Pac-12 Notebook: Bowl projections and Pac-12 stadiums ranked

USA Today ranks the Pac-12's best stadiums.

By John Breech

Aug 27, 2012 at 10:48 pm ET • 2 min read

Here are some Pac-12 links from media outlets that regularly cover the conference.

Sports Illustrated is projecting that eight Pac-12 teams will be playing during bowl season. In somewhat of a twist, SI has a Pac-12 team in the national title game, but it's not USC. SI projects a BCS Championship game of LSU and Oregon.
Oregon has the best stadium in the Pac-12, at least according to the USA Today. The paper ranked the 12 stadiums in the conference and Autzen Stadium in Eugene came out on top. The worst stadium? Washington State's Martin Stadium. The paper didn't rank Husky Field in Washington because it's undergoing a renovation, and Cal's newly renovated Memorial Stadium checked-in at No. 9.
UCLA and Oregon don't play each other in football this season, but the Bruins managed to stun the Ducks 21-20, Deadspin points out. It looks like someone at the AP might have hit the publish button on a dummy link.
USC released its first regular-season depth chart Sunday and the Trojans did something believed to be a college football first: They included players' Twitter handles on the chart.
Bryan Bennett didn't win the starting quarterback job at Oregon, but he could see some playing time in 2012 The Eugene Register-Guard's Rob Moseley says. Moseley points out that Bennett practiced in a white jersey Monday and not the standard red noncontact jersey that quarterbacks usually wear. Could Bennett see some playing time at wide receiver or another position? Only Chip Kelly knows.
The Sporting News put together a list of the five most interesting true freshman that are are expected to get substantial playing time this season. Oregon DL Arik Armstead made the cut.
The first Heisman Pundit/CBSSports.com straw poll has been released, and USC's Matt Barkley is on top. Barkely had 29 points and nine first-place votes in the 11-man straw poll. Barkley's teammate Robert Woods and Oregon's De'Anthony Thomas also made the list.
Washington State released its first regular-season depth chart and the biggest news is that new coach Mike Leach hasn't 'committed' to a quarterback. The depth chart lists the starting QB as Jeff Tuel OR <player idref=iday. Although it's widely believed that Tuel will start, it gives Cougar fans another reason to tune into the team's opener against BYU on Thursday (ESPN).