Coming into this season, who would have guessed that this Friday’s meeting between Arizona State and Nevada in Los Angeles would be so potentially pivotal for the reputation of the Pac-12 as a whole? But with the Conference of Champions struggling to live up to its power-conference status through the season’s first month, what would normally be a nice opportunity for an upset is instead one of the league’s few remaining opportunities to salvage its national standing.
Among the Pac-12’s dozen programs, only the aforementioned Sun Devils are currently ranked in the AP top 25 poll, entering it this week at No.