There was a time when many people thought that the Pac-12 was Oregon, Stanford, and any ol' team from the South Division. Times have certainly changed in the conference. Arizona, ASU, USC, UCLA, and Utah are all going to bowl games and have excellent chances to win those bowl games.
Does the Pac-12 South have an argument in terms of being the most competitive in college football? Hell yes they do. Here's how the South was won. Arizona State had control of the division in early November, then they made a trip up to Corvallis. We all know what took place there. Then UCLA had control of the division for a bit, Arizona and the Arizona State still had an outside chance to claim the division if UCLA slipped up against USC or Stanford. The conference tension was thick for a couple of weeks.
The Territorial Cup between Arizona State and Arizona loomed large because the winner of that game would win the division if UCLA lost to Stanford. The Bruins had already beaten the Trojans fairly handily a week before so the division title was on the line in Tucson and Pasadena. Most people thought, myself included, that the Bruins would most likely hold serve at home against a younger, struggling Stanford Cardinal team. However, that is why they play the game people.
As I was in attendance for the Territorial Cup and watching the game from the press box I kept seeing the score in Pasadena get worse for the Bruins and I was in shock quite honestly about what was happening out there at the Rose Bowl. I thought the game might be a little closer than people thought, but in the end, the Bruins would prevail by like 10 points or so. Nope. The blowout was on for the Cardinal. They ran away with the game.
Once we knew as media people that the Bruins were going to lose, we knew the Wildcat/Sun Devil game was for the south division. We had heard that Arizona Head Coach Rich Rodriguez had ordered that no announcement about that game was to be heard or the score put on the scoreboard. I totally understood that because he needed his teams focus to be on the Sun Devils. The Sun Devils made it close towards the end, but the Cats got the stops and turnovers needed to help seal the victory and the south division. Rich Rod was told of the south division title as the field was being taken over by Arizona fans. He said it put a little more bounce in his step when he heard that news.
Utah was a player this year too. They came out of nowhere to make things interesting as well. They had wins over both the L.A. schools, but lost to the Arizona schools in some very tight ballgames. Utah will continue to be a factor in this division. Coach Willingham will recruit like he always does to get some hard, in your face type of players. I almost look at them as a power type of team and not necessarily a spread team which can be a great thing for them. Opposing teams will know that they are in for a long afternoon when they play a physical Utah team.
All in all, the south was won this year by it's teams eating their own. The Pac-12 in general typically does that. The one thing that tells me that this division just may be the toughest in college football is from what I saw this past year and that 5 out of the 6 teams are playing in bowl games. I am not sure there is another conference division that can boast that statistic.
The other aspect of this division that I like is that it helps to raise the awareness of how tough the Pac-12 can be as a conference. In a day where fans like to compare everything, the Pac-12 fan base have a better foot to stand on when their SEC counterparts say that they are in the best conference. The Pac-12 can say, "We are coming for you SEC, be careful or we just might run right past you.." As of right now, the Pac-12 south is leading that charge for being the best conference. I would love to see them charge right by SEC for domination. It would be great for college football...
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