The Pac-12 Continues to Be College Football's Weirdest and Most Exciting Conference

The jokes have been loud and deliberate. The reputation has been mangled. The general perception of college football out west has taken a nosedive in recent years, and many opinions have been established for good reason.

To be frank, life in the Pac-12 has been rough. It’s been five years since the conference crashed the College Football Playoff, and two of the conference’s biggest brands, USC and UCLA, are readying for a move to the Big Ten.

Criticism has been frequent and warranted. But this year is different in so many ways.

The Pac-12 isn't just relevant; it’s producing extremely watchable football week over week. It’s unpredictable, scoreboard-friendly and easy on the eyes. And the storylines it is producing are worth your attention.

In short, if you abandoned the conference some time ago, it might be time to give it another go.

We’ll talk about the possibility of ending the playoff drought in a moment. That is where the conversation gets a bit more complicated, and that's what we normally obsess over.

At the moment, however, the Pac-12 is delivering. On Saturday, it was Oregon’s turn to produce a statement in a 45-30 win over UCLA and former Ducks coach Chip Kelly.

Bo Nix looks like a bona fide Heisman candidate. Yes, you read that right.

Since uncorking a clunker against Georgia in the opener, Nix has been one of the best players in college football. The former Auburn QB scored five more touchdowns on Saturday against the Bruins.

For further context, he had only five incompletions. (For even further context, his last incompletion was a pass he purposely sailed out of the end zone to expire the clock at the end of the game.) He was brilliant.

Nix has never been boring. Although this year, with a new program, he is finding a ceiling he never knew existed. Behind his play, Oregon has found itself after struggling so badly in the opener.

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The Ducks are the latest Pac-12 team to inject madness into the conference and national picture. A week before, Utah delivered a dramatic come-from-behind win to upend USC’s perfect season. Despite being down two touchdowns early, the Utes ultimately clawed back to beat the Trojans 43-42.

Oh, Utah also converted a two-point conversion with less than a minute left to seal the deal as a cherry on top. Maximum entertainment.

The week before that, it was UCLA’s turn to make a statement. The Bruins, now with a loss, took down Utah at home one week after taking down a lively Washington squad. Both teams required plenty of points, and they certainly brought plenty of those.

Although the dream year has hit a standstill, UCLA is far from done in 2022.

Along the way, USC has shown flashes from the past. Lincoln Riley has brought the Trojans back quicker than most reasonable people could have expected.

Quarterback Caleb Williams, still very much a Heisman candidate in his own right, has somehow met the enormous expectations that followed him from Norman, Oklahoma, to Los Angeles.

Chris Gardner/ Getty Images

With chaos comes blemishes. As we build toward Week 9, the Pac-12 is now without an undefeated team. The SEC and the Big Ten both have two.

Normally, we would view UCLA’s loss as a death blow to the conference’s 2022 worth. Over the past five years, no conference has endured the pronounced playoff funeral more frequently and publicly than this one.

Perhaps that will be the case once again. As of now, Oregon, UCLA, USC and even two-loss Utah feel very much alive in the College Football Playoff discussions as Halloween approaches. They’ll need help and quality play along the way, but we can hold off on removing this conference from this playoff discussion for the time being.

For those readying the yearly outflow of jokes, that might be disappointing.

More than anything, however, the Pac-12 is entertaining and engaging. Most programs inside the conference don’t possess the same talent as many teams in the SEC, and this proclamation isn’t meant to sway that opinion one way or another.

The beautiful thing about college football is the way the sport can appreciate the little moments along the way.

A program trying to find itself after a decade of “bleh.” A quarterback trying to reinvent himself after a series of highs and lows thousands of miles away. A coach, once the pinnacle of the sport, flopping in the NFL only to resurrect his reputation many years later. All of these elements have been pieces of the college football season in the last few weeks alone.

It is possible that the playoff drought will extend another season now that the final unbeaten team has fallen. But so often do we obsess over the final outcome that we miss one heck of a good time along the way.

Right now, the Pac-12 is a heck of a good time. It is not the best football across the land, nor does it pretend to be. But it has found a rhythm this year—one that is accompanied with bundles of touchdowns and busy scoreboards.

Sure, things may look different in a couple of years when USC and UCLA are gone. It’s not a rosy picture moving forward.

But at this exact moment, there are plenty of reasons to watch. You might have to stay up late to watch them, although it has been worth it of late.

Harness the jokes, if only for a few weeks, and see what football out west has to offer. You won’t regret it.