...the Utes as a "dark horse playoff contender" or "favorite for PAC12 Champion". It isn't exactly a ringing endorsement.

Now - to be fair, they all say that Utah has a pretty good team. And I think they do too. So I'm not saying this to imply at all that Utah won't have a good team or a good year. I am saying that winning a P5 conference is difficult and getting into the playoff is even harder.

They ran a soundbite yesterday of one of the hosts asking a national guy why he was picking the Utes to win the conference. He basically said that it's because they are pretty good and are coming out of a "pretty mediocre" division. Seriously. That was his explanation for picking them.

When another guy was asked about picking them as a darkhorse playoff team, his explanation was that they have a pretty easy schedule this year as far as the PAC12 schedule goes - so if they get through it unscathed, which they have a decent shot at doing, then they just have to face the team coming out of the north division - who will have been beat up playing a more difficult schedule.

It's interesting. Don't get me wrong - these guys say that they think Utah is going to be good. But I've yet to hear them say that they'll get into the playoffs because they're good. No - what they say is that they'll get in because their situation is favorable.