College football conference power rankings: Oregon scores big win for Pac-12

Oregon scored a big win for the Pac-12 and their placement in this week’s college football conference power rankings but USC scored a big loss.

The Oregon Ducks had one of the most shocking wins in recent memory. They took out Ohio State on Saturday, knocking out one of the powerhouses in college football while propelling themselves into the College Football Playoff conversation. Just one week ago, it appeared that the Pac-12 was pretty far away from Playoff consideration, but now Oregon looks legit.

However, the rest of the Pac-12 failed to really show up the past two weeks. USC lost this week to Stanford, who lost to Kansas State last week. Washington is now 0-2 after starting the season ranked in the Top 25. Then No. 21 Utah was knocked off by BYU in the year after Zach Wilson’s departure. Awesome efforts in non-conference play by Cal and Colorado came up short. While the Pac-12’s depth didn’t have a good week, just about everyone in the Big 12 failed to prove themselves when facing a legit opponent. That has them plummeting down the rankings.

College football power rankings: Oregon nets big win for Pac-12

5. Big 12

Texas lost to one of the bottom-dwelling teams in the SEC. The Longhorns made it a point to follow Oklahoma to the best conference in the country, but they proved this weekend that they aren’t in the same league as those teams. Texas has been a constant disappointment for years, so this is nothing new. Texas might have been the biggest disappointment in the Big 12, but Iowa State showing nothing against Iowa when it mattered hurts the conference even more. The then No. 7 team in the country watched quarterback Brock Purdy get benched for being a turnover machine. It wasn’t all his fault, but a four-year starter riding the bench in the most important matchup of the year is a bad look. TCU snuck by Cal, and Oklahoma State survived Tulsa. Everyone else played a tomato can, and some didn’t even look that good doing it.

4. Pac-12

Oregon is the superstar of this conference and scored a big win for the conference after upsetting then-No. 3 Ohio State in Columbus. The win was much-needed for the Pac-12 that routinely loses these marquee non-conference matchups. After UCLA beat LSU in Week 1, these are two feathers in the cap of the “conference of champions” but the other top teams in the league disappointed in Week. 2. USC disappointed mightily against a Stanford team that got worked by Kansas State the week prior to get the “fire Clay Helton” chants growing much louder in Los Angeles. Utah fell from the ranked teams after losing to BYU for the first time in nine tries. Conferences are judged by the top team, which is Oregon, but the next tier prevented the Pac-12 from moving up in the conference power rankings any further.