Jacob Thorpe’s Pac-12 football power rankings

Pac-12 teams continue to abolish the notion of home-field advantage with road teams winning three of four intraconference matchups last weekend. Visiting teams now have a 26-13 record in league games and the five teams ranked in the AP Top-25 have a combined overall road record of 19-2

Four of those teams (Arizona State, Arizona, UCLA and Utah) hail from the Pac-12 South, a division that is Arizona State’s to lose but with plenty of talented teams waiting to assume the Sun Devils’ mantle should they slip up.

In the North, Oregon has already clinched at least a share of the division crown and is guaranteed to represent the North in the Pac-12 championship game. The rest of the Pac-12 has been pretty static in recent weeks. A bunch of southern teams near the top of the conference, a gaggle of northern teams near the bottom and with a significant upset becoming an ever more rare occurrence.

1 Oregon (9-1, 6-1; last week: No. 1) The Ducks left no doubt that they deserve to make the playoffs in their 51-27 road win over Utah. Oregon still has trouble stopping opposing offenses, but if Marcus Mariota and Co. are really this good than it might not matter.

2 Arizona St. (8-1, 5-1; last week: No. 2) Arizona State is the only team that ranks among the conference’s best four teams in both scoring defense and scoring offense. If the Sun Devils special teams improve then watch out.

3 UCLA (8-2, 5-2; last week: No. 4) At some point Jim Mora’s bigger, faster, more talented team full of former highly-regarded recruits from Los Angeles is going to beat Washington enough times that people stop asking him why he didn’t take the job in Seattle.

4 Utah (6-3, 3-3; last week: No. 3) It’s too bad for Utah that Saturday’s score was so lopsided, but secretly Kaelin Clay is probably glad that his 14-point fumble wasn’t a determining factor in the outcome.

5 USC (6-3, 5-2; last week: No. 5) The Trojans are a dud against Boston College and a Hail Mary away from having a legitimate path to the national championship, and likely from having a Heisman contender at quarterback in Cody Kessler.

6 Arizona (7-2, 4-2; last week: No. 6) Nick Wilson finally crossed the 100-yard threshold against a Pac-12 team last weekend in Arizona’s win over Colorado. The Wildcats will need more effective running from the freshman to survive a challenging final three-game stretch.

7 Stanford (5-4, 3-3; last week: No. 7) Rival California is thinking about creating tougher admissions standards for athletes. Stanford should think about doing the opposite, at least on the offensive side of the ball, where the Cardinal rank dead last in the Pac-12 in points per game.

8 California (5-4, 3-4; last week: No. 8) The Golden Bears are unlikely to get their sixth win in Thursday’s game against USC – Cal is a two touchdown underdog. But wouldn’t it be more satisfying to secure bowl eligibility the following week against Stanford, anyway?

9 Washington St. (3-7, 2-5; last week: No. 12) After an abysmal month full of losses on the field and on the depth chart, the Cougars enter their two-game home stretch coming off a win with an exciting new quarterback.

10 Washington (6-4, 2-4; last week: No. 9) The Huskies’ fearsome pass rush was nowhere to be found once Hau’oli Kikaha went down against UCLA. If his injury lingers there’s a real chance UW could go 0-3 against three potent offenses.

11 Oregon St. (4-5, 1-5; last week: No. 10) Mike Riley isn’t going anywhere and any talk of staff changes is premature. But the Beavers ended last season on a five-game Pac-12 losing streak and will need a miracle to avoid a seven-game conference slide to close out this season.

12 Colorado (2-8, 0-7; last week: No. 11) The Buffaloes are basically guaranteed to lose out with only games against Oregon and Utah left. It’s hard to see a two-win team as a program on the upswing but Colorado is definitely improving.