Pull Up a Chair to Our Pac-12 Roundtable As Season Approaches

We have six Sports Illustrated sites that cover Pac-12 teams — Washington, USC, Oregon, California, UCLA and Arizona State. For the most part, the conference

We have six Sports Illustrated sites that cover Pac-12 teams — Washington, USC, Oregon, California, UCLA and Arizona State. For the most part, the conference big boys. The large metro teams. ,With maybe more sites come at some point.

Meet Claudette Montana Pattison (yes, she's the daughter of the former Husky wide receiver and a USC grad), Jake Curtis in Berkeley, Donnie Druin in Tempe, Sam Connon in Westwood, Max Torres in Eugene and me.

We're going to gather virtually for a few minutes weekly to chat about the conference and our teams. We're going to offer weekly power rankings.

So far, all we have in the books is UCLA taking Hawaii out back to the woodshed and a Rose Bowl rout that involved two Ethan Garbers passes, a tackle by Ale Kaho and a special-teams appearance by Colson Yankoff, all Bruins who once were Huskies. 

A full week of Pac-12 games is nearly upon us. A normal week of conference-related games hopefully. A lot of non-conference games. Take that, pandemic. 

Our power rankings show little change from a week ago, but bear with us. We'll slot these teams accordingly each week in adherence to performance here after. 

SI PAC-12 FOOTBALL POWER RANKINGS

1. Oregon (4) 68 points

2. USC (1) 67

3. Washington 59

4. Utah (1) 55

5. Arizona State 48

6. UCLA 43

7. Cal 33

8. Stanford 31

9. Colorado 27

10 tie. Oregon State 15

10. tie. Washington State 15

12. Arizona 7

DONNIE DRUIN. ALL SUN DEVILS

1. Oregon; 2. USC; 3. Washington; 4. Arizona State; 5. Utah; 6. UCLA; 7. Cal; 8. Colorado; 9. Stanford; 10. Oregon State; 11. Washington State; 12. Arizona

Comment: UCLA handled business against Hawaii, as they should have. However, no movement was needed in the rankings from last week. We’ll see what UCLA really looks like when they meet LSU next week.

JAKE CURTIS, CAL SPORTS REPORT

1. Utah; 2. USC; 3. Oregon; 4. Arizona State; 5. Washington; 6. UCLA; 7. Cal; 8. Stanford; 9. Washington State; 10. Colorado; 11. Oregon State; 12. Arizona

Comment: Chip Kelly shouldn’t regain the “genius” status he had a decade ago based on one impressive showing against an overmatched foe. However, UCLA is the only Pac-12 team with a win, so that counts for something. We moved the Bruins up one spot from No. 7, although DTR needs to be better against LSU for the Bruins to be considered a Pac-12 contender.

MAX TORRES, DUCKS DIGEST

1. Oregon; 2. USC; 3. Washington; 4. Utah; 5. UCLA; 6. Arizona State; 7. Cal; 8. Stanford; 9. Colorado; 10. Oregon State; 11. Washington State; 12. Arizona

Comment: Not many changes from last week. I moved UCLA up and I think their win against Hawaii was more or less what I expected. I think they can make a strong case for the No. 2 team in the south. I still want to see what Utah looks like with Charlie Brewer at QB and what Arizona State looks like overall.

SAM CONNON, ALL BRUINS

1. Oregon; 2. USC; 3. Washington; 4. Utah; 5. UCLA; 6. Stanford; 7. Arizona State; 8. Cal; 9. Colorado; 10. Oregon State; 11. Washington State;

12. Arizona

Comment: UCLA stays exactly where it was a week ago in my first power rankings submission, since the Bruins' performance Saturday against Hawaii was about what I expected from them. They may seem like a surprise underdog to many, but this is their identity now – they're a disruptive, fast defense with a lethal ground game on offense. And then Arizona slips one spot for electing to go with a two-quarterback offense since the bust potential there is massive.

CLAUDETTE MONTANA PATTISON, ALL TROJANS

1. Oregon; 2. USC; 3. Washington; 4. Arizona State; 5. Utah; 6. Colorado; 7. UCLA; 8. Stanford; 9. Cal; 10. Washington State; 11. Arizona; 12. Oregon State.

Comment: My picks have not changed since last week, despite UCLA absolutely dominating over Hawaii on Saturday. The Bruins played well, but were challenged by a weaker opponent. Saturday's LSU matchup will be a true test for UCLA to see if they can win against a highly competitive team. If they are able to defeat Ed Orgeron's Tigers that will be very telling and set the tone for their 2021 season.

DAN RALEY, HUSKY MAVEN

1. USC; 2. Washington; 3. Oregon; 4. Utah; 5. Arizona State; 6. UCLA; 7. Cal; 8. Stanford; 9. Colorado; 10. Oregon State; 11. Washington State; 12. Arizona

Comment: The conference recently welcomed an alliance and pushed back on expansion. Yet more importantly, the Pac-12 is begging for a playoff team. The Trojans have never been there, but they’re due. If Helton’s guys still aren’t up for it, the Huskies or Ducks should be poised to make a run. It’s time. It’s long overdue. It’s embarrassing if none of this trio steps up.

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