HOLLYWOOD - UCLA was picked to win the South Division of the Pac-12 Conference in a media poll released on Thursday at the annual conference football media day event. The Bruins garnered 19 first-place votes in the division and 180 total points in the vote of 33 media members who cover Pac-12 football.
For the first time in the 56-year history of the conference preseason poll, Stanford was chosen the favorite to win the 2016 Pac-12 Conference football title. The Cardinal received 20 votes to earn the preseason favorite pick. Stanford collected 186 points for the top spot in the North Division, holding 24 first-place votes.
The Bruins will begin practices, which will be open to the public for two weeks, for the 2016 season on August 8 at the UCLA IM Field in preparation for the September 3 opening game at Texas A&M (12:30 p.m. on CBS). The home opener is set for September 10 in the Rose Bowl against UNLV (5 p.m. on P12 N). UCLA's first conference game will be played against Stanford on Sept. 24 in the Rose Bowl (game time TBA). The Bruins will also host second, third and fourth-place south vote getters USC (Nov. 19-game time TBA) Utah (Oct. 22-TBA) and Arizona (Oct. 1-TBA) in the Rose Bowl this season.
The media poll has correctly selected the Conference Champion in 29 of 55 previous polls, but only twice in the last nine polls. Following are the results of the preseason media poll (points 6-5-4-3-2-1, first-place votes in parentheses):
PAC-12 TITLE GAME CHAMPION: Stanford
For the first time in the 56-year history of the conference preseason poll, Stanford was chosen the favorite to win the 2016 Pac-12 Conference football title. The Cardinal received 20 votes to earn the preseason favorite pick. Stanford collected 186 points for the top spot in the North Division, holding 24 first-place votes.
The Bruins will begin practices, which will be open to the public for two weeks, for the 2016 season on August 8 at the UCLA IM Field in preparation for the September 3 opening game at Texas A&M (12:30 p.m. on CBS). The home opener is set for September 10 in the Rose Bowl against UNLV (5 p.m. on P12 N). UCLA's first conference game will be played against Stanford on Sept. 24 in the Rose Bowl (game time TBA). The Bruins will also host second, third and fourth-place south vote getters USC (Nov. 19-game time TBA) Utah (Oct. 22-TBA) and Arizona (Oct. 1-TBA) in the Rose Bowl this season.
The media poll has correctly selected the Conference Champion in 29 of 55 previous polls, but only twice in the last nine polls. Following are the results of the preseason media poll (points 6-5-4-3-2-1, first-place votes in parentheses):
| North Division | South Division | ||||
| 1. | Stanford (24) | 186 | 1. | UCLA (19) | 180 |
| 2. | Washington (8) | 163 | 2. | USC (12) | 173 |
| 3. | Oregon (1) | 132 | 3. | Utah (2) | 127 |
| 4. | Washington State | 112 | 4. | Arizona | 87 |
| 5. | California | 67 | 5. | Arizona State | 85 |
| 6. | Oregon State | 33 | 6. | Colorado | 63 |