As of now, the Pac-12 Conference is about halfway through the season. The north is currently led by number one in the conference, University of Washington in Seattle (7-0), and the South is led by the University of Utah in Salt Lake City (7-1). Washington, who not only crushed Stanford forty-four to six on September 30^th—knocking them out of the top ten—but in  their most recent game before Utah, on Saturday October 22, Washington defeated Oregon State forty-one to seventeen. Down south, Utah conquered San Jose State (no longer a Pac-12 school) on September 17th by seventeen points but lost to Cal by only five points, putting a defeat on their record.

On Saturday, October 29, the two PAC leaders went head-to-head in a decisive victory for Washington who defeated the Utes thirty-one to twenty-four. Currently, the Huskies are ranked as number four in the country while the Utes are only seventeenth—giving up their number one spot in the south to Colorado.  Following Utah’s major loss, the Purple Reign travelled to Berkley on the fifth. After tailing Cal by three points in the first few minutes of the game, Washington came back and slammed Cal by thirty-nine points—further damaging Cal’s season.

Our Bay Area home teams, Stanford and Cal, are having less successful seasons than the conference leaders. Stanford, at four and three overall and two and three in the conference, is just proceeding Washington State, who is also six and zero in the conference but is seven and two over all. Cal has been somewhat inconsistent this season as they have alternated their defeats and victories, as well as allowing an average of forty-four points per game. While Cal is desperately holding onto their number four spot in the north, they are slowly inching out of the top ten in the conference. On the other hand, Stanford started off strong with three wins this season and won against Oregon state on the fifth.  Stanford has only allowed an average of 18.5 points per game, which is not too shabby compared to Cal’s whopping forty-four.

Although it is still early in the season and these teams have a long way to go, it is clear that Washington and Utah are really in it for the long haul. California’s other conference teams, UCLA and USC are both doing well too, USC is just following Utah in the conference as number three and UCLA is leading Cal at number eight. Oregon State and Arizona, however, are clearly having a severed season in the number eleven and twelve slots. Oregon State, losing its last three games, was just demolished by Washington. Arizona, is only two and five, will be playing Stanford this upcoming week who will surely put up a fight after their close game with the Buffaloes.