College football conference power rankings: Week 5

After this week, it’s become clear that the ACC is the worst conference in college football. However, it also wouldn’t be much of a stretch to say that the Pac-12 is not far ahead. As is the case with the bottom-ranked conference, there are some quality teams in the Pac-12. However, the inconsistency of the middle tier and struggles at the bottom really hold them back.

The top of the conference saw a showdown between two of its top dogs this past week as the Stanford Cardinal took on the Oregon Ducks. It looked as if the Cardinal might suffer their first loss of the season as the Ducks were absolutely on fire for the first half. However, they came out for the final two quarters and looked awful under pressure, resulting a 38-31, overtime loss. Stanford is who we thought they were, but the collapse by Oregon hurts their stock.

Also hurting in terms of stock is the Washington State Cougars. This was a team with a chance to prove themselves as they took on the USC Trojans this week, another team that has struggled to find its footing early in the season. However, JT Daniels and Co. staged a late-game comeback to topple Mike Leach’s team, thus evening out a mediocre conference.

When you throw in Arizona State losing for the second-straight week. albeit to 10th-ranked Washington, and then how bad Oregon State has looked, most recently with a loss to Arizona, it would feel wrong to have any of the other Power 5 conferences besides the ACC lower than the Pac-12.