According to Michael Shibley over at the Bleacher Report, the Pac-10 has fallen from a solid second place—maybe even in the running for strongest (and arguably the deepest) conference in the country—to a lackluster third, behind the resurgent Big XII.

3. Pac-10: For years, USC has been king of the mountain with everyone else looking up. However, last year Stanford and Oregon gave them a good shove but could not knock them down as the Trojans were back in the Rose Bowl beating up on another Big Ten team.

This year Arizona State, with Rudy Carpenter at QB are the biggest threat to the Trojan throne and can make some noise on the national scene if they can knock of the Georgia Bulldogs on September 20. Oregon should have the best defense in the conference outside of USC and will be solid again, UCLA will only get better under Rick Neuheisel, and California and Oregon State are tough outs.