Predicting the 25 most entertaining Pac-12 games in the 2023 season

Zachary Neel

Sat, Jan 21, 2023, 8:43 AM·13 min read

The past half-decade or so has been tough for the Pac-12.

While the start of the College Football Playoff era saw a strong showing from the west coast, with teams like the Oregon Ducks and Washington Huskies getting into the mix early on, it’s been tough sledding since 2017. The Pac-12 has largely acted as an afterthought in the college football world, sometimes flirting with the bottom spot in the Power 5 conference rankings.

That should be changing very soon, though.

The 2022 season was one of great success for the Pac-12. The conference finished the year with six teams ranked inside the top 25, which was tied with the SEC for the most of any Power 5 conference. Going into 2023, things are expected to get even better, with the top 5 teams in the conference choosing to run it back with their best players returning for one more season. You’ve got quarterbacks like Oregon’s Bo Nix, Washington’s Michael Penix, and Utah’s Cameron Rising all holding off on entering the NFL Draft so that they can come back and try to dethrone USC’s Caleb Williams, the reigning Heisman winner. Oregon State also got into the mix with the addition of DJ Uiagalelei through the transfer portal, which is a move that might make them one of the best teams in the conference.

On top of all of that, even the bottom of the Pac-12 got better, with the Colorado Buffaloes expecting to make a remarkable turnaround thanks to Deion Sanders taking over as the head coach and bringing some top recruits with him. The Buffaloes are anticipated to be among the most entertaining teams to watch this season, and it feels like the conference is leaning into it.

The Pac-12 schedule came out earlier this week, and we’ve got a lot of takeaways from the order of games. In particular, it seems that commissioner George Kliavkoff worked hard to put the best product on TV, moving pieces around in order to get the best ratings that they can.

I talked about this with USA TODAY’s Trojans Wire editor Matt Zemek on the Sco-ing Long podcast earlier in the week. Here’s part of that conversation:

Neel: Oregon, Washington, Utah, USC, Oregon State — they all play in the second half of the season when those prime-time games are important and the College Football Playoff rankings are out. But then you look at the start of the season and you have Colorado vs. Oregon in week 4, and Colorado vs. USC in week 5. That’s before the shine I think has worn off of Colorado. We kind of think they will still be fun and entertaining to watch.
Zemek: This is also smart by Kliavkoff because you do want to get Deion Sanders against your prime programs, Oregon and USC, early in the season when there’s going to be a lot of interest. You want to showcase Colorado and Coach Prime against your marquee opponents earlier in the year, and then you can have the big boys playing in November.

To help emphasize this point, I went through the entire Pac-12 schedule for the 2023 season and tried to pick out the games that I think are going to be the most entertaining to watch. To help organize them, I broke the 25 games into five separate tiers and then ranked them accordingly.

These are the matchups that are going to get the biggest TV ratings on Saturday afternoons this fall, and the ones that will put the full power of the Pac-12 on display.

Tier 5 | Pure Entertainment — Colorado vs. UCLA

(AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Tier 5 Explanation: Games in this tier are just downright entertaining. The results won’t necessarily sway the Pac-12 title race, but they will be enthralling to watch.

Date: Week 9 | October 28

Reasoning: We’ve already talked about how entertaining Colorado will be next year with Deion Sanders leading a group of talented players like Travis Hunter, Cormani McClain, and Shedeur Sanders. UCLA also might have 5-star QB Dante Moore at the helm, and could be quietly pretty good in 2023. Neither projects to make it to the Pac-12 title game, but this will be fun to watch regardless.

Tier 5 | Pure Entertainment — OSU vs. UCLA

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Tier 5 Explanation: Games in this tier are just downright entertaining. The results won’t necessarily sway the Pac-12 title race, but they will be enthralling to watch.

Date: Week 7 | October 14

Reasoning: I think that both OSU and UCLA will be on the fringes of Pac-12 title competition in 2023, with the Beavers having a more likely chance of actually getting to Las Vegas. This game between the two of them, with DJ Uiagalelei vs. either Dante Moore or Colin Schlee, will be a fun watch regardless of the stakes.

Tier 5 | Pure Entertainment — Oregon vs. Colorado

Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

Tier 5 Explanation: Games in this tier are just downright entertaining. The results won’t necessarily sway the Pac-12 title race, but they will be enthralling to watch.

Date: Week 4 | September 23

Reasoning: Coach Prime in Eugene? The first Pac-12 matchup for Deion Sanders? A chance to see Travis Hunter, and Cormani McClain, and Shedeur Sanders against Pac-12 competition? Sign me up. This game will garner a lot of eyeballs.

Tier 5 | Pure Entertainment — USC vs. Colorado

Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

Tier 5 Explanation: Games in this tier are just downright entertaining. The results won’t necessarily sway the Pac-12 title race, but they will be enthralling to watch.

Date: Week 5 | September 30

Reasoning: You can probably sense a theme here… If Colorado is playing a game against even decent competition, it’s going to be a fun watch, especially early in the year when we’re still trying to figure out how good the Buffaloes can be. The only reason I ranked this one ahead of the Oregon-Colorado game is because of the Caleb Williams factor. You have to give the Heisman winner some respect.

Tier 4 | Non-Conference Thrillers — Washington State vs. Wisconsin