By JACK STERN
Take one look at the final college football playoff ranking, and to most something sticks out like a Packers fan attending their first game at Soldier Field. Eight SEC teams are in the top 25 – three in the top ten, four from the Big 12, three from the Big Ten and Pac-12, and just two from the ACC.
Out of the five power five conferences, the Pac-12 wasn’t represented in the top eight and sent just a single team, the ninth ranked Washington Huskies, to a NY6 bowl. Even worse was the fact that the 10-2 Washington State Cougars, led by Cinderella story sensation Gardner Minshew, were left out of the pool of eleven teams that go to at-large bowls, and forced to settle for a bid to the second tier Alamo Bowl. The final ranking led to extreme dismay from Washington State Athletic Director Pat Chun who issued a statement saying:
“We’re very disappointed with where we ended up being ranked. We believe, as a 10-win team in Power 5 league, the manner in which our two losses came, statistically how we match up with the other teams in the same cluster as us, we believed our résumé ranked perhaps higher than where the committee thought it was, but they are empowered to make those decisions.”
Chun certainly has a point. Especially when considering the fact that the two SEC teams sitting directly above Washington State (LSU and Florida) had one more loss and one less win in arguably easier schedules. Both programs are going to at-large bowls while the Cougars travel to San Antonio for what’s not much more than a glorified exhibition game.
The main question(s) fans of teams in the conference are asking themselves is: How do Pac-12 teams get more respect from the bowl committee? What do they need to do? Why do the other conferences always get the benefit of the doubt when it comes to rankings? The answer to all of those questions is easier than predicting a parents’ response to their teenage child looking to extend a Friday night curfew. Pac-12 schools have consistently struggled against teams in other power-five conferences, and even worse against each other.
Don’t believe me? Last year Pac-12 teams went 1-7 in bowl games against schools from the Big Ten, ACC, Big 12 and even (cue groaning noise) the Mountain West. Whenever any of the teams were pitted against seemingly mediocre competition from another power five conference they laid an egg. Unfortunately, we don’t even have to go back that far to trace the conferences’ struggles.
In week one of this season, the ninth ranked Huskies lost to an underachieving Auburn team that finished 7-5 and faced external pressure to fire head coach Gus Malzahn. It was a close game, and the loss only came by five points, but the sheer fact that a Pac-12 team that finished the season ranked in the top ten couldn’t beat one of the worst SEC teams shows a evident talent gap between conferences.
Washington’s two other losses came against one of the worst offensive teams in Cal, and the mistake prone Oregon Ducks. Aside from Washington, Washington State’s lone other defeat came against a USC Trojans team that failed to reach bowl eligibility. All three of the conference losses for both teams came on the road by a field goal or less, however their inability to win tight games in important situations with playoff (or at least a higher ranking) eligibility on the line shows a lack of consistency in performance, which means everything to the ranking committee. It’s college football meaning upsets are bound to happen sooner or later, but the elite teams find a way to win even when they don’t bring their A game. This is especially true for the two powerhouses in the conference that had mid-season hopes of making the playoff.
Playing on the road is a challenge, and playing night games at funky times that dip into the wee hours of Sunday morning on the east coast also isn’t easy, but the excuses for defeat have waned low. Ultimately until a legit, bonafide, powerhouse that can consistently beat teams within the conference and win a few games against other power five schools emerges, the Pac-12 will continue to be the little brother in college football. Until then we get to watch the conferences’ bowl eligible teams play meaningless December football.
