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Ranking The Pac-12 Programs During the Pac-12 Era
WoolleyDoog
Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 3,845 
- Oregon - 1 CFP appearance with 1 win, 3 conference titles (not counting covid year) & 5 championship games, 5NY6 bowls and wins, 82 conference wins - The Ducks were so strong in the first four years of the conference they were damn near impossible catch. Big points for winning every NY6 game they got to and for getting a blowout win in a CFP semi.
- Washington - 2 CFP appearances with 1 win, 3 conference titles & championship games, 4 NY6 bowls and 1 win, 71 conference wins - The Huskies could have topped the Ducks if they could have beaten Michigan. They can hang their hate on being the only program that made 2 CFPs and tying for most conference championships.
- Stanford - 3 conference titles and 4 championship games, 4 NY6 bowls and 2 wins, 65 conference wins - The Cardinal fell off a cliff starting in the late-2010s after having a lock on a first or second spot in this era. Winning three titles, especially with Oregon at their peak was big.
- Utah - 2 conference titles and 4 championship games, 2 NY6 bowls, 65 conference wins - The Utes stepped up after a few tough years to become a team that could win their division and then a team that could win the conference. They get points for never bottoming out like the rest of the Pac-12 has at some point.
- USC - 1 conference title and 2 championship games, 3 NY6 bowls and 1 win, 77 conference wins - This program being this far down the list is one reason why the Pac-12 fell apart. They could just never put it all together for very long.
- UCLA - 2 championship games, 60 conference wins - Another fucking underachiever. They had a couple 10-win seasons under Mora and a lot of mediocrity otherwise.
- Arizona State - 1 championship game, 56 conference wins - Look up mediocre in the dictionary except when they played Washington.
- Washington State - 49 conference wins - Shoutout to them for getting a lot of wins with the hands they're dealt as a program. Still, they never one anything other than one Alamo Bowl over Iowa State.
- Arizona - 1 championship game, 43 conference wins - Fisch gave them their best win. They started out not bad and were putrid in the middle of the era.
- Oregon State - 42 conference wins - I forgot how bad the Beavers were in the mid-2010s. Other than that they were pretty above average and good for their program.
- Cal - 37 conference wins - Cal too high.
- Colorado - 1 championship game, 28 conference wins - Need I say more?
Comments
Not ever losing a conference championship is pretty important imo.
So that's good for the Coug, Beav, and Cal?
UW with 0 losses and Stanford with 1 loss (after they stopped being Stanford) is just notable in the conference.
Oregon, Utah, and USC having multiple losses in the championship game is also worth mentioning. Especially Utah and SC with being in such an easy division.
What Leach did at WSU was impressive because he did it when the division was really hard (decent/good Stanford, Oregon back on the rise, full Petersen tenure).
For reference (I had to look this up), the Pac12 era was 13 seasons. Unfortunately the COVID year fucks up easily knowing how many conference games each played.
Here are winning percentages for the top 5 schools including the COVID year (I didn’t include championship games and I don’t know if @WoolleyDoog included them in win totals)
Oregon 82/114 = 72%
UW 71/112 = 63%
Stanford 65/114 = 57%
Utah 65/113 = 58%
USC 77/113 = 68%
I keep looking at their yearly win totals and try to make sense of USC having such a high win percentage. It looks right but doesn't feel right.
Funny, I don't remember ASU being in a championship game
And this is how history gets written
Those early championship games are mega forgettable. The whole thing was mostly a dud.