ASU Football: Special teams positional breakdown

Pac-12 Media Days gets underway today at 9:30 a.m. PST on Pac-12 Networks with Arizona State scheduled to speak Thursday at 10:42 a.m. PST with head coach Todd Graham followed by running back Kalen Ballage and defensive lineman JoJo Wicker scheduled to speak 15 minutes later.

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