Pac-12 football standings after Week 9
The Pac-12 football standings after Week 9 involve a few notable developments. The main story is that Washington survived a scare at Stanford to remain unbeaten in the conference and on course to make the Pac-12 Championship Game on Friday, December 1.
The other particularly big story is that the Oregon State Beavers — who entered Week 9 with only one loss in the conference — picked up loss number two at Arizona. This affects the tiebreaker situation in the conference and reshapes various tiebreaker scenarios at the end of the season. Oregon State just lost any last degree of leverage it might have previously owned. The Beavers now have to beat Washington and Oregon in the final weeks of the season if they want to make the Pac-12 title game. They’re in big trouble in terms of getting to Las Vegas.
Let’s give you the full Pac-12 standings heading into November:
STANFORD (1-5 PAC-12)
Stanford is 2-6 overall after losing to Washington. The Cardinal put up a good fight but dropped a wide-open fourth-down pass in the fourth quarter to seal their fate.
WASHINGTON STATE (1-4)
Wazzu beat Oregon State and then lost four straight games. What is going on here?
ARIZONA STATE (1-4)
The Sun Devils got their first FBS win of 2023, also their first Pac-12 win of the year, against Washington State.
CAL (1-4)
Cal’s offense has been surprisingly good, but its defense and its carelessness led to a fourth-quarter implosion against USC. The Golden Bears squandered a 43-29 lead. USC will take it.
COLORADO (1-4)
Colorado will not make a bowl game, barring an unlikely November surge. This is the team we expected to see all along in 2023.
UCLA (3-2)
The Bruins beat Colorado and face Arizona next.
UTAH (3-2)
Oregon showed that Bryson Barnes isn’t actually very good, which is why Alex Grinch needs to be fired.
ARIZONA (3-2)
Arizona continues to show it is for real, beating Oregon State on Saturday. The Wildcats would have been in contention for the Pac-12 title if they had beaten USC a few weeks ago.
OREGON STATE (3-2)
Jonathan Smith and the Beavers really blew it in Tucson with their fake field goal in the first half of a game they lost by three points. Oregon State has to win out to have any chance of making the Pac-12 title game.
OREGON (4-1)
The Ducks crushed Bryson Barnes and that not-very-good Utah offense to gain significant leverage in the Pac-12 race. If Oregon handles its business, it should be in Vegas on December 1.
USC (5-1)
USC is 5-1 in spite of all its many flaws. However, now come the two big ones against Washington and Oregon. Chances are USC will be 5-3 in the Pac-12 after these two games.
WASHINGTON (5-0)
Washington is still unbeaten, but the Huskies have been bad the past two weeks. USC would love for the Huskies to play another really bad game this coming weekend on November 4.
