TUCSON, Ariz. -- Here's hoping SEC fans stayed up to watch Oregon beat Arizona Saturday night. They got to see a few things their league hasn't had enough of this season.Drama, bedlam, theatrics, tension, hilarity and near-riotous fun. And that just begins to describe the Ducks' 44-41 double overtime win.
It finally ended as the clock struck midnight back East. Quarterback Jeremiah Masoli slithered into the end zone to crash what would have been the biggest football party Tucson ever threw.
All of which settled one thing. The Pac-10 is the best conference in America.
Before SEC fans gag on their grits, allow me to clarify. Best doesn't mean the Pac-10 has the most outstanding teams. It has the most outstanding competition, which is even better.
Out West, you never know what's going to happen. Down South, you know what to expect.
Florida will win. Alabama will win.
All meaningful drama has been on hold until the SEC Championship Game Dec. 5. Otherwise, the season's been a sideshow where fans just wait on Lane Kiffin's mouth to rev up or Les Miles' brain to freeze.
That stuff is amusing, but I prefer a death match for the league title. The Pac 10's quality depth was never more evident than Saturday when California beat Stanford 34-28. That would have been the Game of the Day (Non-Charlie Weis Death Watch Division), until the Ducks and Wildcats put on their pinball show.
"It was just good, hard football with a lot of emotion," Oregon receiver D.J. Davis said.
That's what you've gotten all year in the Pac-10. That's why four teams still had realistic shots at the Rose Bowl going into Saturday. And that's why 57,863 fans showed up Saturday night, most of them wearing red.
I know, 57,863 Alabama fans would show up to watch Nick Saban eat breakfast at Waffle House. I've lived in the South most of my life. I ate Golden Flake potato chips because Bear Bryant told me to. I plan on naming my first-born son Tebow if he's virgin birthed.
In other words, you'd have a hard time convincing me anything's superior to the SEC brand. Watching Masoli do his Doug Flutie impersonation melted my prejudice.
Masoli threw for three touchdowns and ran for three more. He led a fourth-quarter rally that led to one of the most satisfying and bizarre scenes of the year.
As the clock wound toward 0:00, fans spilled over the rails and flooded the sideline.
Cue LeGarrette Blount and Boise State flashbacks.
We all remember how Oregon's tailback responded the last time the Ducks lost a close one on the road. The Most Dangerous Man in College Football has since been reinstated, though he's stuck on the bench behind redshirt freshman sensation LaMichael James.
Thousands of fans surrounded the Oregon bench, waiting to turn the field into a wild red sea. Talk about a target rich environment for Blount's right cross.
Fortunately, Masoli was not ready to be swept up in a red tide. He calmly drove the Wildcats 80 yards and hit Ed Dickson with an 8-yard score to tie the game with six seconds left.
"He's just incredible," James said of his quarterback. "He never got down out there."
The Ducks should finally crack the BCS top 10 now. They'll be the only Pac-10 team that high, but the league had five teams in last week's top 25.
The SEC had only three, though all were in the top 10. You can be sure LSU won't be after Miles frittered away a win at Mississippi.
That qualified the Tigers as the SEC's most disappointing team. Or is it Georgia or South Carolina or Auburn or Arkansas?
Let's face it, boys. It's a down year for almost every team outside of Gainesville and Tuscaloosa. The Pac-10 doesn't have a super team, but it has a half-dozen good ones. And if you want to get technical, UCLA thumped Tennessee and Arizona State almost beat Georgia in Athens.
And lest we forget, Pac-10 also-ran USC (how funny is that?) beat Big Ten champ Ohio State on the road. Let's see the fifth-place SEC team do that.
The SEC is like an auto company that has two great cars and a bunch of clunkers. The Pac-10 can roll out a line of impressive models. Oregon is the flashiest, but it still must beat Oregon State in two weeks to win the league crown.
The only bet I'd make on that game is that it won't be as amusing as watching thousands of fans have to slink back to their seats.
"I saw it and I actually smirked," Masoli said of Saturday night's gathering storm of humanity. "It was kind of funny."
Funny, decisive, chaotic and a mystery until the end.
SEC fans may finally experience those things two weeks from now. Pac-10 fans have been getting them all year.
Comments (Page 1 of 3)
So? The only thing that makes the PAC-10 "fun to watch" is that USC isn't rolling everyone over this year. USC's troubles don't make the PAC-10 better than the SEC, which will win it's 4th BCS National Championship in a row this year.
Hopefully you will get the right team this year and if you can handle Texas, then you will have the right to claim a national title. To be honest, I am hoping for an Alabama Texas game (was hoping last year too), but will settle for Florida:)
In the meantime, the writer is correct that the PAC 10 race is the most exciting. I was fortunate to be at the Oregon Arizona game last night and it was even exhausting for the fans. So many highlights and lowlights. I took a friend from England to see his first live NCAA football game. What a great pick.
