Pac-10 Year in Review: Down Year, You Say?

In what was to be a rebuilding/down year in the Pac-10 (according to "experts"), Pac fans are smiling and saying "told ya so" after placing four of their teams in the Top 25 at season's end; two of which are in the AP top 10.

The preseason AP Poll ranked USC No. 3, Arizona State No. 16, and Oregon No. 20. California and Oregon State received votes but did not make the top 25.

Week Three was a low for the Pac-10 watching Washington State get smoked by Baylor, Maryland knock off the then-No.23 Cal Bears, TCU flexing their defensive muscles in a win over Stanford, BYU shutting out and dismantling UCLA 56-0, New Mexico beating Arizona, Oklahoma beating Washington, and UNLV beating No. 15 Arizona State in Tempe.

At the time, the Pac-10 was deemed "weak" and the irritating "Pac-1" reference surfaced yet again, only this time seemingly with more merit.

But upon further review of said losses, was the Pac really that weak?

Washington State and Washington, indeed were two of the worst teams in the nation, no doubt about that. But with a healthy Jake Locker, Washington was an extra point/bad call away from going into OT versus a highly potent BYU offense. BYU finished the season 10-3 and ranked No. 21.

Maryland finished 8-5 in a topsy turvy ACC, who placed three teams in the AP top 25 at years end and finished their season with a win over Nevada on the smurf turf in the Humanitarian Bowl.

Arizona State turned out to be one of the more inconsistent and inept teams in the conference and TCU finished ranked No. 7. Upset? Upon further review...No.

So what looked to be a few awful losses for the Pac-10 were, in reality, losses to now-No. 5 Oklahoma, No. 7 TCU, No. 21 BYU, and a quality Maryland team who was at home early in the season against a confused California offense with major issues at the quarterback position.

So congratulations to the nationally-ranked teams which beat up on the Pac-10's worst. A crowning achievement I'm sure. It's the equivalent of USC and Oregon beating up on Iowa State and Arkansas.

Fast-forward to bowl season.

USC plays one half of football and coasts to an easy 14 point victory over the darlings of the Big Ten. USC finished No. 3 in the AP Poll and arguably was the best one-loss team in the nation (My Pac-10 bias puts Texas a very close second).

Oregon played a very physical game and the defense was good enough to outscore then No. 13 Oklahoma State for an impressive Holiday Bowl victory and an AP No. 10 ranking.

Oregon State, although a snooze-fest to many not tied into either Pitt or Oregon State, pitched a shutout to a potential NFL running back and the top offense in the Big East. The Beavs didn't have 50 percent of their offense with both Rodgers brothers out, but said "and?" OSU finished ranked AP No. 18.

Pac-10 leading rusher Jahvid Best proved he is worth the praise he has received and ran all over a severely over-matched Miami squad. California finished the season in the final No. 25 spot of the USA Today Poll.

Arizona played BYU, who had already made easy work of Washington and UCLA-Pac-10 juggernauts, I know. Arizona dominated all night and came out with an easy win, finishing just out of the final rankings.

The Pac-10 was the only team to run the table in this bowl season, beating ACC, Big-12, Big Ten, MWC, and Big East teams, finishing 5-0 against teams-at the time-ranked sixth, 13th, 17th, and 18th respectively.

Don't look at the names, look at the rankings and it tells the story.

The Pac-10 is notorious for tough non-conference scheduling, and this year was no different. Here's a list of the well-known teams the Pac scheduled:

Oklahoma, Penn State, Oklahoma State, BYU, Boise State, Ohio State, Utah, TCU, Georgia, Michigan State, Tennessee, Purdue.

If a Pac-10 team loses to a ranked Big-12, SEC, or Big Ten team, what's the difference in that and say another Big-12, SEC, or Big Ten team losing to the same team? 

It's a "good loss" for the other conference teams, yet the Pac-10 gets hit with the "weak" label when it's awful teams get beaten by nationally ranked non conference teams.

To label an entire conference based on one bad week from it's lower tier teams is ignorant and uninformed.  The Pac-10 clearly is one of the nation's elite conferences and after bowl season, this was made very clear.

Why this double standard exists makes no sense to me. Call it East Coast bias, call it ignorance, call it what you want. It's there and there's no denying that.

So, the Pac-10 down you say? 

Pac-10 - Four of it's 10 teams in the top 25 = 40 percent of their teams ranked.

SEC - Four of its 12 teams in the top 25 = 33 percent of their teams ranked.

Big12 - Five of its 12 teams in the top 25 = 42 percent of their teams ranked.

ACC - Three of its 12 teams in the top 25 = 25 percent of their teams ranked.

Big10 - Four of its 11 teams in the top 25 = 36 percent of their teams ranked.

When all is said and done, the Pac-10 can compete with anyone in the nation. The scary thing is, next year the non conference schedule isn't as daunting and with possible preseason love and many offenses returning key players, the Pac-10 could better their 2008 showing in 2009.