That was clearly wrong, but the PAC12 was definitely relevant at the time, largely because Oregon was in the top 5 regularly with teams like Stanford, USC, Utah etc were supporting in a complementary role.

Washington got in for 2016, but was the clear last option. Even then, the PAC12 had 3 of the top 10 (and 5 of the top 19) in the CFP though.

So it wasn't that long ago that they were relevant with the same geography and fanbases, so long as they were winning.