College football conference power rankings: Week 4

Week 3 was 100 percent a chance for the Pac-12 to move up in these power rankings. The USC Trojans had a chance to assert themselves in a marquee matchup with the Texas Longhorns. What’s more, the newly ranked Arizona State Sun Devils had the opportunity to prove they were worthy of being in the top 25 as they went on the road to face San Diego State. Instead, both of those teams were ultimately letdowns on Saturday.

Herm Edwards and Arizona State fell by a touchdown to the Aztecs and, while not a horrible loss against a solid team, it still hurts the depth of the Pac-12 as a whole to have one of their ranked teams lose in that game. Much more detrimental to the conference’s cause, however, was the USC loss as they were dominated by Texas. No matter if they had a 14-3 lead or not, losing 37-14 is not a good look for the Trojans or the Pac-12.

The Oregon State Beavers losing to Nevada isn’t great, but the Beavers aren’t a very good team, and it was a two-point game. Much worse for the conference’s strength was Chip Kelly’s UCLA Bruins proving their futility with a blowout loss to Fresno State, which is absolutely horrendous.

There are no doubt good teams still in the Pac-12 with the Washington Huskies, Stanford Cardinal and (perhaps) Oregon Ducks. Having said that, the depth of the conference really isn’t there, albeit not to the degree of the ACC, which is why they slot in ahead of them here.