Arizona shows up on one AP preseason ballot

Find out who picked the Cats

It's not as if the Pac-12 has a lot of high-end football teams this season, certainly the most likely of the Power 5 conferences to miss out on the four-team playoff. Again.

But it's deep enough in "pretty good" teams, with five making the AP preseason Top 25 poll.

Even Arizona, ahem, received a point.

Yes, the Wildcats showed up on one ballot at No. 25 -- hence, the one point -- and you can thank (is that the right word?) Davis Potter of the Casper Star-Tribune in Wyoming.

That's definitely optimistic, but it's not insane. Let's start with a full season of health from senior quarterback Khalil Tate, and then see how everything else falls in after that. We'll have plenty of time to dive into that later.

Elsewhere in the AP poll, Oregon was the league's highest-ranked team at No. 11. Washington is No. 13 and Utah is 14th. Two more teams make the Top 25 -- No. 23 Washington State and No. 25 Stanford.

I'd say the Ducks have the highest ceiling of all Pac-12 teams, but they have to beat Auburn in the season-opener on Aug. 31. Utah is blessed and cursed by an easy schedule; the Utes probably need to run the table to get to the playoff.

Oh, and Arizona State received three points in the preseason poll, while USC had the same number as Arizona -- one.