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The 2013 season is 16 weeks away, and will get underway with an interesting slate of out-of-conference games for the Pac-12. While they won’t have a marquee matchup against LSU like they have of late, the conference will play Notre Dame three times, as well as host both Ohio State and Wisconsin, while traveling to Nebraska.

Here’s how the conference’s OOC schedules look heading into the season, ranked by team, according to difficulty.

1. Arizona State

Opponents: vs. Sacramento State(FCS), vs. Wisconsin, vs. Notre Dame(Arlington,TX)
With Will Sutton back on the defensive line, the Sun Devils come into 2013 as Rose Bowl hopefuls, and face a tough slate that could help them in the polls due to a substantial strength of schedule. Despite opening with Sacramento State –who have two straight wins over Pac-12 teams– the Fighting Grahams will have their hands full with Wisconsin and Notre Dame, before tough in-conference trips to Palo Alto and Pasadena. The matchup with the 2012 runner-up Irish has to be the most intriguing, considering that just last month, Notre Dame cancelled their 2014 trip to Tempe.

2. California

Opponents: vs. Northwestern, vs. Portland State(FCS), vs. Ohio State
Like Arizona State, Cal cancels out an FCS opponent with two difficult non-conference games. Though, unlike the Sun Devils they’ll play both Northwestern and Ohio State at home, with an inexperienced roster playing under a new regime with Sonny Dykes. It doesn’t bode well for the Bears, as they face what are probably the two best coached teams in Big Ten.

3. UCLA

Opponents: vs. Nevada, at Nebraska, vs. New Mexico State
The Bruins face a murderer’s row of teams on the road this year, with in-conference trips to Stanford, Arizona, USC and Oregon. But the road worries all start with a trip to Lincoln in September, which is immediately preceded by a solid test out of the gate from Nevada. The Nebraska game is the one everyone’s circled, but Nevada is a dangerous season opener, even at the Rose Bowl. Mora’s bunch is very talented, but they need a good trip through September to have a stand-out season, and could be in a for a bumpy ride.

4. Washington

Opponents: vs. Boise State, vs. Illinois(Chicago), vs. Idaho State(FCS)
The Huskies lost to Boise State in the Las Vegas Bowl last December, and now get the honor of hosting the Broncos to open the newly-renovated Husky Stadium. It won’t be easy, especially with a medium-tough trip to Solider Field waiting in September. That said, at least Keith Price and company aren’t headed to Baton Rouge this season.

5. Stanford

Opponents: vs. San Jose State, at Army, vs. Notre Dame
Typically, facing San Jose State and Army in the same season would be grounds for eye rolls and blowouts, especially considering that Stanford could be a national title game contender come November. But don’t discount the Spartans in week 1, as they won 11 games in 2012 and nearly defeated a Josh Nunes-led Cardinal team in Palo Alto last year. Oh, and Notre Dame’s bi-annual trip to the Farm won’t be a creampuff, either.

6. Oregon

Opponents: vs. Nicholls State(FCS), at Virginia, vs. Tennessee
Give credit to the Ducks for routinely scheduling good out-of-conference games, as they’ve played Michigan, Oklahoma, Boise State and LSU in the last decade, and now conclude a home-and-home series with Tennessee. Luckily for UO though, they get both the Vols and Virginia when they don’t have many expectations, making for an OOC schedule similar to last year’s, when they faced Arkansas State, Fresno State and Tennessee Tech.

7. USC

Opponents: at Hawai’i, vs. Boston College, vs. Utah State, at Notre Dame
A trip to Hawai’i means an extra home game by NCAA rule, and the Trojans probably weren’t expecting Utah State to be coming off of an 11-2 season when they signed a contract with the Aggies for the game back in 2010. And considering how USC likes to play one solid BCS opponent per year, the same yet opposite could be said about Boston College, a program that has really fallen on hard times since the game was drawn up years ago. Having said that, USC will be favored in three of the four non-conference games, and they’ll need to win them to gain confidence going into the Notre Dame game in mid-October.

