BOULDER, Colo. — In a cruel twist of fate, the final season of the Pac-12 conference as we know it may be among the league's best. After going a perfect 13-0 in the first week of the college football season, the conference of champions now has six ranked teams in the AP Top 25 - tied with the SEC for the most among all conferences.
Colorado stole the show, with Deion Sanders' new look club dropping 45 points on a TCU team that went to the national championship last season, earning them a spot in the Top 25 after a horrendous 2022 season which resulted in just one win.
Locked on Pac-12 host Spencer McLaughlin believes that, at least through the first week of the college football season, there is no conference in the NCAA that is better top to bottom than the Pac-12.
"The Pac-12 is the best conference in America right now," McLaughlin stated. "I say that because it has the greatest depth of football teams, and had the best weekend, of any conference in the country. That is an undisputable fact. Will it last until the end of the season? Time will tell, but at this time I can confidently say there is no conference that had a better weekend than the Pac-12."
It wasn't just the Buffs that made the Pac-12 look excellent last week. Utah held Florida to just 11 points to open their season with victory, while Washington, USC, and Washington State each hung 50+ points on Mountain West opponents Boise State, Nevada, and Colorado State respectively.
USC leads the conference at No. 6 in the AP Poll, while Washington climbed two spots to No. 8. Utah and Oregon each climbed two spots as well, up to 12 and 13 respectively, while Oregon State climbed to 16 and Colorado jumped in at No. 22.
UCLA was the second highest vote getter that did not make the AP poll, while WSU picked up a vote to give the conference eight teams in consideration for a Top 25 spot.
The Pac-12 will face plenty of challenges in Week 2 to remain as highly regarded, with No. 18 Wisconsin heading to Pullman to take on Washington State, while Auburn, Oklahoma State, Baylor, Tulsa, Texas Tech, Mississippi State, and San Diego State will match up against Cal, Arizona State, Utah, Washington, Oregon, Arizona, and UCLA, respectively.
All games are slated for Saturday, September 9.