Pac-12 Power Rankings, Week 7: Where Stanford Just Missed Its Shot At Elite Status

The Pac-12 underwent somewhat of a ho-hum day, relative to weeks past. There weren’t any ground-breaking shake-ups within the conference and teams that were supposed to win, did.

Two out-of-conference games were played this week: The first was a controversial Stanford loss to Notre Dame in South Bend that ended in overtime as the Cardinal fell to the Irish, 20-13, while the other was a gutsy Oregon State win over BYU 42-24.

Meanwhile, USC escaped with a win at CenturyLink against Washington, UCLA staved off Utah at the Rose Bowl, ASU demolished Colorado after a slow start, and the Cal Bears defeated the Washington State Cougars for the eighth year in a row. Arizona and Oregon were off this week.

Now that you’re caught up, let’s delve into the rankings:

1. Oregon (6-0, 3-0 Pac-12)

Oregon was off this week, but it’s been obvious all season that the Ducks sit by themselves when discussing the elite teams of the Pac-12. Although Oregon has benefited from a bit of an easy schedule thus far, with wins against Arizona and Washington being their most impressive from a resume standpoint, none of their games were ever in doubt.

Oregon plays ASU on Thursday, however, and the Sun Devils could provide a challenge for the Ducks.

2. Oregon State (5-0, 3-0 Pac-12)

While the Ducks are clearly the Pac-12’s crown jewel, it’s become increasingly difficult to count out the resurgent, lovable Oregon State Beavers.

Their schedule hasn’t been too difficult, and they had won in thrilling fashion in almost all of their games heading into their matchup with a defensively staunch BYU squad. With their star QB, Sean Mannion, shelved for a few weeks, the Beavers were primed for a collapse on the road against a BYU team that was just four points away from being 6-0 heading into this match-up.

That didn’t happen, though. Instead, Cody Vaz stepped in and threw for three touchdowns and over 330 yards while the Beavers netted five offensive touchdowns against a defense that has only allowed opponents 13 points per game.

At some point, teams are going to have to be afraid to play Oregon State and the pollsters are going to have to start giving them love for staying undefeated for so long. At the very least, this year’s Civil War between the Ducks and the Beavers is going to be the most intriguing it’s been in a long, long time.

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3. USC (5-1, 3-1 Pac-12)

No one knows what to think of the USC Trojans seven weeks into the college football season. Given the lofty expectations ascribed to them preseason, you’d think they’d perform well enough to convince us that a 5-1 record is impressive and that a loss to a very good Stanford Cardinal isn’t so bad.

That’s not the sentiment, though, because USC has vastly underachieved in 2012, an outcome that likely stems from Lane Kiffin’s absurd, horrendous playcalling, filled with conservative screens and draws rather than downfield throws from once-upon-a-time Heisman contender Matt Barkley to all-world wide-outs in Marqise Lee and Robert Woods.

Of course, this is a lot of negativity for the third best team in what’s probably the deepest conference in the nation. The Trojans, to their credit, have been brilliant defensively. With Morgan Breslin enjoying a breakout season, USC has the most aggressive defense in the Pac-12. That’ll come in handy when your coach doesn’t utilize all the talent at his disposal.

4. Stanford (4-2, 2-1 Pac-12)

The Cardinal had been hitting its stride prior to its match-up with Notre Dame. After beating Arizona in a shoot-out, Stanford proved it could put up points and shut down opposing offenses, although it had to put the two together at any point.

But then the Cardinal went to South Bend, and the offense had been doing just enough to keep up with the Irish late in the game. Eventually, the game went to overtime and before you knew it, Stanford was robbed of a massive win against yet another top 10 team after replays showed the Cardinal scored a game-tying touchdown at 20-13, but officials ruled Stepfan Taylor was stopped short. Of course, the Cardinal could’ve done certain things to avoid overtime, but no team plays perfect football, especially not against a seventh ranked Notre Dame team that had yet to trail this season prior to falling behind Stanford in this game.

This power ranking might’ve looked a hell of a lot different if Stanford was awarded its touchdown and wound up winning the game. That didn’t happen, though, so the Cardinal is a respectable fourth place in a wild conference.

5. ASU (5-1, 3-0 Pac-12)

We know it’s difficult to trust ASU, even after a fantastic start to their season that has them sitting atop the Pac-12 South. We know it’s hard to imagine this team genuinely progressing in the right direction after Dennis Erickson’s tumultuous reign in the desert.

But have some faith in these Sun Devils, because they’ve improved statistically compared to this point last season. Defensively, they’re five points better per game than they were in 2011 and on offense, they’re scoring five more points per game than a year ago.

The Sun Devils proved they do, indeed, have an on/off switch that they’re fully in control of when they let Colorado hang around in the first half, taking just a 20-17 lead at halftime, before hanging 30 points on these Buffs and shutting out CU the rest of the game.

There’s reason to be skeptical, because this is Arizona State, after all. So go ahead, but don’t come crying back to to ask why when they stay competitive with Oregon this Thursday.

6. Washington (3-3, 1-2 Pac-12)

The Huskies are easily one of the best — if not the best — three-loss team in the nation. And while that’s not going to get UW fans out of their seats, the Huskies have proven to be worthy competitors in the Pac-12 and play a large role in making the Pac-12 the deepest confernece in the country.