8. Utah

Opponents: vs. Utah State, vs. Weber State(FCS), at BYU
Utah’s non-conference school reads like a Salt Lake City sportscaster’s dream, as the Utes will play all three non-conference games against the three other Salt Lake area teams. The big one of course, is that trip to Provo. Not only will it be BYU and Utah’s most anticipated game of the year, it’ll be awfully emotional and perhaps the most anticipated dreaded game of the decade, as the long-time rivals won’t play again until 2016.

9. Washington State

Opponents: at Auburn, vs. Southern Utah(FCS), vs. Idaho
Outside of Auburn still being a member of the SEC and playing in a stadium as hostile as any in the country, Mike Leach’s Cougs don’t have that daunting of an early schedule. Washington State should be improved in 2013 given that it’s year two under Leach, and three wins out of the shoot could be doable if the Cougars can get the best of Auburn, who open the Gus Malzahn era by facing WSU.

10. Oregon State

Opponents: vs. Eastern Washington(FCS), vs. Hawaii, at San Diego State
Last year, the Beavers opened up the year 7-0 for the first time ever. This year they could very well duplicate it, as the In’n'Out aficionados open with three winnable games to start. Mike Riley will be astutely aware of San Diego State’s potential however, especially at Jack Murphy.

11. Colorado

Opponents: vs.Colorado State(at Denver), at Central Arkansas(FCS), vs. Fresno State
Outside of the worries that Derek Carr bring to the table, Colorado’s non-conference schedule probably wouldn’t keep many coaches at night. Unfortunately for the Buffaloes however, they could very easily go winless in them. Colorado State beat the Buffs last year and Central Arkansas finished the 2012 season ranked No. 8 in the FCS. Let’s see how Mike MacIntyre does in Boulder.

12. Arizona

Opponents: vs. Northern Arizona(FCS), at UNLV, vs. Texas-San Antonio
Arizona fell just short of scheduling the Cochise County YMCA All-Stars this year. But given that the Wildcats have had a reputation of continuously over-strengthening their non-conference schedule, a year with the three easiest gimmies in the country might not be a bad idea. It’ll at least give former USC quarterback Jesse Scroggins some playing time in low-pressure situations, whether it be in relief or not.

Tomorrow, it will be four months since the Rose Bowl. It’ll also be four months until the 2013 season’s first Saturday of games on August 31st. In celebration of the halfway point, let’s take a quick and early look at the full schedule in the Pac-12. Click on the image above to check out the full helmet schedule via FBSchedules.com.

Pac-12 South

Arizona: With Northern Arizona, UNLV and Texas-San Antonio, the Wildcats have a non-conference schedule that the SEC would be jealous of. They do host Oregon though, and they always play the Ducks tough in Tucson.

Arizona State: It’s easy to point out that the Sun Devils are historically masters of the second half tail-off, but this year looks to be very different for the Pac-12 South contenders. Wisconsin, Stanford, USC and ND in four straight weeks starting in Week 2? Have fun with that, Todd Graham.

Colorado: Colorado and Central Arkansas to start the season? You know what that means: a potential three-game winning streak for the Buffs dating back to last season.

UCLA: Everyone will love them in the preseason, and with Brett Hundley and Anthony Barr coming back, the Bruins are easy to pick as Pac-12 South front runners. But all things considered, that road schedule is ridiculous and history isn’t on their side. UCLA hasn’t won at Stanford since 2007, Oregon since 2004, Arizona since 2003 and USC since 1997. Oh, and in three games since 2007, they’ve been outscored 129 to 12 in games played in the state of Utah.

USC: There’s two games to circle on USC’s schedule: Week 2 vs. Washington State and the annual Notre Dame game. The Trojans will break-in plenty of new faces in the secondary against Mike Leach’s air raid, which has to cause some concern for Clancy Pendergast. That said, if Troy can beat the Cougars and split the Arizonas, they could be 5-1 going into South Bend, which would be exactly where USC wants to be.

