Trick: The majority of the Pac-12
In the initial AP Top 25 poll, the Pac-12 had a pretty strong showing throughout. They had four teams make the rankings, with three of those teams falling in the top 15 of the poll. With them and other sleeper teams looming, it seemed as if this was going to be a big year for the conference at large if everything played out according to plan.
However, nothing has played out even remotely according to that plan through the first nine weeks of the season. Perhaps the biggest indicator of that is the fact that none of the three Pac-12 teams who were initially ranked inside the top 15 — the Washington Huskies, Stanford Cardinal or USC Trojans — are ranked at all at this point. What’s more, only two teams are ranked out of the conference now, neither of which were ranked to begin the year.
There’s no question that the Washington State Cougars and Utah Utes have been pleasant surprises this season, but the conference has been an enormous letdown. Washington looks slightly above average, as does Stanford, while teams like Oregon, USC and even the likes of Colorado and Arizona have all fallen well short of expectations.
For a conference that perennially has produced College Football Playoff contenders — and multiple at that — this has been a year to forget. While Washington State could help them to save face, this is still a year that the Pac-12 would like to put behind them, or at least you’d have to guess that’s the case.