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After early season stumbles, Pac-12 needs to repair its rep, starting this week

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The Pac-12 appeared poised to become the nation’s best conference this season, buoyed by a visionary commissioner and talented quarterbacks who see the entire field.

And then they started playing games. Through two weeks, the question must be asked: Has the Pac-12 underperformed?

“I think that’s a fair question,” Arizona Coach Rich Rodriguez said Tuesday on the Pac-12’s weekly coaches call.

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There is less bravado now than there was in late July — the result of several defeats, near-defeats and uninspired performances. Washington State lost at home to Portland State, Arizona struggled at home against Texas San Antonio, and Oregon allowed 42 points to Eastern Washington.

But wait, there’s more: Arizona State, considered a national title contender, did not look the part in an opening loss to Texas A&M. And that was before the Sun Devils nearly fell apart against Cal Poly. Stanford lost at Northwestern. Colorado lost at Hawaii. Washington lost at Boise State. And last weekend, the Oregons lost at the Michigans.

Only UCLA and USC, and maybe Utah, have played up to their preseason billing.

The Pac-12 is 17-7 in nonconference games, only 12-6 against Football Bowl Subdivision schools. This coming off a historic season in which it posted a record of 37-9 in nonconference games.

A league’s reputation is baked into its nonconference record. Once league play starts, beating up on each other means something only if there is some outside context.

It helps that the hallowed Southeastern Conference has also struggled. Arizona State’s near-loss to Cal Poly compares with Auburn’s near-loss to Jacksonville State.

Toledo’s major upset at Arkansas also muffled SEC fans who might otherwise have pounced on the Pac.

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Stanford at USC is the only Pac-12 game this week. Everyone else plays nonconference games against opponents they should defeat. Even California is favored at Texas, which is more a statement on how far the Longhorns have fallen.

Cal at Texas will be a highly charged, emotional matchup. Golden Bears Coach Sonny Dykes was an assistant at Texas Tech in 2004, when college football suffered through the most embarrassing chapter of the Bowl Championship Series era.

That year the No. 4 standings position guaranteed a berth in the Rose Bowl. It came down to a choice between Texas of the Big 12 Conference and Cal, a longstanding partner in the Rose Bowl’s historic Pac-Big Ten compact.

Texas actively lobbied poll voters for the spot; Cal took the opposite approach. Cal Coach Jeff Tedford elected not to score style points by running up the score in a late-season game against Southern Mississippi.

Texas got the No. 4 spot and Cal fans were incensed about being denied their first Rose Bowl trip since 1959.

“I didn’t really know the situation,” said Dykes, who is in his third year at Cal. “I didn’t know the feelings of Cal fans. I’ve certainly heard about it more through the years. Most of our players were 10 years old. They’re probably going to hear about it, but I don’t know if it’s going to be a motivating factor.”

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The Pac-12 has a chance to win back some lost reputation this week, or lose more traction.

Brigham Young at UCLA probably sounded like a winning proposition for the Pac-12 after Cougars quarterback Taysom Hill was lost to a season-ending injury. But then freshman Tanner Mangum stepped in to throw game-winning touchdown bombs against Nebraska and Boise State.

BYU is also the program responsible for a 59-0 win over UCLA in 2008, the largest margin of victory ever for a non-Power 5 school against a Power 5 league.

Utah at Fresno State sounds like a breeze until you know Utah is 0-3 all-time at Fresno. What if Washington State has the same easy time against Wyoming it had against Portland State?

Arizona State should handle New Mexico, no problem — except it did have a problem handling a lower-level team based in San Luis Obispo.

Utah State, which plays at Washington, recently played Utah to a 10-point game in Salt Lake City.

Oregon State seems a lock to beat San Jose State, which has lost 11 straight games to Pac-12 opponents — unless the Beavers play like they did last week at Michigan.

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Colorado against Colorado State is the usual big concern — for Colorado.

Oregon should coast against Georgia State, even if quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. breaks three more fingers on this throwing hand.

And Arizona has won 11 straight against Northern Arizona in a series dating to 1932.

Of course, winning these games isn’t enough. Auburn’s win over Jacksonville State cost the Tigers eight spots in the coaches’ poll.

“Sometimes there’s the misconception that these teams ain’t got players,” Rodriguez said of playing Football Championship Subdivision opponents. “All you got to do is look at some of the results this year already.”

Follow Chris Dufresne on Twitter @DufresneLATimes

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