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Wow.
What a crazy week seven of Pac-12 football. What a crazy weekend of football in general. Four teams in the top-10 lost and two of them, Washington and Washington State, were in the Pac-12. One of the losses happened to be in our own backyard: Tempe.
Get ready for a whole of lot mix up in this week’s rankings:
Pac-12 Week 7 Power Rankings
| Rank | Tonis | Madden | Destin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Tonis | Madden | Destin |
| 1 | USC (+2) | Washington | USC (+3) |
| 2 | Stanford (+2) | USC (+2) | Stanford (+2) |
| 3 | Arizona (+4) | Stanford | Utah (+2) |
| 4 | ASU (+4) | Washington State (-2) | Washington (-4) |
| 5 | Washington (-4) | Arizona (+7) | Washington State (-4) |
| 6 | Utah (-1) | Utah (-1) | Arizona State (+2) |
| 7 | Cal (+3) | Arizona State (+2) | California (+2) |
| 8 | Washington State (-6) | UCLA (-3) | Arizona (-2) |
| 9 | UCLA (-3) | Oregon (-2) | UCLA (-1) |
| 10 | Oregon (-1) | Cal (+1) | Oregon (-3) |
| 11 | Colorado | Colorado | Colorado |
| 12 | Oregon State | Oregon State | Oregon State |
Closer Look
Tonis: That's right, folks! The Arizona schools are in the top four (for now). The Pac-12 is such a cluster from 1-10 that my power rankings have no bearing on how I perceive the overall talent of rosters, but is wholly reliant on the previous week's outcomes. USC, Stanford and Arizona are the only three conference teams with multi-game win streaks and ASU knocked off its first top-5 opponent since I was a year old, meaning big rises. The Washington schools both faltered on the road, which means they get to hang with the plebes down the list. This conference makes no sense and these ranking will be totally different next week, so buckle up, it's gonna be a bumpy ride through the second half of the season.
Madden: Deciding the order of the top three teams in the conference is just as difficult as the bottom nine. I still believe Washington is just a bit better than USC, but there is a considerable gap between Stanford and the WSU/ASU/Utah tier. The middle of the pack is just pure guesswork at this point, as the conference has eight teams at .500 or better.
Destin: While my colleague, Tonis, is looking at each team week-by-week, I’ll combine that perspective with their overall records. That’s why Washington and Washington State are both still in my top six. Utah, on the other hand, is so high because they lost by just a point to USC on the road, rather than by 31 to California like Washington State. While the Utes are 1-2 in Pac-12 play, they’ve lost by a combined four points to USC and Stanford. The Sun Devils and Golden Bears each made significant jumps because of upsets, pushing the Wildcats downward because they took care of business at home, beating lowly-ranked UCLA. Right now, Stanford is the hottest team in the Pac-12, but that 42-24 week two loss to USC will haunt them in my power rankings.