Huskies picked by media to finish 2nd in Pac-12 North

As expected, the Washington Huskies will enter the 2016 football season with high expectations.

Media covering the Pac-12 picked the Huskies to finish second in the North division this season, behind Stanford and ahead of Oregon, Washington State, California and Oregon State in that order. It’s the highest UW has been picked in the conference preseason media poll since the league expanded to 12 teams (and two divisions) in 2011.

Washington received eight first-place votes and 163 overall points. Stanford, picked by media to win the North as well as the Pac-12 championship game, totaled 186 points and 24 first-place votes. Four voters picked Washington to win the Pac-12 championship game.

UCLA is a slight favorite to win the South, just ahead of USC.

Here is the preseason poll in its entirety.

North Division

Team / (first-place votes) / total points

1. Stanford (24) 186

2. Washington (8) 163

3. Oregon (1) 132

4. Washington State 112

5. California 67

6. Oregon State 33

South Division

1. UCLA (19) 180

2. USC (12) 173

3. Utah (2) 127

4. Arizona 87

5. Arizona State 85

6. Colorado 63

PAC-12 TITLE GAME CHAMPION: Stanford (20 votes)

Others receiving votes: USC (5), Washington (4), UCLA (3), Utah (1)

This story was originally published July 14, 2016 at 8:25 AM with the headline "Huskies picked by media to finish 2nd in Pac-12 North."