It's Baltimore. No one lives forever.
Leading off
Rankings are starting to get awfully important now. As we head into the final week of the regular season, there is plenty of jockeying going on. And how the rest of the country sees things will likely play a role in how the College Football Playoff selection committee sees things.
The Pac-12 had a setback in the rankings last weekend with lackluster performances from Utah and USC. Both of their non-competitive losses bounced them from the rankings, leaving the league with just four teams left in the top 25. Kyle Bonagura has the conference perspective here. The good news is that all four teams are ranked in the top 15 -- so the best the league has to offer is getting its due. Here are where the four teams stand in the AP and coaches polls (AP listed first).
Oregon 2-3
UCLA 9-10
Arizona 12-12
ASU 13-13
As always, here are how some folks who cover the conference voted in the AP poll.
Playoff chatter
In this week's look at Pat Forde's "Fab 4," Oregon is seated nicely at the No. 2 spot, where he projects the Ducks to face Mississippi State in the Rose Bowl.
His take on the Ducks:
The Ducks continue rolling at a high rate of speed, winning their sixth straight Saturday -- all of them by double digits, all while scoring at least 42 points. They jumped on hapless Colorado 30-3 in the first half, upped the lead to 44-10 in the third quarter and then used the fourth as mop-up duty. In combination with Oregon's pileup of strong wins, its lone loss (31-24 to Arizona on Oct. 2) has only gotten better as the season has gone along. The Wildcats now are 9-2 and remain in contention to win the Pac-12 South and have a potential league championship rematch with Oregon.
Worth noting that he also has UCLA as a team still worth consideration. If the Bruins beat Stanford on Friday, they will lock up the South and force a rematch with the Ducks in the Pac-12 championship game. If the Cardinal beat the Bruins, then it's winner take all in the Territorial Cup.
News/notes/team reports
Some more on Arizona moving up in the polls.
As noted above, there is plenty at stake in the Territorial Cup.
Stanford owns the axe. And Cal.
The MacIntyres are getting to spend a lot of time together.
The Ducks enter Civil War week with momentum.
Some notes from Mike Riley's Sunday call with the media.
Another opinion piece on the Big Game ... though not a differing one from the Cal link.
UCLA's receivers stepped up big against USC.
Five observations from USC's loss to UCLA.
Utah wasn't able to handle the big play against Arizona.
Washington showed resiliency with its win over Oregon State.
Some final thoughts from WSU's loss to Arizona State.