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All 13 weeks of the regular season have come and gone, but that doesn’t mean all three staff writers in Josiah Destin, Mathew Tonis and Maxwell Madden all agree on who the best teams are.
After three months of football, let’s take a look at how the teams in the Conference of Champions stack up:
Week 13
Madden | Destin | Tonis |
---|---|---|
Madden | Destin | Tonis |
USC | Stanford (+2) | USC (+1) |
Stanford | USC (-1) | Stanford (+1) |
Washington | Washington (+1) | Washington (+1) |
Oregon (+1) | ASU (+2) | WSU (-3) |
WSU (-1) | WSU (-3) | ASU (+3) |
ASU (+2) | Arizona (-1) | Oregon (-1) |
Arizona (-2) | Oregon | Arizona (-1) |
UCLA (-1) | UCLA (+2) | Utah (+1) |
Utah | Utah (-1) | UCLA (+2) |
California | California (-1) | Cal (-3) |
Colorado | Colorado | Colorado (-1) |
Oregon State | Oregon State | Oregon State |
A closer look
Tonis: What turned out to be a very eventful weekend for the Arizona State Sun Devils was actually pretty calm for the rest of the conference, save UCLA. The coaching carousel will continue to spin as time goes on, but let's focus on what happened on the field. The game slate went pretty chalk, as, even leading the North, Washington State was a nine-point underdog in the Apple Cup. Now, we wait for the bowl selections to come out next week.
Destin: Is this kind of what we expected the Pac-12 to look like at the season’s start? Honestly, yes. Except for ASU jumping all the way to No. 4. Look, the Sun Devils are fifth in the Pac-12 overall, and though they played a Tate-less second half, they got the job done against an arch-rival. Washington State, on the other hand, lost 41-14 in the Apple Cup. Yes, they’ll be ranked, but no, that’s not the way to end the year. UCLA made a jump after beating Cal and Oregon looks barely good enough to be 7-5.
Madden: I’ve had Stanford and USC at the top for a few weeks so not much change at the top of my rankings. Some shifting in the middle, however, with Oregon moving to the top of the second tier. I firmly believe the Ducks are one of the four best teams in the Pac-12 with a healthy Justin Herbert. We knew UCLA was better than Cal and that Washington was better than WSU. It’s unfortunate Oregon State is so bad because I’d love to put the buffaloes at the bottom after an embarrassing loss in Salt Lake City.