PAC-12 Media Pick Utah To Repeat As Champs

July 31, 2022 by Courtesy Pac-12.com

UTAH has been chosen as the favorite to win the 2022 Pac-12 Conference Championship, presented by 76®, in a vote of 33 media members who cover the league. The defending Pac-12 champion Utes received 26 of the 33 first-place votes to earn the preseason nod.

OREGON, who faced Utah in the 2021 championship game, received two first-place votes and the second most overall points to edge out USC, despite the Trojans having more first-place votes (five).

This will be the first season that the Pac-12 Football Championship Game will be played between the two teams with the highest conference winning percentage.  This change came about following the NCAA Division I Council decision in May to deregulate the rule that had limited an individual conference's autonomy to determine their football championship game participants.  It was based on a motion brought by the Pac-12 and unanimously supported by all FBS conferences.

The media has correctly selected the Conference Champion in just 32 of 61 previous preseason polls, including five times in the PAC-12's 11-year conference championship game era.

2022 Pac-12 Football Media Day was held in Los Angeles on Friday, July 29.

Following are the results of the preseason media poll (points 12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 with first-place votes in parentheses):