25 best Pac-12 football players of the last 25 years

The Pac-12 has been home to plenty of elite talent over the past 25 years, including these standout players.

While the Pac-12 is still searching for its first national championship in over a decade, the conference has consistently been one of the best in college football for the past 25 years.

The BCS era was dominated by the USC Trojans, who built a dynasty under Pete Carroll from 2001 to 2009. USC won at least 11 games in seven consecutive seasons, picking up the 2004 national championship (which was later vacated) behind one of the best college football teams ever, along with an additional four Rose Bowl wins.

More recent seasons have been defined by the emergence of the Stanford Cardinal and Oregon Ducks, neither of whom have been nearly as historically successful in the conference as USC. Stanford has been to five major bowls in a span of eight years, while Oregon reached the title game twice only to fall short of the first national title in school history.

The conference is looking better than ever heading into 2017, with dormant programs like Washington and Colorado emerging as national contenders. USC will also enter the season ranked near the top of the AP Poll after closing the year on a nine-game winning streak, including a Rose Bowl triumph over Penn State.

Plenty of elite individual talent has come with all that success on the field. The Pac-12 has been home to a number of college football legends in recent years while stocking the NFL with top-level players.

Here’s a look at the top 25 individual players in the Pac-12 over the last quarter century.