The PAC-12 was last seen going 1-8 in their 2017 postseason lineup and being excluded from the College Football Playoff. You might have heard about that.
The national narrative that came out of that experience was that the PAC wasn’t really of the same caliber as the other Power 5 teams and that their best teams — the Washingtons, USCs and Stanfords of the world — were not really that much of a threat to other top-25 kinds of programs.
With Washington’s failure to impress in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game on Saturday, that narrative solidified.