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With week 11 of the college football season set to get underway, BeaversEdge continues our article series power ranking the 12 teams in the Pac-12 Conference...
Hear from Publisher Brenden Slaughter, Recruiting Analyst Dylan Callaghan-Croley, EDGE writer/KEJO host TJ Mathewson, and EDGE writer Ryan Harlan as they give their rankings and analysis!
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T.J.'s Picks
1. Washington
2. Oregon
3. OSU
4. Utah
5. Arizona
6. UCLA
7. USC
8. Colorado
9. Cal
10. Stanford
11. Arizona State
12. WSU
Washington and Oregon continue their ironclad grip on the top two spots in my power rankings. The Huskies show some real grit with another impressive road win at USC, while Oregon passes the eye test with flying colors at home against Cal. If Vegas chose a Pac-12 Championship Game, it would be between those two.
The Beavers sit as the third-best team right now, the CFP committee agrees with me there, surviving on the road vs. Colorado. Pretty? Hell no, but a win is a win in November. Utah keeps its spot at four pasting Arizona State in SLC. Arizona officially moves into my upper-middle tier with another ranked at home, knocking off UCLA.
Speaking of those Bruins, they just swap spots with the Wildcats cause…. I cannot rank them below USC. The Trojans finally rip the band-aid off and fire Alex Grinch, but that’s not enough to buy any leeway in my rankings.
Colorado, Cal, and Stanford are all bunched together in different states of somewhat effective mediocrity mixed with immense struggles. Arizona State gets a slight edge over WSU via the head-to-head win. What happened to the Cougars? Five consecutive losses and a free-fall into the final three weeks of the season.
- T.J. Mathewson
Brenden's Picks
1. Washington
2. Oregon
3. OSU
4. Utah
5. Arizona
6. UCLA
7. USC
8. Colorado
9. Stanford
10. Cal
11. Arizona State
12. Washington State
Washington holds onto my top spot in the Pac-12 power rankings as I think they boast the best individual win in the country. Texas over Bama could also be in the mix, but UW boasts a very quality win against Oregon. I'm also surprised we haven't seen the Huskies reach the top four of the CFP, but that's a different discussion.
Oregon has been playing better than UW as of late, but the Huskies hold the head-to-head and I still think they're the best team in the conference. However, if Oregon were to close the season with wins, they could leapfrog the Huskies.
Oregon State is the third-best team in this conference... Despite a pair of conference losses, the country sees the Beavers as the best two-loss team in college football, and who am I to disagree? The Beavers need to tighten up their play, but they still mostly control their own destiny and have a path to being in Vegas.
Utah checks in at No. 4, but they could be in a position to rise or fall depending on their result with Washington this weekend. Utah bounced back well against ASU, but that blowout to Oregon was an ugly game.
Arizona moves up to No. 5 after a win over UCLA, and keep a close eye on the Wildcats. They've only got two conference losses and are one of the hottest teams in the conference. If UW cruises past Utah, I'll likely have Arizona No. 4 next week.
UCLA & USC check in at No. 6 & 7 after each dropped a game this past weekend... I like USC slightly more because of Caleb Williams, but UCLA's defense is superior to USC's. We'll find out how much fight the Trojans have left in the tank when they take on Oregon in Eugene this weekend...
Colorado, Stanford, and Cal are somewhat interchangeable to me, but I'll still give Colorado the nod based on overall talent. Stanford is likely playing the best football of the three, but they don't exactly strike fear into opponents. Cal was throttled by Oregon this past weekend and didn't show a ton of fight...
At the bottom, congratulations to the Washington State Cougars who essentially decided that the Oregon State game was their season... The Cougars have been terrible since that win over the Beavs, and I have little confidence they'll beat Colorado and Cal to reach six wins. I think when the Cougars are playing their best there's no question they're better than CU, Stanford, ASU, and Cal, but it's been a brutal stretch for the Cougs who have lost five in a row...
- Brenden Slaughter
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