July 24, 2008

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - The Arizona State football team has been picked to finish second in the Pacific-10 Conference in a preseason poll of West Coast media members who regularly cover the league. The Sun Devils are coming off a 10-3 season in which they shared the conference title with USC and played in the Pacific Life Holiday Bowl.

ASU received 330 points in the poll, giving the Sun Devils their highest preseason slot since being picked second in 2003. USC was a near-unanimous selection to win the conference title, receiving 38 of the 39 first-place votes and 389 total points. The media poll has correctly selected the Pac-10 champion in 25 of the previous 47 polls, including the last eight years in a row.

2008 Pac-10 Pre-Season Media Poll
(points 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1, first-place votes in parentheses)
1 USC (38) 389
2 Arizona State 330
3 Oregon 295
4 California (1) 274
5 UCLA 204
6 Oregon State 192
7 Arizona 185
8 Washington 139
9 Stanford 76
10 Washington State 61