The 2012 Pac-12 Conference football season began on August 30, 2012, with Northern Colorado at

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

. The conference's first game was played on September 15 with #2 USC at #21 Stanford, and the final game played was the

Pac-12 Championship Game The Pac-12 Football Championship Game was an annual college football game held by the Pac-12 Conference to determine the season's conference champion. The game from the 2011–2021 seasons had the champion of the North Division against the cham ...

on November 30, 2012. This is the second season for the conference as a 12-team league. Pac-12 champion Stanford was featured in the Rose Bowl, a BCS bowl, when they prevailed 20–14 against

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives in 1 ...

Champion Wisconsin on January 1, 2013.

Previous season

The first Pac-12 Championship Game was held on Friday, December 2, 2011.

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

defeated

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

to claim their third straight conference title. Last season, seven teams accepted bowl bids, an improvement from the four in the 2010 season. Oregon Ducks, ending the regular season with a program-second twelve wins and with a #5 BCS ranking, earned a berth in the Rose Bowl, where they defeated

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

for their first Rose Bowl win in 95 years.

Stanford Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth governor of and th ...

repeated as the conference runner-up, ending the regular season with a program-first eleven wins (their sole loss was to Oregon) and with a #4 BCS ranking, giving them an at-large BCS berth. The Cardinal was defeated by

Big 12 The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Okla ...

champion

Oklahoma State Oklahoma State University (informally Oklahoma State or OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Stillwater, Oklahoma, United States. The university was established in 1890 under the legislation of the Morrill Act. Originally known ...

in the

Fiesta Bowl The Fiesta Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played annually in the Phoenix metropolitan area since 1971. From its beginning until 2006, the game was hosted at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. Since 2007, the game has be ...

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

lost to

while

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

defeated by Baylor in non-BCS bowls.

Preseason

2012 Pac-12 Spring Football: North Division * California - Thu., March 15 to Sat., April 21 * Oregon - Tue., April 3 to Sat., April 28 * Oregon State - Mon., March 12 to Sat., April 28 * Stanford - Mon., Feb. 27 to Sat., April 14 * Washington - Mon., April 2 to Sat., April 28 * Washington State - Thu., March 22 to Sat., April 21 South Division * Arizona - Mon., March 5 to Sat., April 14 * Arizona State - Tue., March 13 to Sat., April 21 * Colorado - Sat., March 10 to Sat., April 14 * UCLA - Tue., April 3 to Sat., May 5 * USC - Tue., March 6 to Sat., April 14 * Utah - Wed., March 21 to Sat., April 21

Head coaches

Rich Rodriguez Richard Alan Rodriguez (; born May 24, 1963), also known as Rich Rod, is an American college football coach and former player. He is the current head football coach at West Virginia Mountaineers football, West Virginia University, his second sti ...

, Arizona – 1st year *

Todd Graham Michael Todd Graham (born December 5, 1964) is an American college football coach and former player who serves as an offensive analyst for TCU. He was most recently the head football coach at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Playing car ...

, Arizona State – 1st year *

Jeff Tedford Jeffrey Raye Tedford (born November 2, 1961) is an American football coach and former player. From 2002 to 2012, Tedford was the head football coach for the California Golden Bears, where he was twice named Pac-10 Coach of the Year and holds ...

, California – 6th year * Jon Embree, Colorado – 2nd year *

Chip Kelly Charles Edward Kelly (born November 25, 1963) is an American professional American football, football coach who is the offensive coordinator for the Las Vegas Raiders of the National Football League (NFL). He came to prominence as a college foo ...

, Oregon – 4th year * Mike Riley, Oregon State – 11th year * David Shaw, Stanford – 2nd year * Jim L. Mora, UCLA – 1st year *

Lane Kiffin Lane Monte Kiffin (born May 9, 1975) is an American football coach who is the head coach at Ole Miss Rebels football, Ole Miss. Kiffin was the offensive coordinator at USC Trojans football, USC from 2005 to 2006, head coach of the National Foo ...

, USC – 3rd year *

Kyle Whittingham Kyle David Whittingham (born November 21, 1959) is an American college football coach and former player. He currently serves as the head football coach at the University of Utah, a position he has held since 2005, and he is the all-time leader ...

