High-flying Trojans earn voters’ respect

LOS ANGELES — Defending national champion Southern California was the unanimous choice to repeat as Pac-10 champions in preseason media balloting.

Washington coach Keith Gilbertson has his own idea about the Trojans.

“I picked them third this year — in the NFC West,” Gilbertson joked Wednesday at the conference’s media day.

USC was picked to win the conference on all 24 ballots, the first time a team received all the first-place votes since the Pac-10 era began in 1978.

California, the only team to beat USC last year, finished second in the preseason voting. The Bears, who finished 8-6 last season in coach Jeff Tedford’s second year, previously had not been picked higher than fourth.

Based on 10 points for a first-place vote down to one point for last place, the Bears had 210 points this year to the Trojans’ 240.

“We’re very grateful that everybody’s watching us and giving us respect, but at the same time, we’re just trying to remain focused and not pay any attention to the hype,” Bears wide receiver Geoff McArthur said.

Oregon (192 points) was picked to finish third and was followed by Oregon State (138), Washington State (133), Arizona State (131), Washington (100), UCLA (98), Stanford (40) and Arizona (38).

The poll has predicted the conference champion correctly for the past four years and five of the last six.

Arizona, picked to finish 10th this year, can take hope from past balloting; in two of the past three years, the team picked to finish last posted a winning record.

“The expectations of our staff and players are higher than those others out there,” first-year Arizona coach Mike Stoops said.

Arizona State was picked by voters to finish as high as third and as low as ninth.