Don’t forget to breathe, Pac-10 faithful. This will pass.
Yes, you’ve endured yet another mid-season fall of Troy.
Yes, there has been another pathetic, early-season performance by your electric offensive wizards from Telegraph Avenue.
Surprisingly enough, all the money and jerseys provided by Phil Knight to his Oregon Ducks couldn’t save them from being bucked by Boise State at Autzen Stadium.
And yes, there have been the materialized losses to the inferior teams, formerly known as “peons,” that are in the Mountain West Conference.
Is the fact that the two most competitive, talented teams in the MWC8212;BYU and Utah8212;are actually ranked higher than any Pac-10 team except USC sacrilegious hullabaloo?
Negative.
The Cougars are one up on USC, while the Utes are planted eight spots above the Ducks.
So, merely five games into the season, the Pac-10 conference has not one undefeated team. Not a one.
The MWC has two.
So that leads us to beg the question: Is the MWC better than the Pac-10 from top to bottom this year?
Despite the façade of current records, it just doesn’t seem that apparent.
In what turns out to be a horrendously difficult game of mixing and matching “who beat whom” in college football, it’s what essentially leads us to these facts.
Yes, the MWC conference is now 5-1 against the Pac-10 this year, with one more game looming tomorrow night, featuring the No. 15 Utes against the giant-slayers of Oregon State.
MWC faithful will plead that the talent level, experience and overall grit of its teams are higher and more potent than that of the folks out West.
The 5-1 record certainly showcases that8212;on the surface level.
Sure, UNLV marched into Tempe, Ariz., and bested a then top-15 Arizona State. The Rebels also were recently spanked by a 2-2 Nevada WolfPack team that literally ran over them8212;444 yards rushing8212;at Sam Boyd Stadium, 49-27.
Sure, New Mexico beat Arizona, a team that beat UCLA, that was smoked by BYU, that barely beat Washington. You starting to catch my drift?
It’s a never-ending simulation of smoke and mirrors.
The Pac-10 is still deeper and more talented.
Why? As pitiful as it is for me to say, it’s the strength of scheduling.
Credit Ty Willingham for scheduling a now No. 8 BYU team and now No. 1 Oklahoma in back-to-back weeks after taking on Oregon.
An 0-4 Husky team that’s still haunted by the trajectory of Jake Locker’s inconspicuous “spin” deserves credit for facing top-level quality.
The MWC’s worst team? Chuck Long’s San Diego State Aztecs lost to Cal Poly at home. Yep, Cal Poly.
Wyoming was shellacked by Bowling Green at home, 45-16.
Don’t forget that the MWC didn’t face any of the top-tier teams besides an extremely overrated Sun Devils team.
The likes of BYU, Utah or TCU didn’t go head-to-head with USC, Oregon or Cal.
Fans of the MWC would plead that if the Utes beat Oregon State, who beat then No. 1 USC, then the Utes could beat USC.
BYU fans are the main culprits guilty of this fictitious thought process. The Cougar faithful have tended to overlook the fact that while the 59-0 slaughter of UCLA was impressive, they were facing Kevin Craft.
Who? My point exactly.
Not Mark Sanchez. Not Rudy Carpenter. Not even Ben Olsen.
The Mountain West has had some impressive wins this season, but until they can consistently face the same caliber and talent as the Pac-10, the road west will always be more prosperous.
You are currently being overlooked, Pac-10, but take a deep breath.
At least Cal ratified the mumbo-jumbo with a 42-7 win over Colorado State.
It’s a start.
Chris Kamrani