Pac-10 playing field levels out

PULLMAN – Lost in the confusion of a late two-point conversion – was Jim Harbaugh trying to run up the score? – and a dicey postgame handshake – what was really said between the coaches? – was the one truth that emerged from Stanford’s 55-21 drubbing of USC last Saturday.

The Pac-10 is flattening out, both in talent and teams.

Southern California’s Pete Carroll admitted as much after the game – USC’s third conference loss – and the rest of the Pac-10 coaches echoed the sentiment this week.

With one notable exception, the talent gap USC enjoyed over the rest of the conference is shrinking. Partly because of that, any number of teams could still win the title.

“The Pac-10 Conference is as strong or stronger than I’ve ever seen on a week-in, week-out basis,” said California coach Jeff Tedford, before mentioning the one exception. “With no disrespect to Washington State as they continue to rebuild, but every other team in the Pac-10 is extremely competitive and you have to play your best in order to win.

“You never know what’s going to happen from week to week.”

Washington might be the best example of the change, with its only conference wins coming over USC and Arizona. Both are still in the conference race, though the Trojans’ chances hinge on a WSU upset of Oregon State this week.

“All of these staffs have recruited extremely well,” said Washington coach Steve Sarkisian, who has put together just one recruiting class for the Huskies. “They’ve recruited physical players.”

The depth of talent, especially in California, has really helped.

“(It) has so many players, you can stockpile all these programs and give them chances to be successful,” UCLA’s Rick Neuheisel said.

“Another thing that is unique to our conference is we’ve got this great junior college lifeblood. Teams are able to shore up weaknesses with the best junior college talent in the country.”

There is one main motivating factor behind the surge. Everyone has been trying to catch up with the Trojans, who have won or shared seven consecutive conference titles.

“SC set the bar,” said Harbaugh, who pulled it down a little last week, “and everybody is working like crazy to rise up to that standard.”

“Give USC credit in a way for all that,” Oregon State’s Mike Riley said. “A few years back if people didn’t rise up, we were just going to fall further and further behind.”

Riley’s Beavers are one of those who rose up. They could be playing for a Rose Bowl berth Dec. 3 when they face Oregon in the Civil War. All the Beavers have to do is defeat WSU on Saturday afternoon. All Oregon has to do is get past Arizona in Tucson that night.

The former seems a given. The latter might be considered probable, but in the Pac-10, you never know.