[BostonCard]

Well, of course there is an argument to be made for Utah, which is primarily just this. But, considering that they are now ranked #4 in th AP poll (with 16 first place votes, the second most), I didn't think that the pro-Utah arguments needed repeating.

The excercise for me was to try to figure out why when I watch Utah I don't feel they should be such a strong favorite to win the Pac 12. I think where they haven't impressed is mostly summed up in the yards/play numbers.

On the other hand, they seem to have a bit of 2012 Stanford in them, which I respect.  (Though that 2012 team, while generally not awe-inspiring, did end up with +0.80 in yds/play differential.)

There are three teams ranked ahead of Utah:

Ohio State:best win over 4-2 Indiana; other wins over 3-3 Virginia Tech, 3-3 NIU, 2-3 Western Michigan, 2-4 Hawaii, 2-4 Maryland.  Nor have any  of those wins been particularly impressive.

Baylor: best win over 4-2 Texas Tech; other wins over 3-3 Rice, 1-5 SMU, 0-5 Kansas, and 3-2 FCS Lamar.  They have been blowing out those opponents, but Utah's worst win (1-5 Fresno State) could probably go 3-2 against that schedule.

TCU: best win over 4-2 Texas Tech; other wins over 4-2 Minnesota, 3-2 Kansas State, 2-4 Texas, 1-5 SMU, and 1-5 FCS Stephen F. Austin.

It's worth noting that none of the three have victories over top-25 teams; Texas Tech is in the "others receiving votes" category.  Utah has two of them in 5 games.  The OP also put Stanford over Utah, and while I love the team as much as anyone, and think we have been playing really well, it is hard to ignore that Northwestern games, where we didn't just lose, we played poorly.  Our marquee win over USC looks like less of a trophy, our second best win (Arizona) was without their starting QB, and UCF (winless at 0-6) and OSU (2-3) are just bad teams.  I don't mean to pull a Teejers here, because I do think we have been playing well, but I would be hard pressed to say that we deserve a higher in-conference power ranking that Utah.

BC

[BostonCard]

Well, of course there is an argument to be made for Utah, which is primarily just this. But, considering that they are now ranked #4 in th AP poll (with 16 first place votes, the second most), I didn't think that the pro-Utah arguments needed repeating.

The excercise for me was to try to figure out why when I watch Utah I don't feel they should be such a strong favorite to win the Pac 12. I think where they haven't impressed is mostly summed up in the yards/play numbers.

On the other hand, they seem to have a bit of 2012 Stanford in them, which I respect.  (Though that 2012 team, while generally not awe-inspiring, did end up with +0.80 in yds/play differential.)

There are three teams ranked ahead of Utah:

Ohio State:best win over 4-2 Indiana; other wins over 3-3 Virginia Tech, 3-3 NIU, 2-3 Western Michigan, 2-4 Hawaii, 2-4 Maryland.  Nor have any  of those wins been particularly impressive.

Baylor: best win over 4-2 Texas Tech; other wins over 3-3 Rice, 1-5 SMU, 0-5 Kansas, and 3-2 FCS Lamar.  They have been blowing out those opponents, but Utah's worst win (1-5 Fresno State) could probably go 3-2 against that schedule.

TCU: best win over 4-2 Texas Tech; other wins over 4-2 Minnesota, 3-2 Kansas State, 2-4 Texas, 1-5 SMU, and 1-5 FCS Stephen F. Austin.

It's worth noting that none of the three have victories over top-25 teams; Texas Tech is in the "others receiving votes" category.  Utah has two of them in 5 games.  The OP also put Stanford over Utah, and while I love the team as much as anyone, and think we have been playing really well, it is hard to ignore that Northwestern games, where we didn't just lose, we played poorly.  Our marquee win over USC looks like less of a trophy, our second best win (Arizona) was without their starting QB, and UCF (winless at 0-6) and OSU (2-3) are just bad teams.  I don't mean to pull a Teejers here, because I do think we have been playing well, but I would be hard pressed to say that we deserve a higher in-conference power ranking that Utah.

BC