, Utah – 8th year *

Steve Sarkisian Stephen Sarkisian (; born March 8, 1974)Stephens, Ken. – "QB Genealogy – Steve Sarkisian is latest in long line of talented BYU quarterbacks". – ''Dallas Morning News''– December 31, 1996. is an American football coach and former player ...

, Washington – 4th year * Mike Leach, Washington State – 1st year

Rankings

Schedule

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

Week 7

Week 8

Week 9

Week 10

Week 11

Week 12

Week 13

Week 14 (Pac-12 Championship Game)

Records against other conferences

Pac-12 vs. BCS matchups

Bowl games

The Pac-12 is participating in the following bowls (Pac-12 teams in bold):

Players of the week

Following each week of games, Pac-12 conference officials select the players of the week from the conference's teams.

Position key

Home game attendance

Oregon State's home game against Nicholls State was postponed due to Nicholls State's inability to travel due to

Hurricane Isaac The name Isaac (or the variant Isaack) has been used for six tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Ocean and for one in the South Pacific Ocean, and has been used for one extratropical european windstorm. In the Atlantic: * Tropical Storm Isaac (1988) ...

.
Due to reconstruction at

Husky Stadium Husky Stadium (officially Alaska Airlines Field at Husky Stadium for sponsorship purposes) is an outdoor American football, football stadium in the Northwestern United States, located on the campus of the University of Washington in Seattle, Wa ...

, Washington play their 2012 home games at CenturyLink Field.
This was an official Washington State home game played versus Oregon at CenturyLink Field.

Notes

*July 24, 2012 – 2012 Media Day at

Gibson Amphitheatre Universal Amphitheatre (later known as Gibson Amphitheatre) was an indoor amphitheatre located in Los Angeles, California, within Universal City, California, Universal City. It was built as an outdoor venue, opening in the summer of 1972 with a p ...

. *September 4, 2012 – After Week 1, UCLA is tied for first in sacks with 6. *September 8, 2012 - Three Pac-12 teams upset ranked opponents: Arizona defeats #18 Oklahoma State, Oregon State prevails over #13 Wisconsin, and UCLA holds off #16 Nebraska. *September 9, 2012 - Five Pac-12 teams are ranked in the Top 25: #2 USC, #4 Oregon, #21 Stanford, #22 UCLA, #24 Arizona. *November 3, 2012 – Oregon is the first team to ever score 60 points on USC in 124 years. *November 8, 2012 – USC was reprimanded and fined by the conference for illegally deflated game balls by a student manager during the Oregon game on November 3, 2012. * November 20, 2012 – Three days after the close of the season, head coach

was relieved of his duties at California.

Awards and honors

Doak Walker Award The Doak Walker Award honors the top running back in college football in the United States. Established in 1990, it is named in honor of Doak Walker, a former running back who played for the SMU Mustangs from 1945 to 1949 and in the National Foot ...

* 2nd - Johnathan Franklin, UCLA; 3rd - Kenjon Barner, Oregon

Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award The Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award is given annually in the United States to the nation's top upperclassman quarterback in college football. Candidates are judged on accomplishments on the field as well as on their character, scholastic achievem ...

Maxwell Award The Maxwell Award is presented annually to the college football player judged by a panel of sportscasters, sportswriters, and National Collegiate Athletic Association head coaches and the membership of the Maxwell Football Club to be the best all ...

* Walter Camp Player of the Year Award *

All-Americans

Academic All-America Team Member of the Year ( CoSIDA) * AFCA Coaches' All-Americans First Team: * * *

All-Pac-12 teams

*Offensive Player of the Year: Marqise Lee, WR, USC *Pat Tillman Defensive Player of the Year: Will Sutton, DE, Arizona State *Offensive Freshman of the Year:

Marcus Mariota Marcus Ardel Taulauniu Mariota (born October 30, 1993) is an American professional American football, football quarterback for the Washington Commanders of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Oregon Ducks footb ...

, QB, Oregon *Defensive Freshman of the Year: Leonard Williams, DE, USC *Coach of the Year: David Shaw, Stanford Offense: Defense: Specialists:

All-Academic

First teamKevin Gemmell
Pac-12 All-Academic team
''ESPN.com'', November 20, 2012

2013 NFL draft The 2013 NFL draft was the 78th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible football players. The draft, which is officially called the "NFL Player Selection Meeting", was held at Radio City Music Hall in ...

References

{{2012 NCAA Division I FBS football season navbox