ASU Football: Sun Devils picked to finish sixth in Pac-12 South

The Pac-12 Conference preseason media poll predicts ASU football will finish in last place in the Pac-12 South.

Pac-12 Media Day is finally here, and to little surprise, the Sun Devils are being met with low expectations.

In a preseason media poll conducted by 42 members who cover Pac-12 Football, ASU was selected to finish sixth in the Pac-12 South, tallying the second-lowest point total of any team in the conference with 72.

The Sun Devils were also the only school in the South to not receive a first place vote in the division.

The top of the division features the reigning Pac-12 champion USC Trojans, who finished with 22 first place votes and 225 overall points. Behind USC are the Utah Utes, who came in with 14 first place votes and 209 points, followed by the Arizona Wildcats with three first place votes and 178 points.

On the other side of the conference, the Washington Huskies were the runaway favorite in the North, finishing with 40 first place votes and 249 points overall, the highest in the conference. The next-closest finisher was the defending North champion Stanford Cardinal, who finished with one first-place vote and 198 total points.

More from Devils in Detail

• Sun Devils Primer: Game 2 vs Oklahoma State
• Sun Devil Insight: Quarterback Room
• Arizona State Spotlight: Kenny Dillingham
• Arizona State 2023 Season Opener: Off To A Good Start
• Arizona State vs USC Prediction and Promo (Expect Offensive Fireworks)

The Huskies also ran away with the media’s vote to win the Pac-12 Championship, with 37 members selecting the team to dance in the confetti following the Nov. 30 title game in Santa Clara, California. USC received the second-most title votes with two, followed by Oregon, Stanford and UCLA with one vote each.

The full results for the poll can be seen below:

The Pac-12 preseason polls have been fairly accurate through its 57-year history, but not as much in recent memory. Per the aforementioned press release:

"Washington (249 points) was the overwhelming selection to capture the North Division ahead of STANFORD (198) and OREGON (178), which each picked up single votes to win the division.The media expects the South Division to provide a competitive race with USC (225) topping Utah (209) and ARIZONA (178), which picked up three first-place votes. UCLA collected two votes, and COLORADO one vote, to represent the South Division in the Pac-12 Championship Game.The media has correctly selected the Conference Champion in 30 of 57 previous polls, but only three times in the last 11 polls.Next: ASU Football: Chase Lucas added to Nagurski Trophy watch list"

It’ll be interesting to hear what first-year coach Herm Edwards will say about his team facing such low expectations.