Pac-10 Who?

If you were to be asked what the premier conferences are, I would put money down that your answer would look similar to this: the SEC, Big 12, ACC, and the Pac-10. The Pac-10 is arguably the most overrated conference in college sports, and it has no right to be recognized as one of the elite. Though The history of the Pac-10 is grand, it is not of nearly the same caliber that it was in its glory days.

Currently there is not one Pac-10 team in the Top 25 for college basketball and there hasn’t been for the past 5 weeks. Not Cal, not Washington, not USC, not even the historic powerhouse UCLA. Now we’re talking about schools with all the recruiting tools and they can’t get one team in to the top 25. At the top of this conference sits Washington (16-7), Arizona (16-8), and Cal (15-8). Granted, it is likely the Pac-10 will have these 3 teams in the tournament in March, but I highly doubt that any will go very far. The Pac-10 as a whole has suffered some very surprising losses this season. Starting off UCLA lost to Cal-State Fullerton, an unranked team from the Big West, Washington lost to a mediocre, unranked Texas Tech hailing from the Big 12, and USC suffered a loss to LMU, just to mention a few of the upsets. I guess, on the basketball front, there is always next year for these schools to recruit, rebuild and start living up to their respective reputations of athletic greatness. But I guess we’ll have to wait, because it is clear that this just isn’t the year for basketball in the Pac-10.

Now, let’s not stop at basketball. It is not one of college football’s top conferences. Now don’t get me wrong, Pac-10 teams played well this year. None of the teams though were dominant by any stretch of the imagination. Oregon was undoubtedly the best team with 10 wins, and lost in the Rose Bowl to Ohio State 26-17. Once you get past Oregon though, this conference is mediocre. Yes, six teams did garner 8 wins apiece; consider their strength of schedule though versus other conferences. I’m not saying that the Pac-10 is a bad football conference; I’m simply saying that it has no business being mentioned among the likes of the SEC, Big 12 or the ACC.

For the past four years, Pac-10 baseball teams, with the exception of ASU have kept with the overall trend and have also been severely underperforming. One could even argue that after the loss of Pat Murphy, even ASU’s distinguished baseball program will suffer. Preseason rankings come out, and year after year UCLA sits very close to the top. Year after year UCLA finishes the season unranked. This year in nearly every preseason poll, UCLA is within the top 20. I will put money down that UCLA, within the first month of the season will fall off every poll’s radar. No matter the recruits, or how good their pitching staff, they just can’t string any wins together. Oregon State won the College World Series in 06’ and 07’ but failed to make a regional last year, just another example of this conference fading away. USC, I don’t even know what to say. They are located in a prime location, surrounded by a hot bed of talented players in sunny Southern California and they managed an even 500 record last year. Unimpressive.

There are certainly players on each of the teams in the Pac-10 that are great and will have careers as professional athletes. As of now though, this conference is not living up to its name and does not deserve to be mentioned among the likes of other top conferences.