1. Will it be two years in a row with no Pac-12 team in the College Football Playoff?
Yes, that’s the unfortunate answer for Pac-12 fans. Combine the league’s nine-game conference schedule with growing parity in the North, and the table is set for a logjam of teams with multiple losses. UCLA and USC are the projected favorites in the South, but neither of those teams has finished with fewer than three losses in the College Football Playoff era. In the North, perennial winners Stanford and Oregon are both replacing successful starting quarterbacks, while Washington, Washington State, and California all look to pose legitimate threats.