2015 Pac 12 Conference football season

Updated on Dec 08, 2023

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Sport American football North runners-up Oregon Ducks Dates 3 Sep 2015 – 5 Dec 2015 Number of teams 12		North champions Stanford Cardinal South champions USC Trojans Location United States of America
League NCAA Division I FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) TV partner(s) Fox Sports Media Group (FOX, FS1), ESPN Family (ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU), and Pac-12 Networks Champion Stanford Cardinal football Similar 2016 Pac‑12 Conferen, 2015 NCAA Division I, 2016 Sun Belt Conferen, Football at the 2012 Summer, 2015 Mountain West Con

The 2015 Pac-12 Conference football season was the fifth season for the conference as a twelve-team league. The season began on September 3, 2015 with a trio of games, Arizona hosting UTSA, Utah hosting Michigan, and Hawaii hosting Colorado. The final game was the Pac-12 Championship Game at Levi's Stadium on December 5, 2015, with ESPN televising the game.

Previous season

Oregon, the North Division Champions, defeated Arizona, the South Division Champions, 51–13 to claim their second conference title and the chance to play in the College Football Playoff (CFP) semifinal game at the Rose Bowl, where they defeated Florida State 59–20, advancing to their second-ever national championship game (the first-ever CFP National Championship Game), where they were defeated by the Ohio Buckeyes, 42–20.

A record nine conference teams played in a post-season bowl game, with six winning. Arizona, the South Division Champion, was also a bowl game loser, losing to Boise State 38–30 in the Fiesta Bowl. Bowl game winners were: Arizona State defeated Duke 36-31 in the Sun Bowl, Stanford defeated Maryland 45–21 in the Foster Farms Bowl, UCLA defeated Kansas State 40-35 in the Alamo Bowl, USC defeated Nebraska 45–42 in the Holiday Bowl, and Utah defeated Colorado State 45–10 in the Las Vegas Bowl.

Pre-season

2015 Pac-12 Spring Football and number of signees on signing day:

Pac-12 Media

2015 Pac-12 Media Day was held at Warner Bros. in Burbank, California on July 30–31, 2015.

Preseason polls

Predicted Pac-12 Championship Game Winner: USC (21) was picked to win the Pac-12 Championship over Oregon (17) for the first time since 2012. Others receiving votes were ASU (3), UCLA (2), and Stanford (1).

Head coaches

Note: Stats shown are before the beginning of the season

Schedule

All times Mountain time. Pac-12 teams in bold.

Rankings reflect those of the AP poll for that week.

Week 1

Players of the Week - Sept 7

Week 2

Players of the Week- Sept 14

Week 3

Players of the Week - Sept 21

Week 4

Players of the Week - Sept 28

Week 5

Players of the Week - Oct 5

Week 6

Players of the Week - Oct 12

Week 7

Players of the Week - Oct 19

Week 8

Players of the Week - Oct 26

Week 9

Players of the Week - Nov 2

Week 10

Players of the Week - Nov 9

Week 11

Players of the Week - Nov 16

Week 12

Players of the Week - Nov 23

Week 13

Players of the Week - Nov 28

Championship game

The championship game was played on December 5, 2015. It featured the teams with the best conference records from each division, Stanford from the North and USC from the South. This was the fifth championship game (and the fifth win for the North), with Stanford appearing for the third time (and winning for the third time) and USC appearing for the first time.

Bowl games

Pac-12 team is bolded.

Pac-12 vs Power Conference matchups

This is a list of the power conference teams (ACC, Big 10, Big 12 and SEC) the Pac-12 plays in the non-conference (Rankings from the AP Poll):

Records against other conferences

2015 records against non-conference foes:

Awards and honors

AP College Football Player of the Year

Christian McCaffrey, Stanford

Lou Groza Award

Ka'imi Fairbairn, UCLA

All-Americans

The following Pac-12 players were named to the 2015 College Football All-America Team by the Walter Camp Football Foundation (WCFF), Associated Press (AP), Football Writers Association of America (FWAA), Sporting News (SN), and American Football Coaches Association (AFCA):

First team

Joshua Garnett, OL, Stanford (WCFF, AP, FWAA, SN, AFCA)

Christian McCaffrey, RB, Stanford (SN, AFCA)

Ka'imi Fairbairn, K, UCLA (WCFF, AP, FWAA, AFCA)

Tom Hackett, P, Utah (WCFF, AP, FWAA, SN, AFCA)

Christian McCaffrey, All-purpose, Stanford (AP)

Christian McCaffrey, KR, Stanford (FWAA)

Second team

Tyler Johnstone, OL, Oregon (FWAA)

Christian McCaffrey, RB, Stanford (WCFF)

Royce Freeman, RB, Oregon (FWAA)

JuJu Smith-Schuster, WR, USC (AP, FWAA, SN)

DeForest Buckner, DE, Oregon (AP, FWAA)

Ka'imi Fairbairn, K, UCLA (SN)

Christian McCaffrey, KR, Stanford (WCFF)

Dante Pettis, PR, Washington (SN)

Third team

Royce Freeman, RB, Oregon (AP)

Austin Hooper TE, Stanford (AP)

Kenny Clark, DT, UCLA (AP)

Su'a Cravens, LB, USC (AP)

Blake Martinez, LB, Stanford (AP)

Aidan Schneider, K, Oregon (AP)

Academic All-America Team Member of the Year (CoSIDA)

Conference awards

The following individuals won the conference's annual player and coach awards:

Offensive Player of the Year: Christian McCaffrey, Stanford

Pat Tillman Defensive Player of the Year: DeForest Buckner, Oregon

Offensive Freshman of the Year: Josh Rosen, UCLA

Defensive Freshman of the Year: Cameron Smith, USC

Coach of the Year: Mike Leach, Washington State; David Shaw, Stanford

All-Conference teams

The following players earned All-Pac-12 honors.

Offense:

Defense:

Specialists:

All-Academic

First team

Home game attendance

^A Game played at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, CA.
^B Game played at CenturyLink Field in Seattle, WA.
Bold – Exceed capacity
†Season High

References

2015 Pac-12 Conference football season Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA

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