Those teams didn't get bowl eligible by playing a cupcake non conference schedule. They actually had to beat some good teams.

I'm not saying Cincinatti couldn't possibly get bowl eligible if they were in the pac-12, but I think the odds would be against them. I definitely don't think ECU could have gotten bowl eligible in the Pac-12 seeing as they didn't in the AAC.

Here's the sagarin rankings and sagarin sos for these teams (FWIW I don't believe sagarin to be the bible of rankings like some seem to, but I think it at least paints a decent picture)

Sagarin Ranking SOS Rank
ASU 40 17
AZ 56 48
Wash 26 21
CAL 32 7

Cincy 62 71
ECU 79 64

Cincy was 6 spots worse than AZ, who was luck to get bowl eligible by beating Utah in double OT. And I agree, the difference between AZ and cincy wasn't huge, but AZ was clearly more talented. They just had a few key injuries and spotty QB play.

The difference between Cincy, ECU, and those other teams is massive. They're not in the same ball park. It's the same gap that existed between TCU, Utah, BYU, and the rest of the MWC. You put any of those teams in a G5 conference and they finish 9-3 or better.

Whether it's sagarin or past recruiting rankings (ECU & Cincy are consistently 70th plus), these teams are miles ahead of ECU and Cincy.

I'm not trying to use this as an argument for the strength of the pac12. The top of the Pac12 was definitely down and proved the conference was overrated at the start of the season, but the middle of the conference was still strong, and much stronger than middle AAC.