ARLINGTON, TX — Thanks to one gutsy last-minute throw from freshman quarterback Bo Nix, the PAC-12 is officially done as a legit Power Five Conference.
For a league that likes to refer to itself as the “Conference of Champions” they seem to fall short on the big stage in college football.
0-8 vs. ranked SEC teams since 2008 and 1-2 in the current College Football Playoffs, EVERY year we seem to hear about the PAC-12 and how good they are.
Even if you’re on the East Coast–or yours truly being here in Big 10 country–you hear about Oregon–and their ridulcous amount of uniforms, USC, UCLA, Stanford, Washington and now Utah being the hot flavor of the month.
While it’s all good and all, but the PAC-12 does a better job at self promotion and putting out QB’s (Andrew Luck, Aaron Rodgers, Alex Smith, Josh Rosen, Sam Darnold) then winning big games.
If there is one major gripe many have with the PAC is that they play no defense, and hardly play any quality out-of conference games.
While Oregon managed to perform its annual choke job vs. Auburn, and that the PAC has played the likes of Tennessee, Texas and Texas A&M, etc.
What really grinds a lot of rival fan’s gears is how they have taken CFP slots over more deserving teams and falling flat such as Washington losing 24-7 to eventual title runner-up Alabama in the 2016 Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl or more recently seeing Sam Darnold and the USC Trojans get trounced by Ohio State 24-7 in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl.
Washington would suffer the same fate that the Trojans did vs. Ohio State, in what would be Urban Meyer’s swan song in a 28-23 loss to the Buckeyes.
Until there is reform to the current playoff format, lazy conferences such as the PAC-12 can slide in undeserving teams–and inevitably see them get smoked!
With upcoming out of conference games such as Stanford vs. UCF and USC at Notre Dame on the road in Orlando and South Bend, an already rough conference season just got tougher for a brand that has for the most part looked more like a weak little sister compared to its older and stronger siblings.