Pac-12 Football: 247 Sports releases composite team rankings

Every year 247 Sports releases a composite team ranking. This ranking is based on the pure talent of a team’s roster. 247 Sports evaluates this talent based on how they rated each player on the team in high school. For example, if Team A is full of five four-stars, and all of the rest are three-stars, compared to Team B with only three-star recruits, Team A will be ranked higher.

Pac-12 conference composite rankings

Let’s take a look at how 247 Sports ranks the Pac-12 conference in their rankings. This is their national rankings. In parenthesis is their position in the Pac-12 preseason media poll.

• #8 USC (1)
• #10 Oregon (4)
• #25 UCLA (6)
• #26 Washington (2)
• #33 Utah (3)
• #35 Colorado (11)
• #37 Stanford (12)
• #42 Arizona (8)
• #44 Arizona State (10)
• #45 California (9)
• #53 Oregon State (5)
• #74 Washington State (7)

There are some interesting takeaways from this. The biggest discrepancy is Oregon State. The Beavers are nationally ranked in the preseason top-25 and are picked to finish 5th in the Pac-12 by the voters.

However, the Beavers are the second least talented team in the conference according to 247 Sports.

Another discrepancy is how 247 Sports evaluates Colorado and Stanford. For Stanford, this isn’t a surprise. The Cardinal is usually in the top 25 in 247 Sports’ talent rankings. However, their program has been on a slow and steady decline. This might be the year they hit rock bottom as they’re projected to finish dead last in the conference. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

On the other hand with Colorado, their whole team is a wild card. Head coach Deion Sanders rolled into town and nearly completely revamped the roster. It’s honestly impossible to predict how things will fair in Boulder with all of the questionable new additions. 247 Sports thinks they’ll be okay with all of the talent. Only time will tell.

How is Arizona State ranked?

Arizona State is near the bottom, finishing eighth. However, that is higher than their standing in the Pac-12 preseason poll. Similar to Colorado, there are a lot of questions about the new roster Kenny Dillingham has created. Jaden Rashada, true freshman QB will get the start in Week 1, and he’s a wild card as well.

Dillingham hasn’t even had a full offseason to recruit yet, so it’s hard to put much of the talent level on Dillingham.

It’s important to acknowledge a few flaws with 247 Sports’ system as well. The Sun Devils will be expecting great things from transfer running back Cameron Skatteboo. Last season at Sacramento State, Skatteboo won Big Sky Offensive Player of the Year. He had a dominant season, despite only having two scholarship offers coming out of high school, and being unranked as a prospect.

The composite rankings that value a player’s recruiting profile overlook certain transfers and players that have exceeded expectations. Skatteboo was a diamond in the rough, and his impact isn’t shown by the talent rankings.

It’ll be interesting to see how this Arizona State team performs in their opening contest tomorrow night against Southern Utah.

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