Pac-12 power rankings: Cardinal dominate, Beavers flop and everyone else waits their turn

Last Monday, the moon covered up the sun. Last Saturday, Floyd Mayweather covered up an arrogant Irishman. And a few days from now, college football will be back with a 95 percent chance of covering up your entire weekend and every weekend until the end of November.

The good news about this type of eclipse is you won’t have to spend hours driving to the path of totality to get a good view. That leather sofa in your living room works just fine.

Of course, you’ll have to get in a habit of neglecting your bedtime if you wish to watch Pac-12 ball on a weekly basis. Those kickoffs just aren’t getting any earlier. But it could be worth it. The self-proclaimed “Conference of Champions” came one upset of Alabama shy of sending one of its own to the national title game last season – for now, we’ll call it the “Conference of Near Champions” – and in 2017, the league brings back a class of quarterbacks so talented that even those East-coast Heisman voters may stay up to get a look.

The start of a new season also means power rankings. Well, until everyone’s played a game, they’re more just measured guesses but nonetheless, here’s the first batch.

1. Stanford: The Cardinal thundered down under, making them the only Pac-12 winner so far. We’ll hand them this spot by default.

2. USC: “Hey Darnold!” – nearly every NFL franchise by the time the season’s over.

3. Washington: Shouldn’t be much suspense for the Huskies the first few weeks of the season. No suspense, just suspensions.

4. Washington State: Mike Leach vs. sovereign immunity, or Mike Leach vs. the Big Sky? Which is a more winnable contest for the WSU boss?

5. Colorado: If the Buffs can’t rebuild, fans at least have a potential Rockies postseason run to fall back on.

6. Utah: The addition of Darren Carrington should be significant for the Utes.

7. Oregon: The loss of Darren Carrington should be significant for the Ducks.

8. UCLA: LaVar Ball had his own line of football girdles ready for the Bruins, but they chose Under Armour instead. Bummer.

9. Arizona State: How many teams will show up to Tempe with large black curtains this season? We’ll set the over/under at five.

10. California: The last three starting quarterbacks in Berkeley – Jared Goff, Davis Webb and Ross Bowers. One of these is not like the others.

11. Arizona: The season starts on Saturday and folks in Tucson would still rather talk about Sean Miller’s recruiting class.

12. Oregon State: It’s midweek and Colorado State’ QB Nick Stevens is still flinging TD passes on those poor Beavers.