According to Sagarin's year-end rankings, the PAC's average ranking has been 2.9, second only to the SEC's 2.4 Also, the PAC is the only conference to never finish lower than 4th (SEC was 5th once and 6th once). Here are the averages: (You claim they were awful last year, they finished ranked 4th)

SEC - 2.4
PAC12 - 2.9
BIG12 - 3.2
ACC - 3.5
BIG10 - 4.5
BIG EAST - 5.2

Here is the year-by-year breakdown:

2011 - PAC #4 SEC #2 B1G #3 ACC #7 Big-12 #1
2010 - PAC #1 SEC #2 B1G #5 ACC #4 Big-12 #3
2009 - PAC #3 SEC #1 B1G #6 ACC #4 Big-12 #5
2008 - PAC #4 SEC #1 B1G #6 ACC #3 Big-12 #2
2007 - PAC #2 SEC #1 B1G #6 ACC #5 Big-12 #3
2006 - PAC #3 SEC #1 B1G #5 ACC #4 Big-12 #6
2005 - PAC #4 SEC #5 B1G #1 ACC #2 Big-12 #3
2004 - PAC #2 SEC #6 B1G #5 ACC #1 Big-12 #4
2003 - PAC #4 SEC #2 B1G #3 ACC #1 Big-12 #5
2002 - PAC #2 SEC #3 B1G #5 ACC #4 Big-12 #1

This year the PAC 12 is ranked the third best conference to date behind the SEC and Big 12.

Also, if you want to throw out USC from the numbers you would have to throw out the numbers from teams like Ohio State, Miami, UNC, Auburn, Penn State, etc. As if these other programs have been clean.

And if you want to have a more detailed debate for basketball I would gladly do that as well because there is no way anybody would claim that the PAC is only the 6th best conference in the country over the last decade. You fail to forget that UCLA went to 3 straight final fours beginning less than 8 years ago. Again, selective memory.