The Really Big Week 3 Thing Was …
Welcome back, Pac-12
All of a sudden, in case you haven’t noticed, the Pac-12 has turned into the most interesting conference in college football.
The SEC is boring (not really, but I’m riffing here). Georgia is awesome, Alabama is slightly less awesome than that, and everyone else ranges from okay to phenomenal right behind those two.
The Big Ten is boring (not really, but I’m riffing here). Michigan, Penn State, and Minnesota are all playing well, and Rutgers and Indiana are wonderful stories, but they’re all just treading water until Ohio State wins the Big Ten championship by as many points as it wants to.
The Big 12 is boring (REALLY not really, but I’m riffing here). Everyone is good from 1-to-10, they’re all going to beat each other up, and then next year a few teams will leave, and some new ones will come in. No big whoop.
The ACC is boring (really).
And then there’s the Pac-12.
The conference that was left for dead when USC and UCLA announced they were leaving for the Big Ten soon.
The conference that’s being threatened to become part of a Big 12 shopping spree.
The conference that hasn’t figured out that it needs to add San Diego State, UNLV, and some other schools NOW, just because.
The conference that got rocked by Georgia to start the season, got picked off by Florida, and stalled against Mississippi State.
The conference that just fired a head coach (Herm Edwards), and is this close to firing another (Karl Dorrell).
Yeah, that conference.
It also went into Madison, Wisconsin and came away with a Washington State win over the Badgers.
It just hosted a hot Michigan State in Seattle, and sent it away with a loss. It just hosted a hot BYU that was being talked about as a possible playoff team. Oregon made that go bye-bye.
It also has the most fun college football team on the planet in USC – there’s still time to jump on my USC Will Make The Playoff party bus – has a great story in a plucky Arizona, has five unbeaten teams, a Cal team that came within a Hail Mary of making Notre Dame freak out, and …
Yeah, Colorado is a problem and Arizona State isn’t great. However, Oregon and Washington getting their respective wins 1) totally jacked up the league’s profile, 2) cemented themselves – along with Utah coming off a dominant win over San Diego State – as star programs to rebuild around, and 3) are appointment television now.
All that, and again, USC is going to be a thing for the rest of the year.
Yeah, all of this might be making Oregon, Washington, Arizona – and even Arizona State – more attractive to the Big Ten, SEC, and Big 12 because of the media markets.
Or, the Pac-12 has something great happening at just the right time.
– Kansas, Arizona, UNLV Winners & Losers
– New Year’s Six & Gof5 Most Overrated Thing
– Georgia’s blowout Most Underrated Thing
– Preseason is over What It All Means, Week 3