Stanford vs. Oregon: BCS-Caliber Matchup Will Take the Pac-12 into Cream of Crop

With the LSU Tigers and Alabama Crimson Tide dominating the top of college football, the SEC has taken the forefront in the eyes of many college football fans. With all the hype that surrounds those two teams, people tend to forget about another big division, the Pac-12.

With tonight's BCS-caliber matchup of the Oregon Ducks and Stanford Cardinal tonight on ESPN, the Pac-12 should start to enter the bigger picture of great divisions in college football.

Tonight's game will not be as widely hyped as last weeks matchup of the Tigers and Crimson Tide, but it really should be. Both teams have been great this season, and both are sitting comfortably in the BCS Top 10. Not only that, the Ducks were in the championship game just a year ago, and Cardinal were No. 4 at seasons end.

While both these teams have dominated the Pac-12, there has also been much success with teams like the Arizona State Sun Devils (6-3), Washington Huskies (6-3) and the USC Trojans (7-2). With the Trojans fall out due to their post season suspension, they alone have brought down the impact of the Pac-12 in 2011. Stanford and Oregon have been much more successful though in the past couple years, so there is no reason that the Pac-12 should be taking a backseat these days to any other conference.

They are arguably the third best division, sitting right behind the SEC and Big-12, but they certainly don't get the credit they deserve. Tonight's game should hopefully change that.

With all the hype surrounding Stanford's Luck, there should be many people tuning into tonight's game. The increased audience should only increase awareness of the Pac-12, and hopefully the power houses of the SEC and Big-12 will no longer seem so distant from the Pac-12 anymore.