Other Pac-10 teams need to make stand

Ready … set.

Hold it, are we sure they’re ready?

In 1999, the No. 4 Arizona Wildcats opened what was supposed to a banner Pacific-10 Conference season with a 41-7 loss at Penn State.

Three openers ago, Oregon State traveled to treacherous Baton Rouge, La., and played the Louisiana State Tigers off their paws and had the game won until they didn’t, losing, 21-20, in overtime.

Last year’s opening weekend featured California getting stage fright at Tennessee and poisoning the Pac-10’s national reputation even though Cal ended up winning 10 games and its first share of a conference title since 1975.

Oregon State kicks off the Pac-10 season tonight with a critical – aren’t they all? – non-conference match up against Utah in Corvallis, Ore.

Oregon State also won 10 games last year, defeated eventual Rose Bowl champion USC, and rallied furiously to eclipse Missouri in the Sun Bowl.

What about USC?

Forget USC. People who bag on the Pac-10 consider the Trojans to be in a league of their own.

Tom Hansen, the conference’s erstwhile commissioner, says this is unfair.

“It truly does bother you,” he said last month in response to Louisiana State coach Les Miles’ saying USC had a relative cakewalk to the national title game.

Is the Pac-10 being unfairly judged? It’s a mixed bag.

The conference has sent seven different schools to major bowls since the Bowl Championship Series was formed in 1998, and USC was the last school in following UCLA, Stanford, Washington, Oregon State, Oregon and Washington State.

The Pac-9 (excluding USC) has also had its share of blown saves.

There are many important games this year on the conference’s round-robin, but just as big are games outside the league.

Football folks expect USC to take care of business against Idaho, Nebraska and Notre Dame. It’s up to “and the rest” on Gilligan’s Island to flag down a rescue ship.

The Pac-9 needs to get busy tonight, starting in Corvallis, and then Friday, when much-improved-we-think Washington plays at Syracuse.

It would be a bonus if the Pac-9 had a head of Anchor Steam on Saturday evening when Cal plays host to Tennessee in a critical pay-back chance.

Other early showcase games include Washington State at Wisconsin (the Cougars will only be asked to keep it close), Arizona at Brigham Young and Houston at Oregon.