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Pac-12 football historical March madness: down to the final two

2004 USC and 1991 Washington move onto the final.

By Jack Follman
Kevin Leahy- USA TODAY Sports

To go along with college basketball March Madness, we created some madness of our own by creating a bracket of the Pac-12's best football team of all-time, first announcing it last week.

Here are the Pacific Takes writers who will be voting -  Jack Follman, Avinash Kunnath, Ryan McGinn, Mark Schipper,  Bill Stenlund, Trace Travers, Jamie Uyeyama.

Here are the results of the semi-finals with the thoughts of voters included.

04 USC over 03 USC

Trace Travers - 04 USC was the better of the two, with an extra year of seasoning for Leinart, Bush, and co.

Jack Follman - The Trojans were a phenomenal team in 03 and deserving national champions, but they achieved perfection in 04. Another year of experience gives 04 the seasoning late the in game to pull it out.

Mark Schipper - This team went wire-to-wire as the undefeated no. 1 ranked team. That is, in the realm of sporting achievements, a transcendent campaign. They won close games against rivals, they blew out other rivals, they took everyone's best shot and used their talent and training and focus to walk away the victors. In the national championship game they were at their very best, blowing out a really good Oklahoma team 55-19. From beginning to end this group had an almost mystical quality that made it seem pre-destined to win all of its games.

Avinash Kunnath - 04 USC is pretty much an older more seasoned 03 USC. Better offense and more confident defense. They roll.

Jamie Uyeyama - This team was basically just version 2.0 of the '03 team. A year older and a year better. The only piece was Mike Williams on the '03, but unless he went off for 250 and four touchdowns, that '03 team would not win this game.

91 Washington over 10 Oregon

Trace Travers - The Huskies had a defense that was overpowering and could have stayed with Oregon's speed. Oregon's weakness that year was an aggressive defense that could contain the quarterback and overpower their offensive line, and the Huskies could have done that.

Jack Follman - Those that remember the early-90s remember that the Huskies defense was kind of like the Ducks' 10 offense in that it had revolutionary speed and an attacking scheme that was well ahead of its time and much better than the Auburn D that held Oregon to 19 points with Steve Emtman more than fulfilling the Nick Fairley role of stopping the hurry-up before it got started.

Mark Schipper - This team was scary. It was too bad they didn't get a chance in those days to play an intersectional national championship game. They were every bit as mean as Miami and maybe a little scarier because they seemed to go about their destruction quietly. Quiet mean guys are the ones to really worry about. The Huskies destroyed no. 4 ranked Michigan in the Rose Bowl; I mean, annihilated them. The score was more like 41-7 instead of 34-14 because Michigan scored against the backups late and Washington kneeled down at goal to go with their third string quarterback to run out the clock. At 12-0 they split the title with the Hurricanes. These Huskies had 11 guys taken in the NFL draft. Mark Brunell, maybe a pro football Hall of Famer, was the backup quarterback on this team because of an injury. But Billy Joe Hobert, his replacement, was a the proverbial riverboat gambler and a very good college quarterback. Talent all over and coached by the great Don James, who made Washington a legitimate national powerhouse for the better part of two decades.

Avinash Kunnath - 1991 Washington is a pantheon team, maybe one of the greatest of all time. Chip probably coaches one of his masterpieces but I don't think it's enough against beastly front sevens.

Jamie Uyeyama - Not trying to steal Jack's thunder, but Emtman versus the interior of the Oregon offensive line was the matchup that immediately came to mind. He was borderline unblockable during that season and was an even better player than Fairley was and we all saw what Fairley did to that offense. I'll take the Huskies.

Bracket

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