SDSU would be competitive in the Pac12, probably a 500ish record in conference. Certainly capable of beating almost anyone on their best days, and only a few teams would out-athlete them by a big margin.mvargus said:OaktownBear said:Stanford has played a tougher schedule because they played USC. As for San Diego State - circular reasoning. San Diego State is good. How do I know? They beat Stanford. Stanford has played a tough schedule. How do I know? They played San Diego State and they are good. UNC is bad. How do I know? They lost to Cal. Ole Miss is bad. How do I know? They lost to Cal. Cal hasn't had a tough schedule. How do I know? They played UNC and Ole Miss and those two are bad.TheSouseFamily said:
I don't think it's unreasonable to say that Furd has played the tougher schedule so far. They've played 2 ranked teams on the road and a D1 patsy in Rice. We've played 2 unranked teams with only one on the road plus a FCS near-patsy in Weber State.
San Diego beat a crappy ASU team and Davis before beating furd. Ole Miss won 2 cup cake games. UNC lost to a Louisville team that is expected to be good and beat a cup cake.
Bottom line. We don't know. If I had to bet, I'd bet UNC and Ole Miss beat SDSU, but I wouldn't take the bet if I didn't have to. If Cal played furd's schedule, I'd expect us to be 2-1, with 1-2 a distinct possibility. If furd played Cal's schedule, I think 1-2, 2-1, and 3-0 are about all equal possibilities.
Honestly, I'm not sure if either Cal or Stanford has played a "good" team yet.
Cal:
UNC - They had a fairly experienced team, but a new QB and had lost some important people to graduation. No one knew how good they would be this year which was said to be a "rebuilding" year.
Weber State - Everyone agreed that they were a top-10 team in the FCS, but that still means they are probably no better than 115-120 in the nation at best.
Ole Miss - They were supposed to challenge for the SEC West this year behind their All-American QB and great WR corp. However, its had to say from what we've seen. It's clear they have issues on defense and the OL.
Stanford
Rice - OMG! is Rice terrible this year.
USC - Looking at the record for USC they have won all their games, but their games against Western Michigan and Texas were far closer than I would have expected. I get a feeling they are not a top 10 team, but are riding the fact that Sam Darnold is a senior QB and plays for USC, which means he gets tons of free publicity and a prediction that he'll be the first QB picked in the draft.
SDSU - They are a decent team, but their own victories have been pointed out as a bit suspect. And they are not as athletically talented as a Pac-12 team. Good coaching though.
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USC will be a good way to benchmark both teams. But I get a feeling that Washington is the actual class of the conference at the moment. Or at least, they are playing more consistently like it than any other team.
I also think the Cal-USC game is going to be a lot closer than some people might expect. I don't think USC has solved all of their problems, and we've already seen that Coach Wilcox and his assistants can put together a dominant game plan. If the team is "up" for the game, it could be very interesting.
I'd say Stanford's has been tougher to date, but as others have said, that changes after Saturday. UNC and Ole Miss, while they have their issues, also have lots of talent on their rosters.