Competing in Pac-10 Is Anything but a Fiesta

Seating the 10 Pacific Conference football coaches around lunch tables next to the knives was a risky proposition, but we can report Wednesday’s annual media gathering at a hotel near LAX ended without anyone getting butter-rolled or back-stabbed.

UCLA Coach Bob Toledo and Washington’s Rick Neuheisel, two former Bruin assistants who exchanged off-season recruiting-war salvos, in the papers, announced they had agreed to a tepid peace sometime after spring practice and before the three-bean salad.

“We’ve both been men about it,” Toledo said.

Neuheisel started the jousting when he popped off about negative recruiting among Pac-10 coaches, which was sort of like Gaylord Perry accusing opposing pitchers of throwing spitballs.

Rick Neuheisel?

It took him 10 minutes to tick off nine Pac-10 coaches after he arrived three years ago from Colorado, a school Neuheisel left in a huff and, it turns out, in a mess.

On Aug. 9, Neuheisel will fly to Philadelphia to explain to the NCAA why the program he left is facing 51 alleged--albeit minor--recruiting violations.

“I’m anxious to tell my side of the story,” Neuheisel said Wednesday.

Neuheisel also says he is sorry for pointing the finger at his Pac-10 brethren.

“I whined,” Neuheisel said, “It’s not very becoming and I won’t do it again.”

The oral wars only underscore the tenacious competitive turn the Pac-10 has taken since the North (Oregon, Oregon State, Washington State, Washington) took over the South (UCLA, USC).

It also helps to explain why an undeniably powerful conference has yet to put a team in the bowl championship series title game.

The bottom line is there has been way too much infighting.

Seven different schools have won the conference title the last seven years and Washington State has been tabbed to win the Pac-10 this year for the first time in the 41-year history of conference straw polls.

The Pac-10 is deeper and better than ever, yet realistically, less-regarded conferences such as the Big East and Atlantic Coast once again have a better chance of producing a national champion.

The Pac-10 hasn’t boasted a consensus national champion since USC in 1972. USC won the coaches’ share in 1978 and Washington claimed the coaches’ title in 1991.

And, while the Pac-10’s stature has risen since the formation of the BCS in 1998, it has ultimately failed to deliver the grand prize.

“It can happen,” Pac-10 Commissioner Tom Hansen said, “but it’s really hard.”

UCLA came tantalizingly close in 1998 before losing to Miami. Oregon got squeezed out last season by the BCS computer despite finishing No. 2 in both polls.

As the oxymoron goes, the better the Pac-10 gets the worse chance it has of getting a team to No. 1.

The decision to remove margin of victory from the BCS ratings system should benefit the Pac-10--Oregon would have played Miami in the Rose Bowl for the national title in this scenario--yet it’s difficult to fathom how the Pac-10 is going to push a team all the way to the Fiesta Bowl, host of this season’s title game.

The Pac-10 is in a Catch-22. It needs to play tough nonconference games to make up for its lack of national exposure--it’s a time zone problem, really--yet adding those games to cut-throat league play is a lethal combination.

“We’ve done good against nonleague opponents,” Toledo said, “but if you don’t go undefeated in conference, it’s hard to get in the national title picture.”

USC?

It plays Auburn, Kansas State, Colorado and Notre Dame out of league and then fends a conference gantlet that includes games at Oregon, at Washington State, at Stanford and at UCLA.

Washington?

It opens Aug. 31 at Michigan and finishes on the road at Oregon and Washington State in consecutive weeks.

Oregon?

Its nonconference schedule looks favorable on a gang-green post-it note: Mississippi State, Fresno State, Idaho, Portland State. Too bad quarterback Joey Harrington now plays for the Detroit Lions.

UCLA? The Bruins play Colorado State (favored to win the Mountain West Conference) and Colorado (picked ahead of Nebraska in the Big 12 North).

Washington State?

The Cougars have a plucky Pullman chance, only because their 10-2 record last year will give them a running start in preseason polls, a decisive factor in the BCS formula.

The key to Washington State’s national hopes is a Sept. 14 victory at Ohio State, yet, as reality sinks in, mentioning the Cougars and the national title is like talking about the Cubs in the World Series.

“What does it take to get in?” Hansen asked.

“You have to be very fortunate and have a lot of luck on the way.”

The good news was Wednesday’s Pac-10 luncheon didn’t turn into a food fight.

Hey, for the coaches, that’s a start.