Washington State has one loss after losing to Oregon.
Oregon has one loss after losing to Stanford the week before.
Stanford has one loss after losing to Washington State the week before that.
Then there’s UCLA, which suffered its first setback at Stanford on Saturday.
And don’t forget about those Washington Huskies, who remained with just one loss after coming from behind — again — to defeat Arizona State, 33-31.
In all, there’s a four-way tie for first at 4-1, with UCLA right behind with a 3-1 Pacific-10 Conference record.
With the season winding down and the different scenarios of bowl games running the full gamut, the Pac-10 can cause quite a few headaches.
Which is why players like Oregon defensive back Rashad Bauman prefer to just take it all in and enjoy the quality of the conference rather than worry about all the pesky little details.
“We can’t worry about whether UCLA loses or Stanford loses next week because we have no control over it,” Bauman said. “But you know what? It makes it more fun. Oh definitely. It’s always fun to be in a race to the finish line.
“And that’s what’s great about playing in the Pac-10. You just never know.”
Bauman points to other conferences around the nation where the one or two “big dogs” always win it by beating up on their inferior opponents.
“Where’s the fun in that?” Bauman said. “To be honest, I would much rather be where we are now in the Pac-10 than have us be 8-0 and everybody else at 3-5. Week-in and week-out, there’s memorable wins that mean so much.”
True, one week a team might be a serious contender to play for the national championship in the Rose Bowl, and the next week, bowl plans range from the Fiesta Bowl to the Las Vegas Bowl.
UCLA appeared to have the inside track at playing in its home stadium on Jan. 3 before losing Saturday to backup quarterback Chris Lewis and the Stanford Cardinal, 38-28.
Oregon fans’ first reaction might have been to celebrate a Bruins defeat, but in reality, the Ducks need a Stanford league loss to avoid losing a tiebreaker with the Cardinal because of the head-to-head matchup.
Stanford travels to Seattle this week to face the Huskies in its last real Pac-10 test before finishing out the conference schedule against Arizona (0-5 Pac-10) and California (0-7 overall).
“I think, in my own BCS calculations, it would have been better if (UCLA) won, but what can you do?” Oregon quarterback Joey Harrington said. “Now we’ve got a situation where we beat Washington State who beat Stanford who beat us. And then you throw UCLA in the mix.
“We’ve got a wide open race.”
Head-to-head matchups between teams is the first tiebreaker to determine who will gain the Pac-10’s top spot for the berth in the Fiesta Bowl against the Big 12 champion.
But in the case of Washington and Oregon, because the two rivals don’t play this year, the next tiebreaker would be its non-conference record. The Ducks went 3-0 in that department, while the Huskies are currently 2-0 with a huge contest at top-ranked Miami looming on Nov. 24.
Bauman and the Ducks know that none of these scenarios mean anything if they don’t beat Arizona State this week, UCLA on Nov. 10 and Oregon State on Dec. 1.
“All we can do is take care of our business, man,” Bauman said. “It’s a toss-up every week to see who’s going to coach better, play better and see who can get their boys riled up the most for the big games.
“It’s no cakewalk.”
Oregon cracks the
top-10 in BCS
Five Pac-10 teams remained in the Bowl Championship Series rankings released Monday. Stanford heads the list at No. 6 with UCLA dropping down to No. 9. Oregon is in there at the 10th spot followed by No. 11 Washington and No. 12 Washington State.
Nebraska earned the top spot with its win over Oklahoma, which dropped to second. Miami, which is ranked first in the Associated Press poll and the coaches’ poll, is third.
The top two teams in the final BCS rankings on Dec. 9 will be the opponents in the Rose Bowl.