Arizona State at USC, Saturday 10/1 8:30 PM ET FOX

[Latrell]

Arizona State Sun-Devils @ Southern California Trojans

VS

L.A Memorial Coliseum
Los Angeles,CA

[bwgood77]

Arizona State Sun-Devils @ Southern California Trojans

Surprising to see 1-3 USC taking care of undefeated ASU so easily.

[Latrell]

Arizona State Sun-Devils @ Southern California Trojans

Surprising to see 1-3 USC taking care of undefeated ASU so easily.

Yeah. The Pac 12 is incredibly mediocre.

[bleu]

Call me crazy, but I think that USC still wins the Pac 12 south. Maybe Utah. But I'd put my money on USC.

[Wannabe MEP]

The Pac 12 is incredibly mediocre.

Yes and no. I agree that it doesn't have 3–4 top dawgs that are gonna beat up on everyone else in the conference, a la Big Ten and ACC. But whether that has more to do with the mediocrity of the top teams, or more to do with the quality of the mid-tier teams in the conference...

Sagarin's default conference rating is "central mean", which comes out like this right now:

1. SEC-WEST
2. PAC-12(NORTH)
3. PAC-12(SOUTH)
4. ACC-ATLANTIC
5. BIG 12
6. ACC-COASTAL
7. BIG TEN-EAST
8. BIG TEN-WEST
9. SEC-EAST

Basically, most people wouldn't think of the Pac-12 as elite right now, because it doesn't have as clear of a crop of top tier teams as, say, the Big Ten. But in terms of overall quality/depth, there's a solid case to put the Pac-12 in the top 2, or even #1 (as an impersonal, objective measure does above). And largely because of that depth – and because the Pac-12 plays 9 conference games – I doubt anyone is gonna escape without a loss.

Does a one-loss conference champion Washington get into the playoff? I don't know. I think they should...because I think there should be an 8-team playoff.