Final Pac-12-focused Top 25: Oregon drops to number three

1. Ohio State 14-1

2. Alabama 12-2

3. Oregon 13-2

Conventional wisdom would be to put Oregon at number two since they lost the national championship, but I am putting them here considering how much better Alabama played Ohio State. It was a fine season by the Ducks and a national championship seemed like destiny at times, but they once again lacked the elite athleticism on defense and depth that the traditional powers have that you simply have to have to win a national championship. I believe that it would have looked very similar to last night had they met Alabama in the Playoffs.

4. TCU 12-1

5. Florida State 13-1

6. Michigan State 11-2

7. Baylor 11-2

8. Georgia Tech 11-3

9. Georgia 10-3

10. UCLA 10-3

UCLA's Alamo Bowl win was kind of fitting for their whole season. There were great moments of promise and potential with exciting play from Brett Hundley, but seemed to be lacking something and nearly fell apart, but were able to patch things up enough to not come unglued, but still kind of disappoint.

11. Wisconsin 11-3

12. Arizona State 10-3

The Sun Devils slowed down towards the home stretch of the season, but getting a Sun Bowl win and finishing in the Top 15 is still a huge accomplishment for a team that many thought might take a step back in 2014.

13. Missouri 11-3

14. Mississippi State 10-3

15. Mississippi 9-4

16. Boise State 12-2

17. Arizona 10-4

The Wildcats ended the season with two high-profile thuds that probably revealed that they did in fact get lucky during the season, but I still think getting to 10 wins with a freshman quarterback and running back was huge for Rich Rodriguez. They could be building to something big if they can build up around Anu Solomon and Nick Wilson in the next few years.

18. Kansas State 9-4

19. Louisville 9-4

20. Utah 9-4

Utah quietly sneaks into the Top 20 with their best season since joining the Pac-12. The Utes appear to maybe be molding themselves after Stanford the way that Arizona molded themselves after Oregon and it showed this season.

21. USC 9-4

The Trojans barely hung on against Nebraska and kept themselves in the Top 25. They have a lot of promise for 2015, but I have to be a little bit wary due to the fact that their season seemed to play out in a very similar way to how they usually did when he was at Washington.

22. Notre Dame 8-5

23. Stanford 8-5

Dismantling Maryland in the Foster Farms Bowl in fine Stanford fashion helped cement my suspicion that the Cardinal were closer to having a 10-11 win season in 2014 than most have seemed to acknowledge.

24. Texas A&M 8-5

25. Auburn 8-5