Ryan Larson: There's no question this week was a disaster for the Pac-12. The only game that a team where a loss was totally understandable was USC against Alabama, and they still managed to make that loss even worse. UCLA, Arizona and Oregon State could have gotten quality but blew chances in those games. Washington State lost to an FCS opponent for the second straight year but that probably just means they're going to win nine games again. Does this destroy the conference's playoff chances? No, if a team runs the table their still in, but it makes the margin for error that much slimmer among the playoff contenders. The SEC is facing the most criticism this week, but the Pac-12 should be right there with them.
Taylor Henry: The Pac-12 had a terrible week overall. The top tier teams lost big, and the team most locked to win the conference didn't look like a world beater against a middle of the road Kansas State squad. I don't know if their playoff chances take a hit, but I think there will be a lot of parody, upsets. Ans a 2 loss champion, which means the Pac-12 gets left out again this year.
dc23az: Bad week for the Pac-12. On top of that, feel free to kiss the playoff goodbye if you are not a North division team. It's hard to imagine any South division team avoiding 2 or more losses in conference play (and UCLA, USC, and UA already have 1 loss). 2 conference losses leaves the South out of contention. Now, if your name is Washington, Oregon, or Stanford, you survived the first round of Russian Roulette. You still have a long ways to go, but the playoff dream is still alive.
Simeon Moses: I don't think anyone has a great argument that Pac 12 had a good week. However it's week 1 and we will needs to look at the pattern. UCLA lost to the most difficult unranked opponent in my opinion this past week. USC could be a fluke because Bama is just that good. I feel there is still 5 programs in Pac 12 that are top 25 teams. That seems to be a normal slash good year if USC and UCLA recover from their loss and the top 3 North division players win against everyone not including the eventual losses to each other.
Gabey Lucas: It really did suck. Fortunately, besides the ACC, I feel like the rest of the P5 conferences had pretty bad weeks too.
Avinash Kunnath: Not the Sun Belt! ALL HAIL THE SUN BELT.
Gabey: The conference of champions.
Travis King: I think the poor weekend the Pac-12 had has been well articulated. Simeon brings up a good point that you still get the feeling theres 5 top 25 teams in the Pac- 12 when its all said and done, and if Stanford can run the table they will certainly be in the playoff. We’ve seen that Week 1 loses are not as harmful as Week 10 losses, so while it wasn’t a great weekend it doesn’t mean all is lost for the season.
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