Pac-10 Jumps Ahead, MWC Gets Last Laugh

Earlier this year, I wrote about the most overrated conference in college football heading into the season. The conference I chose is the MWC. Now, I may seem kind of silly and somewhat stupid. TCU is going to be playing in a BCS bowl game and BYU and Utah just beat up on two schools from the nation's most competitive conference. Then again, bowl performances are not the true indicator of how well a team and subsequently its conference are, but it does hold some truth. For those who watched the Vegas and Poinsettia Bowls, I'm sure that there was one common theme. Pac-10 team jumps to a quick lead, then blows it. In the Vegas Bowl, the wind (all 40mph of it) and Max Hall's arm helped penetrate the Beavers. In San Diego, Cal's ineptitude in tough games and Utah's perseverance helped seal the Pac's early 0-2 bowl record.

It is easy to just look at the past two games and quickly declare the MWC slightly superior to the Pac-10. I mean, they are 2-0 in the bowl season against their neighbors in the Pacific Time Zone. But there is an underlying factor in there. The Vegas Bowl featured the MWC's 2nd best while it only pitted the Pac 10's 4th best. The disparity in rankings is then somewhat amplified in the Poinsettia Bowl since Cal was the Pac's 6th best and Utah was the MWC's 3rd best. Would BYU really have an easy a time against the Pac 10's second best? That'd be Arizona. Remember last year's Vegas Bowl? If not, here is what happened: Arizona upset BYU. Furthermore, would Utah beat Stanford? Utah lost to Oregon and Stanford manhandled Oregon, all this season. So probably not. However, the hypothetical games are only hypotheticals so we all have to face the reality. The Pac-10 has laid an egg while the MWC seized the moment and dominated its opponents. Congratulations to the Utah schools, and good job Beavs and Cal for misrepresenting the West Coast.