Pac-12 football power rankings, Pacific Takes edition: USC Trojans take top South spot

Week one is over and yay for knee jerk reactions from everyone, me included. There was a lot of shifting in our power rankings for an opening weekend where most teams play a bit of a warm-up game.

North

1. Oregon 1-0 (1)

The Ducks coasted against South Dakota as they should, but will have their place challenged this week against Michigan State in a game that will likely say a lot about if they are ready to start competing against big, strong teams. If they struggle and Stanford beats USC, watch for the Cardinal to reclaim the North again.

2. Stanford 1-0 (2)

The Cardinal are still firmly behind the Ducks, but this is a big week to prove themselves. A win over USC Saturday will go a long way with how much respect the Trojans earned themselves in the opening weekend.

3. Oregon State 1-0 (4)

The Beavers weren't very impressive in their win over Portland State, but they still won and their preseason perceived strength kept them above Cal even if the Bears were probably more impressive in week one. The Beavers might have a sneaky challenge in week two though as Washington tumbled after struggling with Hawaii on the road and now the Beavers travel to Honolulu.

4. Cal 1-0 (6)

The Bears made a massive splash by beating Northwestern on the road, jumping them past the Washington schools after they struggled in week one. The Bears appear like they might shock a lot of people and be a player in the North.

5. Washington 1-0 (3)

The Huskies lost a lot of respect after nearly losing to Hawaii in their opening game. They will have to impress in the rest of their non-conference slate and have the Beavers and Bears struggle to start climbing back up.

6. Washington State 0-1 (5)

Losing to Rutgers in their opener and Cal opening the season in impressive fashion is double bad news for the Cougars. The path out of the bottom of the North is a lot tougher now than it looked going into the season.

South

1. USC 1-0 (2)

Granted Fresno State's defense couldn't be more suspect, but the Trojans have sure grabbed everyone's attention after their smoking of the Bulldog's including that of our votes. They will have to prove that they deserve this spot right away though as they head up to Palo Alto Saturday.

2. UCLA 1-0 (1)

All of the hype around the Bruins went up in smoke after they struggled to beat Virginia last week. The Bruins need to beat Memphis convincingly to start turning around the negative momentum around them at the start of the season.

3. Arizona State 1-0 (3)

The Sun Devils held court by demolishing Weber State. Will be a while before these guys probably move up or down.

4. Arizona 1-0 (4)

It was against UNLV, but the Wildcat offense and Anu Solomon sure looked impressive. The Wildcats did enough in their opener to firmly put themselves ahead of Utah for the time being.

5. Utah 1-0 (5)

Not much to see here, the Utes bashed woeful Idaho State and held court. They at least put some space between themselves and Colorado with the Buffs loss.

6. Colorado 0-1 (6)

The Buffs really needed to beat Colorado State to have a shot at getting out of the cellar and that didn't happen. The Buffs will have to win some games in-conference to get out of the bottom spot now.