It will be interesting to see the "rematch" of a PAC 10 team with OSU in the Rosebowl. OSU showed up last year for Texas, so I expect them to show up again.
USC hasn't rolled over any team in the Northwest for 3+ years. As far as conferences playing each other look at what the Pac 10 did in Bowl Games last year, can anyone say "UNDEFEATED!!!!" It will be the same this year.
ten mediogre teams make one mediocre conference
Yeah the PAC 10 were undefeated in bowls last year and have the highest winning percentage in bowl games over the last 4 and 10 years.
What kind of person makes a post like this... let me guess... an uneducated SEC fan who is .500 against the Big 10 the last 4 years in bowl games... what a goofball.
SEC Fan here. Sorry did not get to see this " wonderful event " as you have described.
We were blessed here in Northern Florida with the " opportunity " to see Texas and Kansas instead.
The only thing which might make watching this years PAC-10 Champion interesting, will be to watch yet another team from somewhere across the nation wipe out Ohio State once again in the Rose Bowl.
Did you perchance MISS the epic LSU/Ole Miss Battle . ??? The Rose Bowl wasn't on the line, just a good old fashioned SEC Rivalry....
Preston..
Yeah between two very poor, incomplete teams.
57,000 fans LSU would bring that many fans to a game even if we were 0- 12. And any SEC team has that many fans show up to a practice game. Year in year out SEC plays for national championship.
The Big Ten has the largest fan base with three of its stadiums tipping the 100,000 mark. The SEC teams never come up north. They can't play in cold weather the way football was meant to be played.
I think i speak for the rest of the country when i say screw the pac 10....oregon got beat by Boise St....yea boise is undefeated but other than Oregon who have they played all year? Every team has a team or 2 on their schedule that are gimme games...so talk about FIU or Chattanooga but look at your teams schedule...id be willing to bed yall have those games too
Gimme a break. The Big Ten plays sludge speed football in September. Dont use that old cold weather bullcrap to explain the Big Ten ability to play the most boring and uninnovative football in America.
Arizona,Oregon,Oregon St,Stanford,Cal and Usc all could take down Florida or Alabama but those 2 teams dont dare play play the pac 10. The Pac 10 beat up on each other the sec are cream puffs. Last night game which i was at and am a huge Arizona fan was a bowl game in its own. Go Cats
Dropthepuck - you must honestly be on medical marijuana to make that kind of asinine statement.
Your highest ranked team cannot even beat Boise State... LOL
SEC Rules.
You sir sound a complete and total oblivious idiot.... that is the only response I have for you even thinking any of your teams in the PAC-10 can handle one of the 2 teams in the SEC Championship.
And another thing... this is just another article "wishing" you could be like the SEC. Your weak ass Pac 10 doesn't even have a conference championship, you just got lucky enough that this week's matchup of Oregon/Oregon St. just so happens to be your Championship. Let's see here....
PAC 10 CHAMPIONSHIP: OREGON/OREGON ST.
SEC CHAMPIONSHIP: FLORIDA/ALABAMA
Wow.... I wonder which one has the far superior teams, better faster athletes, harder hitting, better tailgating, blah blah blah.
Put a sock in it PAC 10 !
Plus Big Ten fans travel the best. They will go North,South,East or West and take their $$$$ with them to play anyone. The farthest an SEC team travels is accross the boarder into a neighboring state.
What happened to Choke-lahoma?
The SEC fans need to be honest. Alabama or Florida may be the best team in the nation, but if they played in the PAC-10 this year they wouldn't be undefeated. That goes for the Big 12 too. The PAC-10 is going to go undeafeated in their bowl games, they did it last year too. They may not have the number 1 team, but they have at least 6 teams that belong in the Top 20 if they didn't beat each other up so much. When ever the SEC plays the PAC-10, the PAC-10 lower teams beat or come close to beating the Top SEC teams. Remember Cal vs. Tenn a few years ago? Cal isn't the best PAC-10 team, and that was when Tenn was in the SEC championship game. LSU is about as good as the University of Washington this year. JUST BE HONEST. ALABAMA AND FLORIDA ARE GOOD, THE REST OF THE CONFERENCE IS BELOW MEDIOCRE.
And don't forget, UCLA beat Tennessee this year at Tennessee and UCLA is one of the weakest PAC-10 teams this year while Tennessee gave both Alabama and Florida a tough time.
Let's be honest... I hope your kidding. Florida and Bama would roll through you guys. So would Ole Miss & LSU. Then maybe Georgia, Auburn, Arkansas....