Winners and Losers from 2016 Pac-12 Media Days
Two days of interviews, photo sessions and bottle-flipping demonstrations are in the books, putting a quick finish to the Pac-12 Conference's media days in Hollywood, California. Unlike the SEC, which spreads its media days over four days and has wall-to-wall coverage, the Pac-12 embodies a more low-key approach that's got a casual tone to it.
Players and coaches donned team polos rather than suits and ties, spending as much time in the sun—the event was held at an outdoor mall—as in convention halls.
What else was there of note from the Pac-12's first media availability for the 2016 season? Follow along as we highlight some of the "winners" and "losers" of the past two days.
Winner: Stanford
1 of 6
Stanford has been the most successful team in the Pac-12 in the past four seasons, winning three league titles and representing the conference three times in the Rose Bowl. But as much as the Cardinal have accomplished of late, they'd never had to do it with a target on their backs.
That changes this fall, as Stanford was picked by the conference's media to win the Pac-12 for the first time in school history. It received 20 of 33 votes to win the league championship in addition to 24 votes to claim the North Division, beating out runner-up Washington.
"It shows you guys truly have no idea what you're doing," Stanford coach David Shaw said Friday, per AZCentral.com's Doug Haller.
The Cardinal were tabbed first despite losing 11 starters from last year's 12-2 team, though they return a big one in FBS all-purpose record-holder Christian McCaffrey.
UCLA was the media pick to claim the South Division, getting 19 first-place votes to edge out rival USC, but earned only three votes to win the conference.
The Pac-12 media have been correct in their champion pick 29 times in 55 years of putting together a preseason poll, but just twice in the past nine years. Last year, USC was picked to win the league but fell to Stanford in the title game.
Loser: League Playoff Hopes
2 of 6
The Pac-12 sent 10 of its 12 teams to bowls last year, a league record and the highest percentage of any conference in FBS. But it was also the only power conference not to make the playoffs after sending Oregon to the national championship game in 2014-15.
Coaches and league officials spent the past two days praising the Pac-12's depth and parity, in a way resigning themselves to the fact the league could be the odd one out yet again.
"Standing here today, looking at the incredible depth from top to bottom in our conference, I am confident no other conference has as many good teams as the Pac-12 this season," commissioner Larry Scott said, per Bryan Fischer of Athlon Sports.
Scott believes the league's push to schedule aggressively in the nonconference, as well as the nine-game schedule, will make its best teams attractive to the playoff committee when matched up against other teams with similar records.
"If a team deserves to be in the playoff they will be," Scott said, per ASAP Sports.
Winner: Mike Leach
3 of 6
No Pac-12 media days is complete without some deep thoughts from Mike Leach, the league's resident philosopher. The Washington State coach is a must listen/watch when he's at the podium because you never know what topics are going to come up.
Despite efforts by reporters to quiz him on football-related things, such as his prolific quarterback or a team coming off a 9-4 season, Leach did his best to steer things away from the field. He opened up on topics such as Pokemon Go, Brexit, the quality of football outside of North America and how little people communicate with each other anymore because of technology.
He also pitched what could make for a heck of a buddy comedy, one involving he and the just-retired Steve Spurrier.
"The guy's always on the move," Leach said on the Pac-12 Network broadcast. "I think we're kind of both examples of you need to figure out, to develop the ability to do nothing periodically. I need to work on it, maybe I'll call him and we can work on it together."
Leach said his offseason has been too busy to relax, having spent time in Italy, Alaska and Cuba.
"It's been a whirlwind of travel," he said. "That decompression time starts when I make my escape from media day."
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
Loser: DirecTV Subscribers
4 of 6
The Pac-12 has had its own television network for more than four years now, yet it's still missing one major player from its coverage list.
Scott said Thursday via the Pac-12 Network broadcast that the league continues to strike out when it comes to trying to bring DirecTV into the fold to join other cable providers, the newest being Frontier Communications (formerly Verizon Fios).
"We continue to be disappointed and frustrated," Scott said. "Our team will continue to knock on the door and push to offer them the same opportunity that over 75 different distributors have said yes to."
Though that stalemate continues, the Pac-12 is making inroads in other ways. In addition to agreements with major carriers Comcast and Cox to have the network's national feed be the main channel (instead of one of the five regional networks that applies to closest teams in the league) the conference will also partner with Twitter to live stream at least 150 sporting events during the 2016-17 season.
Those will likely focus on the non-revenue sports, meaning no football or basketball on Twitter.
Winner: Sefo Liufau
5 of 6
The only team to bring a quarterback to Pac-12 media days was South Division doormat Colorado, but its choice of senior Sefo Liufau was a significant one. It's a clear sign that Liufau is on track to return to the field after suffering a potentially career-ending injury in November.
"As of late it hasn't really hurt when I throw," Liufau said on the Pac-12 Network broadcast of his left foot, where he suffered a Lisfranc injury against USC that knocked him out the final two games of 2015 and all of spring ball. "It's been a long process. I think I'm in a better spot than I was last year."
Colorado was so unsure of Liufau's health that coach Mike MacIntyre sought out a replacement on the transfer market. He thought he had that guy in Texas Tech's Davis Webb, who committed to the Buffaloes in the winter but then signed with another Pac-12 team (California).
Liufau enters this fall needing 352 passing yards to become Colorado's all-time leader. Another 15 touchdown passes will give him that career mark as well.
Loser: Pokemon Go
6 of 6
The Pac-12 tries to be hip, in tune with what the kids are loving these days. It has an apparel trendsetter in Oregon and a TV schedule that gives people who stay up late something to watch, but there's a limit to what the league is willing to do for attention.
That limit, apparently, is Pokemon Go.
Nearly every coach and player at Pac-12 Media Days was queried about the popular mobile game, and to a man they almost all had something negative to say about it.
"I had no idea what the hell Pokemon Go was until I asked my son," Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez said, per SB Nation's Steven Godfrey. "I know a lot of people are walking around bumping into each other."
Washington coach Chris Petersen equated the game to his team's increasing publicity this offseason, saying, "we have as much hype as the new Pokemon game that no one knows anything about but thinks is really cool" (per ESPN's Kyle Bonagura).
And Washington State's Leach, never one to pass up a chance to rant, pointed to Pokemon Go as one of the reasons people don't talk anymore.
"I think the days before cell phones, when it was dirt clod wars at construction sites, was a lot more wholesome and productive to be perfectly honest," Leach said, per ASAP Sports.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
