What's Wrong With the Pac 10

Happy New Year!

If you're like me, when you think of the phrase "new year" you also think of College football. And if that's the case, you also think of the Rose Bowl.

Yesterday, Ohio State won the Rose Bowl 26-17 over Oregon. The Buckeyes kept Oregon QB Jeremiah Masoli at bay all game, causing many of us to ask the question, "didn't this guy dominate the Pac 10 this year?"

And the answer was, "yes." Had Toby Gerhardt not had such an amazing season, Jeremiah Masoli would have been on a lot more peoples minds for award discussions, including Pac 10 conference player of the year.

Oregon's loss to Ohio State sent the Pac 10 conference to a sub-par 2-5 record in Bowl games this year; this includes losses from four of it's five ranked teams in the BCS poll.

The Pac 10's two wins came from USC beating Boston College and UCLA taking care of Temple. Neither game was a blow out, and considering the expectations that began each of these teams seasons, it's a shame for the Pac 10 conference that these match ups even existed. Nevertheless, USC seem poised to regain stature heading in to 2010, and perhaps more so 2011.

Therein lies the problem. The Pac 10, more than any other major conference, revolves around one team; USC. Since 2002, the conference has been dominated by the Trojans, thus their 2009 shortcomings have magnified the shortcomings of the rest of the conference.

For example, two of the Pac 10's bowl losses came from head-to-head games with the Mountain West, a non-BCS automatic qualifying conference that has so far gone 4-0 in bowl games. TCU, a Mountain West team, will play Boise State, a WAC team that defeated Oregon on opening day, in the Fiesta Bowl on Monday. TCU are a win away from an undefeated season which would rank them #2 in the nation, and further proclaim the Mountain West's current dominance over the Pac 10.

I would never argue that the Mountain West is superior overall than the Pac 10, because it's not; I personally believe that this is a one year thing, and it will need to continue for another two to three years before I can wholeheartedly say that the Pac 10 has fallen to the Mountain West in superiority. The Pac 10 schools just have more tools to work with in recruiting, promotion, and bowl placement. BYU, Utah, and TCU, the top of the Pac 10, are narrowing the gap between the bulk of the Pac 10, and the top of the Mountain West, but as a whole, the Pac 10 is still undeniably better.

In the end, USC's one to two year decline will be good for the Pac 10. It's opened up the regional, and in many ways national spotlight to programs that have been off the national radar like Stanford, Oregon State, Washington, and Arizona. It's also helped Oregon regain some respect as a national contender. I doubt that in the current climate, Stanford, Oregon State, Washington, or Arizona could ever compete for a national championship, but you never know; a few years ago who would have thought TCU would be in that sort of argument?

Mountain West Move to 3-0 In Bowl Games

With last nights victory over Cal, Utah moved to 9-0 in their last nine bowl games, and helped the Mountain West Conference move to 3-0 in 2009.

With both Oregon State, and perennial Pac 10 contender Cal falling to Mountain West teams, it raises the question; how are the Mountain West not automatic qualifiers in the BCS.

Last year Utah beat Alabama and TCU beat Boise State in bowl games. This year, if TCU beat Boise State again, the Mountain West will make a strong case as the second best conference in the NCAA.

I'm not saying that the Mountain West will always be better than the Pac 10, Big East, Big 10, and Big 12, but right now it's hard to argue against it; And if BYU could have avoided getting smashed by Florida State earlier in the season, we'd be talking about the Mountain West in the same sentence as the SEC.

So let's embrace it. The Mountain West has arrived, and NCAA Football is better for it.

The Mountain West Win Again

It's hard to figure out what to make of bowl ones, but one thing I can asses thus far from the 2009 Bowl season is that the Mountain West are looking pretty legit.

First Wyoming upset Fresno State, now more impressively, BYU dominated Pac 10 #3, and BCS #18 Oregon State. At this point Utah and Air Force still need to win their Bowl games, but there's a great chance that the Mountain West comes out of the 2009 Bowl season 5-0.

If the Mountain West teams pull that off, capped by a TCU victory over Boise State, it's going to be hard not to consider the Mountain West a major conference; Making it even harder to repel the conference from an automatic BCS bid every season.

I would definitely agree with anyone who said that the Mountain West from top to bottom really isn't that great, and you need a few somewhat bigger universities to step in and replace schools like San Diego State, New Mexico, and Colorado State. Those teams would do well in Conference USA or the WAC. If you could replace them with Boise State (who are looking to move conferences), SMU (who have the money, and are rivals with TCU), and maybe even a program like San Jose State, you'd have a conference that you could at least say from top to bottom has the tools necessary to compete with the major conferences.

I suppose we'll have to let the Bowl series play out before we can make any further judgement. But at least BYU's big win over Oregon State washes away the stain of their thrashing at the hands of Florida State earlier in the season.

Wyoming Top Fresno State: Mountain West 1, WAC 0

In the precursor to the Fiesta Bowl, Wyoming and Fresno State went to double overtime in the New Mexico Bowl.

If you watched the game, you had to be impressed by Wyoming's true freshman Quarterback Austyn Carta-Samuels.

Though the game was, on paper, one of the least interesting of the 34 Bowl Games, it will likely go down as one of the 10 best this Bowl series.

It also poses the question of how good is the WAC? Fresno State were 6-2 in conference, and 2-3 (including the loss to Wyoming) out of conference for the 2009 season. Their losses were to Wyoming, Cincinnati and Wisconsin; Their wins came against Cal-Davis and Illinois.

This win will bode well for the Mountain West, where Wyoming were ranked #5 and pulled off the win over the WAC's #3. Wyoming were 3-2 (including the win over Fresno State) out of conference in 2009. Their wins came against Fresno State, Weber State, and Florida Atlantic; Their losses were to Texas and Colorado.

As we know, Boise State and TCU will ultimately settle the Mountain West vs WAC score.