I participate in this sports market called SimBull and they just announced they are adding college football to the market. They released the prices and SimUtah shares are going 5th in the Pac 12 behind Oregon, Washington, USC, and ASU. I personally (biased but I think it’s true) like Utah over Arizona State this year. 4thseems most accurate but I could see USC falling like usual. What do you guys think?
I’m not a ute fan but I can admit that 5th place in the Pac-12 is a bit low. It pains me to say that but the utes return way too many good to very good athletes to call them a fifth-place team.
Would you put them over USC so more like 3rd?
I honestly have no idea who is above them nor do I really care. I’m just looking at utah’s roster and thinking to myself, there’s no way that is a fifth-place team. Utah has a ton of talent and depth at every position.
And I do not buy into the myth that the Pac-12 is a league that is impossible to win. There’s P5#1 (SEC) and then there is the other P4.
Is it weird to say that with Ty Jordan we’re the favorites. Without him, who knows?
Accurate or not, that’s my knee jerk assessment to preseason placements.
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UW is ranked way too high, I can tell you that. I’d put them right in the middle of the league.
This team is very talented, but will it gel to hit championship level play?
See will see in September.
If you see championship-level play it won’t be in September it will be in November.
Wrong, it will be Oct 9 and 16. USC and ASU will make or break our South and PAC-12 chances. That will be when I keep or cancel my PAC-12 championship flight/hotel 
UW is likely 5/6. I would put Utah 4 until we see what we have. I don’t have a problem with that - Whitt does better when the team is undervalued. They’re never overlooked by PAC-12 coaches though. They know defense will show up and points will be at a premium. Turnovers and special teams are key - if teams make mistakes there, Utah takes advantage. If we have a good/great offense, that will be the difference if we are championship caliber or not.
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Way too many unknowns to be thinking about a championship. We have new RBs, a new QB, and an offensive line that did not really impress last season. We have just one sure star among the WRs, Kuithe. Our defense failed to generate pressure last season for the first time in recent memory.
I have high hopes like always, but many many things will have to come together at once for a shot at a title.
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Follow up - here are the P5 champions for the past 5 years:
ACC: Clemson, Clemson, Clemson, Clemson, Clemson
Big10: Ohio St, Ohio St, Ohio St, Ohio St, Penn St
Big12: Oklahoma, Oklahoma, Oklahoma, Oklahoma, Oklahoma
Pac12: Oregon, Oregon, UW, Stanford, UW
SEC: Bama, LSU, Bama, Georgia, Bama
That’s 25 champions right there, and 24 of the were running on top 15 recruiting classes. The outlier, Stanford, was running on top 25 recruiting classes.
Utah is overperforming relative to recruiting when we finish in the top 25. When we win the south, we are overperforming by a lot. To win the Pac-12, we need to overperform by a mile.
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P5 2nd place (lose championship game):
ACC: Notre Dame, Virginia, Pittsburgh, Miami, VTech
Big10: NW, Wisc, NW, Wisc, Wisc
Big12: Iowa St., Baylor, Texas, TCU, WV/OSU (2nd place, no championship)
Pac12: USC, Utah, Utah, Stanford, Colorado
SEC: Florida, Georgia, Georgia, Auburn, Florida
My point? I don’t have one, just like seeing Utah on a list somewhere 
Other conclusions: Georgia & Wisconsin keep falling into the good, but not good enough bucket. ACC is wide open for 2nd, same with Big 12.
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Big10 has a huge balance problem with their divisions. There’s lots of chatter around doing away with divisions in the new playoff. I think that would be good. It would also be good if conferences agreed to play 10 conference games per season.
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