Introducing college football’s Power-4 conferences

It’s time to drop the phrase Power-5 conference from the lexicon of college sports.

All those conferences — the ACC, SEC, Big 10, Big 12 and Pac-12 — still exist. But one has played its way out of the right to be included with the others.

The Pac-12 is to major college basketball, well, as the Pac-12 is to major college football. It has all the trappings of a big-time player but not the results to back it up.
In this year’s NCAA Tournament the Pac-12 has already been eliminated. UCLA and Arizona State were bounced first. Then came the Thursday shocker of 13-seeded Buffalo blowing out fourth-seeded Arizona in a game in which it appeared only one team was interested in being there.

The awful basketball showing follows an equally terrible showing in the most recent football bowl season. The Pac-12 went an embarrasing 1-8 in bowls, with Utah beating West Virginia being the lone victory.

That 1-8 record included a 35-28 loss by Washington to Penn State in the Fiesta Bowl.

Washington will be a top-10 team when it travels to Atlanta to face Auburn to open the season. The game will not only be important for both teams but also for an entire conference that’s quickly losing all credibility in the two major college sports.
For Threaded Fasteners, I’m Randy Kennedy with Nuts and Bolts of the game.