U-Dub stayed competitive with USC for 48 minutes, even going as far as to shut down the Trojans’ once-mighty offense after halftime, and wound up losing 24-14, although they had countless opportunities to cut that lead the entire second half. Defensively, this Washington team has it together and it’s the better aspect of this Husky squad.

Keith Price has been pretty damn mediocre all season, though, and he may be holding them back, much like he did when he became turnover-prone against USC to effectively end the game for Washington. But if Price gets it together as everyone expects him too? This Washington team will take absolutely no prisoners from here on out.

7. Arizona (3-3, 0-3 Pac-12)

Being winless this far into Pac-12 play isn’t something any fan of any team would want, but is this really Arizona’s fault?

The Wildcats’ first three games in conference play have been a true murderer’s row of games at Oregon, vs. Oregon State and at Stanford, all three of which are in the upper third of the Pac-12. And in two of these three games, they played to the final second and gave Oregon it’s biggest challenge thus far (the 49-0 score is a tad misleading as to how that game went).

It’s tough to put such a good team with such an explosive offense led by an offensive mastermind and a stud at quarterback in the bottom half of any conference, but that’s the kind of luck Arizona has, playing in the Pac-12. They haven’t had an embarrassing loss this season and you can still find them scrapping for votes in top-25 polls despite being 3-3.

Arizona was off this week, but they’ll get a chance to move above .500 on the season when they play Washington — a team that’s in a similar predicament — next week.

Gary A. Vasquez-US PRESSWIRE

8. UCLA (5-2, 2-2)

Why is the team with the third-best record in the conference in the lower third in these power rankings?

Because the Pac-12 is just that damn good.

UCLA hasn’t been largely disappointing, but the level of competition thus far for these Bruins is not up to par with the rest of the Pac-12. They’ll pay for that late in the season, though, when they get to play Arizona State, Arizona, Washington State, USC and Stanford in that order to finish out the rest of this season.

Of course, UCLA’s playing up to expectations, but a blowout loss to what looked like a listless Cal squad in Berkeley a couple of Saturdays ago has proven to be the worst loss of any team in the top-eight of these rankings, with Arizona’s 49-0 loss to Oregon coming a distant second.

UCLA could jump a ton of teams in these rankings with a win at Arizona State two Saturdays from now, but a loss would surely cement them as a perennial leader in the bottom half of the PAC.

9. Cal (3-4, 2-2 Pac-12)

California’s record isn’t exactly representative of their level of play this season. Although the Bears have given away games they should have won — and they’ll likely end up being the things that doom Jeff Tedford’s tenure as coach — they’ve been highly competitive with everyone they’ve matched up against thus far.

USC? They were down 17-9 heading into the fourth quarter before the Trojans broke it open late. Arizona State? California was down 20-17 in the final period before ASU scored a touchdown to ice the game. How about Ohio State? The Bears lost on the final drive of the game in the Horseshoe in a game they could have/should have won.

Combine those with the shellacking of UCLA in Berkeley and something akin to a beatdown they gave Washington State, and the Bears don’t look so bad after all. Of course, they’re still 3-4 and because this is the Pac-12, losing with style won’t do them much good in any power rankings involving deep conferences.

10. Utah (2-4, 0-3)

Surprisingly, Utah is yet another example of a team whose record doesn’t do justice to their level of play.
Of course, they’ve performed far less consistently than, say, California has, but they’ve proven to be capable of keeping up with any team in the Pac-12 except Oregon. (Capable, of course, meaning that they should keep up with everyone, but if you ask Arizona State about this team, that doesn’t mean much.)

With close losses to USC, UCLA, and Utah State, it’s evident that this team, with more discipline and less (excuse my Internet) derpish moments offensively, could very well be in the mix for the Pac-12 South title.

And just as bowl eligibility is not out of the question for Cal, it’s not out of the realm of possibility for Utah, which gets a favorable schedule to end the season after their dance with Oregon State next week: None of the teams after OSU have winning records, and though they’ve proven to be tough competitors, Utah has given teams scares, too.

11. Washington State (2-5, 0-4 Pac-12)

WSU’s record isn’t truly indicative of their play either, except in this case, the Cougars are far, far worse than what their crummy record suggests.

There’s not much to say about WSU’s losses, save for a close loss to Colorado — which, in case you haven’t noticed, has yet to show up on these rankings — and you’d be able to gauge just how terrible this team is if you look at their wins: Narrow victories over UNLV and Eastern Washington.

The Cougars rank in the bottom-20 nationally in damn near every statistical category except passing, in which they rank in the top-15, likely due to the fact that they’re normally down by multiple touchdowns late in games, forcing them to heave the football like there’s no tomorrow. (And no, Mike Leach’s offensive game-planning has nothing to do with the increase in passing yards.)

12. Colorado (1-5, 1-2)

I could add something substantive here. I can discuss Colorado’s absolute ineptitude. I can talk about how Colorado is dead last in the nation in points allowed per game. I could talk about how Pac-12 teams should never lose to a California State school, and how FCS teams shouldn’t beat any team in any major conference.

I can talk about how horrible you should feel for Jon Embree, inheriting the mess he did in Boulder, CO.

But I won’t because, simply put, this team doesn’t deserve it, and it doesn’t belong to be ranked with — or, hell, even mentioned in the same breath as — any Pac-12 school. This team is embarrassing.