On the eve of Pac-12 Media Day, the conference released its preseason media poll on Thursday afternoon.
USC landed third overall while receiving 5 out of 33 first-place votes, finishing behind Utah (26 first-place votes) and Oregon (2), which received more overall points in the voting.
Utah defeated Oregon in the 2021 Pac-12 Championship Game.
This will be the first season that the Pac-12 championship game will be played between the two teams with the highest conference winning percentage, rather than by divisions. The 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
Here are the full poll results: