Pac-12 Football: 5 incredibly early bold predictions for the 2023 season

Pac-12 football fans are here for a good time, but not for a long time with realignment coming.

For at least one more year, we will have a healthy helping of Pac-12 football out on the West Coast.

With USC and UCLA leaving the league in 2024 to join the Big Ten, the Pac-12 feels like it is on life support. The worst part in all this is the league is kind of having a moment. They have about four teams totally capable of making the College Football Playoff. The quarterback play is stupendous and the coaching is getting better with each passing offseason. Just please hang in there, guys…

Here are five things that are 100 percent coming true in the Pac-12 this college football season.

Pac-12 Football: 5 way-too-early bold predictions for 2023 college season

5. Bo Nix will be the 2024 version of Will Levis throughout the NFL Draft process

I think last year showed us all that Bo Nix can play on Sundays. It may not have been vs. the same caliber defenses he went up against in the SEC, but Nix was a revelation at quarterback in what was a very strong first year for Dan Lanning’s Oregon Ducks. With one more year of eligibility left to burn, look for Nix to be somewhere in the QB3 to QB5 range when it comes to the NFL Draft.

Barring something unforeseen, USC’s Caleb Williams and North Carolina’s Drake Maye will be top-five picks in the 2024 NFL Draft, assuming they both do declare. Williams definitely is, and Maye might as well. As for who is QB3, it could be any number of guys, whether it be Nix, Washington’s Michael Penix Jr., Texas’ Quinn Ewers, Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy or some other quarterback entirely.

For various reasons, Nix will be one of the most scrutinized quarterbacks entering the draft. He may not get picked to pieces like Kentucky’s Will Levis did, who fell to the Tennessee Titans in the second round, but Nix isn’t going to be for everyone either. Production and athleticism will get him drafted very high, but I could also see some teams being out on him for a plethora of reasons, too.

Nix will have a strong final season at Oregon, but if it’s good enough to be QB3 remains to be seen.