confirm that the narrative of the conference being down is entirely driven by a lack of teams that can compete at the elite level nationally. The conference is actually quite solid top to bottom but is lacking at the top. Nine teams in the top 40 isn’t surprising, but who can make it to the playoffs, let alone maybe win a game?

I see it again as long shot we see a playoff team coming from the Pac-12 this year. While that narrative is in place the conference will always be seen as weak nationally, despite the competitiveness up and down.