Rating the 2010 Non-Conference Slate, Part 5: Pacific 10

In part 5 of our on-going series, we examine the Pac-10, traditionally a strong OOC scheduling bunch. Hopefully that remain with the Pac-11 next year and the Pac-12 the year after.

1. Washington (1.75 legit, 0 DI-AA): @Brigham Young, Syracuse, Nebraska. If Washington is looking to have a breakout season, this schedule can both help and hinder them. Beat two out of three of these teams, and U-Dub makes a statement. While no one would fault them for losing to both BYU and Nebraska, those two losses don't help them get back to a bowl. Oh, and I bet Jake Locker and co. remember that BYU loss from two years ago.
2. Oregon State (1.75, 0): N-Texas Christian, Louisville, @Boise State. I would consider this a tie with Washington's schedule honestly. This I think the main reason it isn't is because Nebraska trumps both TCU and Boise, but not by much (in terms of the criteria used to rank these schedules, at least). A great schedule for a Pac-10 title contender, going toe-to-toe with two mid-major hopefuls.
3. California-Los Angeles (1.25, 0): @Kansas State, Houston, @Texas. While last year's 6-6 rebuilding job may not have ended the football monopoly in Los Angeles, this schedule provides some chances to go above that mark even with a middle-of-the-pack finish in the Pac-10. Of course, we can go ahead and mark Texas in the loss column, so that leaves a very winnable K-State game and a Houston game that I believe is a toss-up.
4. Stanford (1.25, 1): Sacramento State, Wake Forest, @Notre Dame. This schedule checks off the "required OOC teams" check boxes pretty well, and may have even been a great schedule for Stanford in the recent past. However, this Stanford team has Rose Bowl aspirations (hey, they make it about once every ten years, so it's that time again) and so dates with Sacramento State and Wake Forest don't seem that great anymore.
5. Oregon (1, 1): New Mexico, Tennessee, Portland State. Well, we have Tennessee's bi-annual West Coast roadtrip, but outside of that this schedule is pretty "meh". It's pretty much downhill from here.
6. Southern California (0.75, 0): @Hawaii, Virginia, @Minnesota. Well, the date at Hawaii this Thursday will be this year's bowl game for the Trojans. This is a pretty apropos for this year's edition, though, feature games that even this decimated squad should be able to handle.
7. Washington State (0.75, 1): @Oklahoma State, Montana State, @Southern Methodist. I'm not sure what's worse, the schedule, or the fact that Wazzou could lose all three of these games and I wouldn't be terribly surprised.
8. Arizona (0.75, 1): @Toledo, Citadel, Iowa. I'm going to go on a limb and say that Arizona probably won't suffer the same fate Colorado did at Toledo last year. As for the rest, they'll probably lose to Iowa. I guess. Hey, at least they're not last! Yes that's right folks - after embarrassing schedules in 2007, 2008, and 2009 Arizona has risen out of the gutter, though apparently this is because we massively underrated Iowa last year.
9. Arizona State (0.75, 2): Portland State, Northern Arizona, @Wisconsin. Two DI-AA schools? Really? Most of your conference comrades don't even have one yet you have the audacity to schedule two. Why there oughta be a law... anyway, at least they bothered to make the third game a game against a BCS conference team.
10. California (0.25, 1): California-Davis, Colorado, @Nevada. Well, they do have the game out in Reno, which is kind of interesting, and also a content against future conference mate Colorado, but there's not really a lot of meat on these bones. Though they should probably be ranked above Arizona State just on principle, but hey, rules are rules.

Anyway, next time we'll take a look at the SEC, and then hopefully wrap it all up before Thursday!