The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper The Spokesman-Review
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
Current Temperature
39°F
Current Conditions
Scattered clouds
View complete weather report
Subscribe now

Pac-12 power rankings: Trojans, Huskies keep their spots … and so do the Beavers

Southern California coach Clay Helton, center, Ronald Jones II, left, and Viane Talamaivao celebrate the team's 42-24 win against Stanford. (Jae C. Hong / AP)
By Theo Lawson theol@spokesman.com(509) 459-5584

Four Pac-12 teams entered the season with a national ranking and a fifth, UCLA, joined the party this week debuting at No. 25. Utah (101 votes), Colorado (66) and Oregon (61) are all receiving votes, meaning a whopping eight teams could crack the AP list this season.

As for the weekly S-R poll? Well, the top two remain unchanged while Arizona State, Arizona and Oregon State still make up the bottom three, but there was a good amount of shifting between Nos. 3 and 9.

Here’s how the power rankings shake out after two weeks.

1. USC (2-0, 1-0; last week: No. 1) – Sam Darnold, Ronald Jones, Stephen Carr and Deontay Burnett are looking like the best USC foursome since Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush, Lendale White and Dwayne Jarrett.

2. Washington (2-0, 0-0; last week: No. 2) – Fun fact: the Huskies and Cougars have outscored the Montana schools 94-7 this season.

3. Oregon (2-0, 0-0; last week: No. 6) – If you want to nitpick, you’ll say the Ducks could’ve been much better in the second half. When you’re done, you’ll realize the Ducks have scored 119 points in two games.

4. Stanford (2-1, 0-1; last week: No. 3) – Bryce Love could be a one-man wrecking ball in Palo Alto this year, but you probably need four or five wrecking balls to take down the 2017 USC Trojans.

5. Colorado (2-0, 0-0; last week: No. 7) – The football team (six points allowed in two games) is clearly taking its cues from the women’s soccer team (three goals allowed in eight games).

6. Washington State (2-0, 0-0; last week: No. 4) – Did the Cougars play last weekend?

7. UCLA (2-0, 0-0; last week: No. 5) – The Bruins easily disposed of Hawaii after narrowly defeating Texas A&M. Which is to say, we still don’t have the slightest clue what this UCLA team is about.

8. Utah (2-0, 0-0; last week: No. 8) – Ditto. The Utes handled North Dakota, barely slipped past BYU and, with a meeting against Stanford still a month out, we won’t know a whole lot about Utah until then.

9. California (2-0, 0-0; last week: No. 9) – Do the Golden Bears deserve this low of a ranking? Probably not, but of the eight unbeaten teams, somebody had to take this spot.

10. Arizona State (1-1, 0-0; last week: No. 11) – Four of ASU’s next eight games are against ranked opposition. The other four are against Texas Tech, Oregon, Utah and Colorado.

11. Arizona (1-1, 0-0; last week: No. 10) – Arizona either outscored or matched Houston in three of the four quarters and still found a way to lose in Tucson.

12. Oregon State (1-2, 0-0; last week: No. 12) – The editors wouldn’t let me add a 13th spot, so the good news for the Beavers is it can’t get any worse!