The Conference of Crappiness

The Pac-10 was (almost) a total embarrassment this weekend. USC may have deflected a lot of criticism with its 35-3 disemboweling of the Buckeyes on national television, but even the sweet musk from that stellar performance can't cover up the retched stink that wafted from the rest of the conference. First, the good:

USC was fantastic in their rout of OSU. They are undoubtedly the favorites for the BCS title game and the road is open for them. Just about the only downside for the Trojans is that their conference is so bad that any slip up will be toxic.

Oregon, sans starting QB and on the road, staged a mighty comeback against Purdue, finally wining in double overtime. Bully for them. At this point Oregon is the only legit contender in the Pac-10 for SC, though that may change.

Oregon State, after embarrassing losses to Stanford and Penn State (the latter a real pummelling), manages to beat up on lowly Hawaii, 38-7. Hey, a wins a win, and if beating up on the Warriors is good enough for Tebow and the Gators its good enough for the Beavers. They need some confidence, since Pete Carroll is bringing the Boys up to Corvallis next week.

Now, for the bad:

Washington, coming off an emotional 28-27 loss to BYU last week, was absolutely destroyed by Oklahoma, 55-14. At home. Just terrible. The Sooners are playing as well as any team in the country right now, so don't be surprised if they are in the BCS title game picture at the end of the year.

But really, Washington losing is not a suprise, especially not to a powerhouse like Oklahoma. Lets get to some real shockers:

New Mexico 36, Arizona 28. What?

Washington State 17, Baylor 45. Baylor? The Baylor Bears? I know Wazzu sucks, but damn. Baylor?

Stanford 14, TCU 31. Ok this isn't a huge suprise, and apparently it was a close game for a while.

# 23 California 27, Maryland 35. Huh? The sad thing is the Bears had to rally just to make it this close.

# 15 ASU 20, UNLV 23 OT. WHFHDJKFHDSJKFDS!!!!!!!! A ranked ASU lost, at home, to an unranked MWC team. This is what Dennis Erikson has for us? This is the mighty Sun Devil Resurgence?

But really, all these games, shocking and upsetting as they are for a Pac-10 fan, pale in comparison to this next atrocity. Small children and those with weak stomachs should stop reading now. I can't be held responsible for any injury that may occur.

BYU 59. UCLA 0.

That's right.

I checked.

I double checked.

That was the score.

I was out and about when this game was played so I checked in on my phone. I didn't believe it. I still don't believe it, having seen no video highlights. Maybe this is all a big misunderstanding. The game was played in Utah after all, maybe the pony express riders who brought in results got it wrong.

But I doubt it.

First, I wanna say that I half expected a bad loss this week. As I said in my previous UCLA post following the Tennessee win, the Bruins are an up and down team prone to wild mood swings. But this is even worse than I imagined. I don't even know how this is possible. UCLA has (had?) a decent defense. Or at least we thought they did. So how did they give up 59? They also had an offense that didn't look like a bunch of monkeys running in circles. So how did they score 0? Could they not even get any garbage points? This just boggles the mind.

UCLA's loss is a blemish on the whole Pac-10. I know that they will win more games, including conference games. Any team that loses to them will have the shame of losing to a team that lost 59-0 to a non-BCS team. Maybe BYU is great: they do have the nation's longest winning streak (dating back to last years loss against... UCLA!). They are ranked high and could run the table and make a BCS game.

59-0.

I just can't make sense of it.

But I can rant about it.

Yesterday's results are a perfect example of why the whole rankings/overrated/underrated thing in college football is stupid and meaningless. UCLA beat Tennessee, a pretty decent team from the undisputed best conference in college football. They had defense, toughness, heart, a QB who was on fire and a new flashy coach who put it all together. They were on top of the world, bold, brash and ready for all comers. The press fawned over them. The Bruins were back, baby, and whoa to BYU who was their next victim.

BYU on the other hand, won a close and controversial game against a very poor Washington team. They were lucky, they were vulnerable, they were maybe... overrated?

59-0.

So maybe Washington actually is pretty good then?

55-14.

So maybe Tennessee isn't that great then, since they lost to UCLA?

The jury is still out, since all they have is a 35-3 drubbing of lowly UAB. We'll have to wait for next week's Florida game to see. But what if they play it close against Tebow and co? Or even win? What are we to make of the "ratings" then?

Nothing, because there's nothing to them.

Football is a fluid game. Football teams constantly change, from year to year, month to month, game to game and even series to series. The problem with trying to "rate" football is that the small sample size gives us only momentary glimpses of how good or bad a team really is, and only during a very small window. UCLA beats Tennessee at one moment in time. A lot of things happen, and they lose 59-0 at another moment. A lot more things will happen, and then they'll have another moment.

The semi-point of all this is that rating teams continues to be a fool's errand. But despite this, rankings are all we have and so they'll continue to be the lifeblood of the media, fans, and Internet message boards for the foreseeable future.