Utah: The Utes play all three in-state rivals and it would be neat for Kyle Wittingham’s bunch to get a Beehive State sweep. But really, it won’t matter, because they could have six straight Pac-12 losses on deck with UCLA, Stanford, Arizona, USC, ASU and Oregon in succession.

Pac-12 North

Cal: The Bears continue to showcase their new digs on the Hayward Fault by hosting not one, but two Big Ten teams, in Northwestern and Ohio State. Sonny Dykes has a brutal schedule, but for an exciting offense with little expectations to win right away, their schedule featuring three preseason Top 5 teams gives them an opportunity to gain some experience.

Oregon: You have to love seeing an SEC team go to Autzen, as the Tennessee Volunteers head to Eugene in Week 3. And yes, Oregon will murder them and be 8-0 going into Stanford, creating the biggest Pac-12 game in the history of the world…on a Thursday night.

Oregon State: The Beavers started 2012 by going 7-0. They may have lost Markus Wheaton and Jordan Poyer, but given their schedule, they’re bound to do it again. The downside though, is that they will be the underdogs in all five games to close the season. Then again, they haven’t lost to USC in Corvallis since Fog Bowl II in 2004.

Stanford: With a ton of returning starters including possibly the best Pac-12 quarterback not named Mariota, the Cardinal should be a top five team to start the season. They’ll be favored in their first eight games and should they make it through unscathed, they’ll be 8-0 and bring a 16-game winning streak into that Thursday night tilt with Oregon in Palo Alto. For the love of football, may it happen.

Washington: Steve Sarkisian’s Huskies open New Husky Stadium with a LAs Vegas Bowl rematch against Boise State. If Keith Price can get revenge on the Broncos in Seattle, it would go a long way in him re-establishing himself as a top quarterback. And Washington will need him to be, with a road schedule that includes trips to Stanford, ASU, UCLA and Oregon State.

Washington State: This is probably the most favorable schedule they could possibly get, considering that they have Oregon and Stanford in their division. The Cougars get USC in Week 2 when the Trojans are still building their secondary, and then they two weeks to prepare for ASU and UA later in the season. Not bad.

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If you made a preseason bet that the USC Trojans would be sitting higher in the Pac-12 standings than the Washington Huskies on February 10th, you better get to Vegas quickly and cash in. Riding a huge first half that saw Bob Cantu’s bunch lead by as many as 19, USC soundly defeated last year’s regular season Pac-12 Champions 71-60 to move up in the standings.

Shooting guard JT Terrell led the way for USC with 18 points, as the junior was four of seven from three-point range. Terrell had 10 points in the first half to lead the Trojans, and it may have been the best half that USC has played all season.

USC started the game by scoring the game’s first seven points, and a Byron Wesley three-pointer made it 18-6 with 14:57 left in the first half. The Trojans hit seven of their first nine shots and a Terrell three-pointer pushed the lead to 35-16 with just over fine minutes left in the half.

Washington closed the first half strong, going on a 13-5 run and scoring the final five points to cut the lead to 40-29.

In the second half, Lorenzo Romar’s squad kicked it into gear, as a 12-4 run just their deficit to just six with under 12 minutes to go. From then on, USC was able to keep afloat by means of the three-pointer, with Chass Bryan hitting two big threes, preceded by Terrell’s fourth of the night.

Those would be the only six points that Bryan scored all night as his play was limited to 11 minutes. But after USC had blown a big second half lead to UCLA two games ago, it was Bryan’s play that gave the Trojans enough energy to ensure a second half collapse wasn’t in the cards.

The Huskies didn’t score a point in the game’s final two minutes and the Trojans prevailed with their third-straight win, giving them a 6-5 record in the Pac-12 Conference.

This is the first time since February of 2011 that USC has won three games in a row, and in watching how the Trojans have come into their own under interim head coach Bob Cantu, they just might be able to extend that streak on Thursday night at Stanford. In December, USC beat the Cardinal 71-69 and that was still with Kevin O’Neill at the helm.