The top and bottom of the Pacific-10 Conference solidified itself some over the weekend. It’s that middle that’s unpredictable.
Washington looked impressive in a narrow win over Oregon State two weeks ago and crumbled at Arizona. OSU drilled Arizona on the road then dropped a narrow one at Washington.
Three teams are bowl eligible at this point and one already out. It’s going to be fun watching the other six scratch and claw for a spot.
1. Oregon (7-0, 4-0): The march continued toward the national title game with a blowout of UCLA. Ducks look like they can go all the way.
2. Stanford (6-1, 3-1): The Cougars put up another good fight, but the Cardinal keeps chugging along. Can they keep it up in this strange conference?
3. Oregon State (3-3, 2-1): The bye week should have healed a number of key players. The next three games are must wins for postseason.
4. Arizona (6-1, 3-1): The lack of starting QB didn’t didn’t bother the Wildcats against Washington. Schedule gets tougher with Stanford, USC and Oregon ahead.
5. Washington (3-4, 2-2): Jake Locker was banged up, so he didn’t play as well. He’s who the Huskies are wrapped around so they didn’t play well.
6. Southern Cal (5-2, 2-2): A bye week helps get ready to host Oregon. They could be the best shot at stopping the Ducks.
7. California (4-3, 2-2): Playing at home is the key for the Bears after a big win over Washington. Next up a trip to Corvallis.
8. Arizona State: (3-4, 1-2): Everything fell apart against Cal, but Sun Devils are still dangerous. The young team could grow up at any moment.
9. UCLA (3-4, 1-3): There was nothing to do against Ducks. The question now is if the Bruins can salvage the season for a bowl game.
10. Washington State (1-7, 0-5): It’s said every week, this team is going to upset someone this year.
6 comments
mckalk says:
May 22, 2013
Cliff,
I saw some stuff on a Cal blog that the game IS going to be televised on Fox College Sports at 12:30 pm. Are you able to verify? Kind of an obscure channel, but available on DirecTV as part of the Sports Pak. Maybe sports bars will pick it up.
aaron_ says:
May 22, 2013
Cliff posted that it would be on that channel on a previous post. I am glad too, i have got to get my Beaver fix for the week. I still have the bad taste of that Washington game in my mouth and it is quite bitter.
tradernum1 says:
May 22, 2013
After comparing the defensive results of Arizona and us versus the fuskies,
the remaining games are pretty scary. I'm hoping those kids got coached up-go beavs.
tim33 says:
May 22, 2013
This conference is strange.
UA barely beats Cal at home, then loses to OSU. OSU gets beat by UW. UW loses at UA. Cal wins big against UCLA and ASU, but gets crushed by USC.
Oregon and Stanford are the top two teams. WSU, ASU, and UCLA are the bottom three. The other five are pretty even and fairly inconsistent.
ean says:
May 22, 2013
I dunno that you can call Stanford a top team and not say the same about Arizona… Stanford and Arizona are in the same group IMO. Hopefully OSU can join that group.
tim33 says:
May 22, 2013
You have a point ean. I guess my feelings about Arizona was based on them losing to OSU and barely beating Cal. I assume that Cliff puts OSU ahead of Arizona because of head-to-head results, in which case UW could be ahead of OSU. Overall records gives 'Zona the advantage over OSU 6 wins vs. 3.
I'd put OSU at #4 or #5 – flipping with USC.