07-21-2023, 12:50 PM
Given our expected finish and this season being all about vibes (at least more so than wins) I haven't dug into other teams to have a particularly informed view of the other teams in the conference. It is a safe, conventional wisdom thing to pick Stanford last. Finishing last is so bad that it's probably a bad bet any given team will finish last last but somebody has to. Stanford is one of the more likely teams to finish last and I get why most are picking us to.
I'm pleasantly surprised the media is so bearish on Colorado. They have a ton of work to do and a ton of question marks and it's interesting that the Pac-12 media isn't buying what Coach Prime is selling except in the sense of leap frogging one team in the standings. I bet his health issues have something to do with it.
Pretty surprised to see Cal 9th. Not a lot separates them from the other cellar dwellers in my view. But, again, somebody has to be 9th/10th/11th/12th.
I don't know how many years Stanford has been preseason last place. I know that we've been real life end of season last place in 1959, 1960, 1963, 1966 (in conference record but not the worst overall record), 1983, 1988 (technically 1-5-2 in conference to Cal's 1-5-1 but a worse overall record so I'm comfortable calling that last....1989 did not have the worst conference record but did have the worst overall record), 1993 (tied for dead last), 1994 (well, in overall record we did have a tie advantage over Arizona State), 2002, and 2006. There was always somebody worse in the Shaw years, though our 2022 team tied for last in conference record. Based on the number of seasons we've brought up the caboose pre-Harbaugh, we really can't rule it out. Like others, though, I bet somebody finds a way to be worse. As this poll predicts, Stanford at Colorado may decide it.
I'm pleasantly surprised the media is so bearish on Colorado. They have a ton of work to do and a ton of question marks and it's interesting that the Pac-12 media isn't buying what Coach Prime is selling except in the sense of leap frogging one team in the standings. I bet his health issues have something to do with it.
Pretty surprised to see Cal 9th. Not a lot separates them from the other cellar dwellers in my view. But, again, somebody has to be 9th/10th/11th/12th.
I don't know how many years Stanford has been preseason last place. I know that we've been real life end of season last place in 1959, 1960, 1963, 1966 (in conference record but not the worst overall record), 1983, 1988 (technically 1-5-2 in conference to Cal's 1-5-1 but a worse overall record so I'm comfortable calling that last....1989 did not have the worst conference record but did have the worst overall record), 1993 (tied for dead last), 1994 (well, in overall record we did have a tie advantage over Arizona State), 2002, and 2006. There was always somebody worse in the Shaw years, though our 2022 team tied for last in conference record. Based on the number of seasons we've brought up the caboose pre-Harbaugh, we really can't rule it out. Like others, though, I bet somebody finds a way to be worse. As this poll predicts, Stanford at Colorado may decide it.