Pac 10 Parody: Is Good Football Or Just Good Tv?

If you have looked at the Pac 10 standings within the last few weeks, you should noticed one thing. Besides Oregon, there is no team that would be competitive in an other conference. Even Oregon is skeptical at best, because of losses to Boise State, and Stanford. This is a conference that has ridden the coattails of Pete Carroll and USC into the national spotlight for the last decade. Now, with USC enduring its first rebuilding year in quite some time, the Pac-10's legitimacy as a major conference seems to need some rebuilding of its' own. This year will be the first time in 8 years that the Pac-10 title will be not hoisted by the Trojans. 

If you take a look at the top 3 in the Pac-10 standings, the teams listed are Oregon, Oregon State, and Stanford. Oregon is the only team in conference even close to getting a BCS bid, but Oregon still has to play Oregon State in a very important conference rivalry game that decides who goes to the Rose Bowl. If Oregon State pulls off the W next Saturday, it will play in the Rose Bowl vs. Ohio State. This Oregon State team has two bad losses against Arizona, and USC. You can say what you want about USC, but a loss to them this year is a bad loss no matter what way you look at it. They are 4-3 in probably the weakest conference in all of college football. I understand USC is still a top 20 team in the polls, but let's be honest. USC has played like a top 20 team maybe once this year.(I haven't decided on how good Ohio State really is.)

I mean no disrespect when I say this, but the Pac-10 goes as far as USC goes each year. The other teams had a chance to prove this statement wrong this year, but failed miserably. Instead of major teams like Cal and Oregon that had preseason national title hopes failed to dominate a weak lower half of the conference. If there is one thing you can say about the Pac-10 cellar dwellers, it is that they always play the superior teams tough. USC always losses a game to some in conference nobody. Does this make the Pac-10 a good conference? Truthfully, no, but it's great entertainment. I say no because this type of parody kills them in the BCS. I understand that the Pac-10 hasn't lost in the Rose Bowl in quite sometime, but when you are playing Ohio State, or Penn State(no one else ever wins the Big Ten) every year, you better win the bowl games. 

The team to blame is USC. USC has been this decade's powerhouse program hands down(Sorry, Tim Tebow). They were just so unbeatable that everyone was shocked when they started this trend of losing a game each year to some Pac 10 foe. This inflated many analysts view of the Pac 10 because they say USC as the Goliath of college football. This year USC resembled Kimbo Slice more than that of Goliath as it tanked with losses against Washington, Oregon, and Stanford(home game). As USC fell out of the BCS Championship picture, so did the Pac 10. With USC coming into this season with a lot of question marks, I looked for other teams like Cal and Oregon to shoulder the workload, and sneak into the BCS Championship picture, but I was horribly wrong. Oregon lost to Boise State, and Stanford to end its' national title hopes, while Cal never really got on track with losses to USC, Oregon, and Oregon State. Although these aren't bad losses, good teams in good conferences find ways to win these games. 

The Pac-10 may have some of the most exciting football to watch from week to week because you never know how the games are going to end. However, if your are looking at it from a national championship perspective, close eyes cause they may start to hurt.