The Hotline’s clean-and-simple standard for a successful bowl season for the Pac-12:
Win the Rose Bowl, then we’ll talk.
It’s all about the Granddaddy because the conference has fared so poorly on the grand stages of college football in recent years.
Since USC’s 52-49 victory over Penn State in the Rose Bowl at the end of the 2016 season, the conference is 0-5 in the big-stage games that bookend the season: The intersectional showdowns against the SEC on Labor Day weekend, and the New Year’s Six matchups.
2017
Penn State 35, Washington 28 (Fiesta Bowl)
Ohio State 24, USC 7 (Cotton Bowl)
2018
Auburn 21, Washington 16 (Atlanta)
Ohio State 28, Washington 23 (Rose Bowl)
2019
Auburn 27, Oregon 21 (Arlington)
Add the absence of playoff berths in each of the three years and the national media narrative of the conference falling behind — of there being a Power Four — and the Rose Bowl takes on immense significance.