Pac-10 Schools Will Prove Nationwide Dominance in Week 3

Four Pac-10 schools are currently ranked in the Top 25. I believe that after this weekend, all four will improve their national standings and an additional team will be added to the rankings. Let's start with the easy ones:

No. 23 Cal at Maryland

The Cal Berkley Bears could beat Maryland without even changing out of their Birkenstock sandals.

They do have to travel all the way across the nation to play, but after beating Michigan State and scoring 66 points against a hapless Washington State team last week, I am convinced they know how to play football, something I can't convince myself of about Maryland yet.

How can you tell anything about Maryland's strength after only beating Delaware and then losing to Middle Tennessee? Take a cupcake in each hand, smash them together, then look at your hands and try to tell me which one was stronger.

No. 16 Oregon at Purdue

Is it possible there could be enough game-time for me to pick the over with the line at 100?

The Ducks currently have the nation's top-ranked offense and Purdue, who actually has a decent offense also, is working on a 15-game losing streak against ranked opponents.

No. 15 Arizona State hosts UNLV

This will be the third lopsided victory of the season for Arizona State. I hope they're learning something against these practice teams, because the Georgia Bulldogs come to town in Week 4, followed by Cal, USC, and Oregon.

No reason not to move them up a little after another winning week, though. Now for the two games that will define the relative strength of this conference:

No. 1 USC hosts No. 5 Ohio State

After last week, I can't find one sane person who thinks the Buckeyes can keep this close. In fact, I am using this question to screen football fans for mental health.

Even Ohio State fans say, "I hope Tressel can figure something out" or "maybe Beanie Wells was playing possum so they couldn't scout him." Forget the No. 5 ranking, if the Trojans lose this game, it will be considered a huge upset.

Finally...

UCLA at No. 18 Brigham Young

I can't see BYU winning this game if the same team that beat Tennessee two weeks ago shows up in Provo Saturday. The Bruins have had two weeks to prepare for this game and will exploit the weaknesses in the Cougar secondary that were revealed against Washington.

UCLA beat BYU last season and played them again in the Las Vegas Bowl, where they had a last second, game-winning field goal blocked. The difference this season is that Norm Chow knows more about Bronco Mendenhall than Bronco's wife does.

When UCLA does win, they will have beat two ranked teams in the first two games of 2008 and be rightfully ranked somewhere in the 20s.

Assuming this happens, it will make five ranked Pac-10 teams after three weeks of football, which is half of the entire conference. Only three of these teams started the season ranked.

Since it is much more difficult to move into the top 25 than it is to move out of it, does this make the Pac-10 the strongest conference, top to bottom, in college football?