Column: Pac-12 race is shaping up to be one of the fiercest ever

Each week during the college football season, national analyst Chris Dufresne will burn a timeout to answer questions and exchange opinions. You can email him at chris.dufresne@latimes.com and reach him on Twitter: @DufresneLATimes.

Unbuckling the mailbag:

Question: Will any Pac-12 Conference teams be alive after they play each other?

Scary.

Jim Petralia

Answer: This is shaping up as the best reality television show since “Hoarders” as host Larry Scott leads 12 contests on a wild race that extends from Tempe, Ariz., to Pullman, Wash. The survivors will meet in Santa Clara, with the winner getting a special VIP subscription to the seldom-seen Pac-12 Networks.

Seriously, this could be one of fiercest league races ever. We saw UCLA step up Thursday with a brilliant but bizarre win over Arizona State in Tempe.

The Bruins won the sole-survivor quarterback game as UCLA’s Brett Hundley returned from injury and ASU’s Taylor Kelly didn’t.

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a stranger final box score: UCLA won, 62-27, and gave up 626 total yards.

Some will criticize UCLA’s defense as not being championship-worthy, but the Bruins can plead “guilty with an explanation.”

The word defense needs to be redefined in the modern era of spread offenses. One reason UCLA’s defense wilted in 98-degree heat? UCLA’s offense ran only 58 plays. The Bruins scored four touchdowns of 80 yards or more.

UCLA scored so quickly it kept putting a tired defense back on the field. Mike Bercovici, the losing quarterback, passed for 488 yards.

“They could not stop us,” Arizona State Coach Todd Graham said after the game.

Yeah, but the Bruins also won easily. UCLA forced a fumble and two interceptions but, bottom line, allowed only 27 points.

Q: Three Southeastern Conference teams in the playoffs? Florida State, Oregon and Oklahoma just don’t look very good this year.

@fifilarouche

A: I’m OK with three SEC teams so long as none are from the SEC East. I do think Florida State of the Atlantic Coast Conference and Oklahoma of the Big 12 Conference have straight shots into the four-team playoff.

Now that Florida State has survived Clemson, what team is going to stop the Seminoles from reaching the playoff? Notre Dame? Louisville? Please don’t say Miami.

And Oklahoma’s heavy lifting may have already been done. The Sooners defeated a SEC team in nonconference, Tennessee, and now get to play Baylor and Oklahoma State in Norman this year.

Oregon is in trouble unless it can sort out its injury issues on the offensive line.

The Pac-12 may be in trouble if its teams keep beating each other up in league play.

Commissioner Scott acknowledged a multiple-loss champion is “going to be at risk” for making the playoff.

You don’t need to look back too far to see how the four-team playoff might play out.

Last year, two-loss Stanford won the Pac-12 and finished fifth in the final Bowl Championship Series standings.

Q: Hey Chris, How about a shout out for my alma mater: Indiana beats Mizzou? … Has been a while … need some love.

Angelo

A: The Hoosiers’ win at Missouri last week was one of the best upsets in recent memory. The football world owes Indiana a candygram for silencing the defending champions of the SEC East division.

For a week, at least, SEC fans had to pretend Missouri was back in the Big 12.

Q: Who’s running Florida State? Roger Goodell?

@bcorig

A: Maybe that’s where the NFL Commissioner will end up if he becomes the former NFL commissioner. Florida State and Goodell could be a match made in obfuscation heaven.

Both are adept at “getting to the bottom” of serious problems months, if not years, after they should have been addressed.

Last week, Florida State finally acted on quarterback Jameis Winston, suspending him for the Clemson game. Of course, it took Winston standing up on a table and shouting something so obscene about women it made Howard Stern cover his ears.

Goodell’s idea of leadership is plausible deniability. If he never received a specially delivered package to NFL headquarters, how could he know what might have gone on somewhere in an elevator?

Q: I read articles like yours and listen to the journalists on these sports networks that get their jollies piling on a kid in college that makes mistakes. I hope the kid comes back and wins a championship and doesn’t say anything to the media. You people make me sick.

Joseph Dykehouse

A: Last time I checked, you stop becoming a kid after age 18. Jameis Winston is 20, which makes him an adult. I wish people would stop with this “he’s just a kid” stuff and hold this adult responsible.

Q: If Jameis Winston was being disciplined Saturday night, the networks sure didn’t know about it. He had more personal airtime than if he had played.

Ralph Miburn

A: ABC/ESPN believes optimal exposure for its on-air talent is good for ratings. This is the same network that employs Bill Simmons and Stephen A. Smith.

Q: What is the Football Bowl Subdivision record for points in a quarter/fourth quarter?

Robert Parry

A: I still can’t believe Arizona scored 36, fourth-quarter points in last week’s amazing comeback win against California in Tucson. I didn’t see the game because it was on the Pac-12 Networks, which still has not resolved its issue with DirecTV.

It’s a shame.

Questions about scoring records always take me back to 1916 and Georgia Tech’s 220-0 win over Cumberland College.

Just as I figured, Georgia Tech eclipsed Arizona’s point total in the fourth quarter, scoring 42.

Georgia Tech also scored 63 points in each of the first and second quarters in the lopsided victory.

More recently, in 2007, Navy and North Texas combined for 68 points in the second quarter.

Q: You may have misspoken regarding Chris Peterson being the first Washington coach to start 4-0 since Gil Dobie in 1908. Immediately coming to mind is the perfect 11-0 season of Don James in 1991. I’m guessing you meant to say that Peterson is the first first-year coach to start 4-0 since 1908.

Carolyn Rueb

A: I never misspeak when I write because I can’t talk and type at the same time.

Never mind that you are, um … correct.

It would be hard to fathom a program as successful as Washington’s not getting off to a 4-0 start every once in while.

In fact, Washington, led by Rick Neuheisel, started 4-0 in 2001.

Rick Neuheisel is better known these days as “Jerry Neuheisel’s father.”

I think I was confusing my Washington stat with the Chicago Cubs not winning the World Series since 1908.

Thanks for pointing out my mistake, and now allow me to correct you: The spelling on the first-year Washington coach is Chris PeterSEN.

Q: Once again you take great delight in slighting my Huskers, as you have done so many times over the past few years. You are refusing to acknowledge that Nebraska is now in the Big Ten. You mentioned all the other teams’ games in your column except the Huskers. …You could have added it as a tagline ... their win against Miami.

Kent Cook

A: I’m sorry for not mentioning Nebraska’s big win over Miami last week. That late finish capped a 12-1 day for the Big Ten Conference.

I have a problem keeping track of the Big Ten’s weekly records. One problem is you are never right if you count to 10. A league that has 14 schools, yet insists on calling itself the Big Ten, should not complain if outsiders sometimes can’t add up the numbers.

I still can’t believe the Big Ten won 12 games last Saturday without a win from either Michigan or Ohio State.

That’s hard to do.

chris.dufresne@latimes.com