#pac-10

Arizona's Keith Smith aims for the goal line during the 1998 Holiday Bowl against Nebraska.  The game was close, with the Wildcats grinding out a last minute 23-20 win over the Cornhuskers.

Missing my pristine Betacam SP PAC-10 tapes right about now. A 2nd gen TV dub on VHS is better than nothing. \m/

Stanford, Laird Q. Cagan Stadium, November 28, 2008
Portland 0-1 Stanford (Press, 86’)
“No that’s not my blood, and yes, her face deliberately ran into my elbow.” 
Stanford reaches College Cup. That sweet kiss. Still gives me feels.

From a competitive standpoint Colorado and Utah have been somewhat of a letdown. Until last season the Utes didn’t really make waves in their new home and Colorado is still at the bottom of the PAC-12 South. I’m still a believer that the moves made by the PAC-12 were made with the long game in mind. The teams haven’t been that competitive but once Utah brings themselves up to a Power 5 level (at it looks like they have) and Colorado returns to their former glory (still waiting on that one) these moves will look much better. For now, I give the PAC-12 a B+ for their conference expansion moves. They didn’t get the splash hit that would have changed the game as far as college football would have been concerned, but the two additions should grow into very valuable pieces of a strong conference.

Oregon's football history has largely been marked by anonymity and failure. Their rise as a football power has happened solely in the last 20 years. They appear to be the wave of the future, but having still never won a national title, it all feels just a bit hollow. Nevertheless, Oregon went an impressive 151-51 in the BCS era. They won 5 conference titles, one of them shared. They went to 5 BCS games and won 3 of them. 

Jim Harbaugh completed his revival of the Stanford program with the 2010 season. The Cardinal appeared to be forever sunk in the mire after their 1-11 season in 2006. Harbaugh added a few wins every year and lo and behold Stanford now appears to be a perennial power. On the arm of Andrew Luck, Stanford scorched through their first month of play virtually unfazed, having blown out their opponents including a victory at Notre Dame. To begin October, #9 Stanford had to travel to Autzen Stadium to face #4 Oregon. Stanford was leading 31-24 at half, but it all fell apart in the second half. The Cardinal couldn't reach the endzone and got torched by the Ducks to the tune of 28 unanswered points. With the loss, Stanford could only win the PAC-12 if Oregon lost two conference games. They lost none. For their part, Stanford went undefeated from then on out. They had some close calls against USC and Arizona State, but every other match wasn't within 10 points. Stanford ended the season 11-1 and was selected to play in the Orange Bowl against ACC Champs #12 Virginia Tech. It was a tale of two halves, with the Hokies and Cardinal playing a wire to wire first half, ending with Stanford up 13-12. But in the second half Stanford opened up a huge lead without surrendering a single score. The Cardinal won the game 40-12 and ended the year #4 in the nation.

Playing the toughest schedule in all of college football that season. The 2008 Trojans were the last truly great team of the Pete Carroll era. One early season was all the separated them from the chance to play and possibly win a national championship. Starting the season #3 and climbing straight up to number 1 after defeating Virginia, expectations were obviously high. USC would host #5 Ohio State in week 2 and embarrass the Buckeyes 35-3. Things were looking very promising. But just when they appeared to be on the fast track they went into Reser Stadium and fell to Oregon State 21-27. A monumental setback that would once again shut out USC from the BCS title game. From then on out the Trojans would act like some kind of serial killer. Slowly lumbering through the west coast, leaving piles of corpses in their wake. #23 Oregon lost 44-10 in LA. Arizona State was downed and Washington State were shut out in consecutive weeks, 28-0 and 69-0 respectively. Nobody was even close except for Arizona, who only lost by 10-17 at home. Elsewhere the scores read 56-0 against Washington, 17-3 against #21 Cal, 45-23 at Stanford. The final confrontations against Notre Dame and UCLA weren't close, with SC winning 38-3 and 27-7 respectively. As the PAC-10 Champs they went to the Rose Bowl to face #6 Penn State. It wasn't close, with the Trojans leading 31-7 at half and only really surrendering points when it was in garbage time. SC won 38-24 and were ranked #4 in the final AP poll. I think that they of all other PAC-10/2 teams could have won a national title of the teams that didn't get the opportunity to win it.

Boy the Pacific Northwest sure had some year in 2000 huh? The teams from Oregon, Oregon State and Washington all made this list. Achieving the highest rank are these Huskies. In only the second game of the season, #15 Washington bested the #4 Miami Hurricanes in Seattle. It was Miami's only loss in their Sugar Bowl championship year. Facing a very front-loaded schedule has some disadvantages. One of these is playing your big rival #20 Oregon in Eugene on the last week of September. The Ducks won the match 23-16. Washington's only loss of the season. The very next week the Huskies played host to #23 Oregon State and beat the Beavers 33-30. Thus the Huskies had dueled the Oregon duo and came away 1-1 in the scrape. With that the meaty part of their schedule was through. The rest of their PAC-10 schedule was dealt with summarily. They scraped by most teams, but managed to destroy their archrivals Washington State 51-3. Not a shabby season. The #4 Huskies were chosen to be the PAC-10's representative in the Rose Bowl. Their opponent would be #14 Purdue. The Boilermakers were another lucky selection in a 3-way tie, thanks to victories over Michigan and Northwestern. The Huskies never trailed and won their most recent Rose Bowl title by a score of 34-24.