Grading the Pac-10 bowl performances.

The Pac-10 had a great regular season, but then managed to stink it up during the bowl season. This is not the type of grade to be repeated.

UCLA: A. (30-21 vs. Temple) The Pac-10 was arguable one of the top two BCS conferences during the regular season. Temple finished second in their division in the non-BCS Conference USA and hasn't been to a bowl in 30 years. How can this be the best win of the PAC-10? Well, UCLA hasn't been to a bowl in a few years. And they were playing in a cold east coast stadium, just down the road from Temple. But most important of all, UCLA won.

USC: B. (24-13 vs. Boston College) USC won a bowl game. Yep, they did. They played in California, and beat some team that traveled a few thousand miles to get there. The difference was that they played an ACC team in San Francisco instead of a Big-10 in Pasadena. They didn't look great, but a win is a win.

Stanford: C (27-31 vs. Oklahoma) Stanford kept it close. Unfortunately, Stanford hasn't exactly been good in close games. Other than Notre Dame, all games decided by less than a touchdown ended up loses for the Cardinal. Oklahoma and Stanford were both missing their star quarterbacks. However, Oklahoma had at least had a season to deal with it. Stanford has just had the past few weeks to adapt to the replacement. Would Luck have allowed them to score an extra touchdown? Probably.

California: C- (27-37 vs. Utah) Cal has been hit or miss all season. (And as pretty during the entire Tedford era.) Utah was ranked higher, but they have beaten pretty much nobody. Both teams lost to Oregon. Both are coming of nasty loses to end the season. (Though Cal did manage to win the rivalry Big Game in the penultimate game.) It looked like the 'good Cal' was there during the first quarter. Unfortunately, the Bad Cal showed up for the rest of the game.

Oregon State: D (20-44 vs. BYU) Both teams were in the top-20. BYU was one spot ahead of OSU. However, OSU was, for some reason, favored to win. Perhaps oddsmakers did not realize that BYU has played in the Las Vegas bowl for the last five seasons, and thus has a little experience dealing with the horrid late December weather in Las Vegas. Perhaps they didn't realize that OSU would be coming off a downer after missing out on the Rose bowl by less than a touchdown. Regardless, Oregon State looked bad in the loss.

Arizona: F (0-33 vs. Nebraska). Nebraska was ranked a couple of spots higher. That should imply a close game, not a blowout. Unfortunately, it seemed as if Arizona simply forgot to show up. The Nebraska offense only scored more points against the likes of Arkansas State, Louisiana -Lafayette and Florida Atlantic. Even three-win Colorado managed a much closer game. Maybe San Diego was a little too exciting for the Wildcats.

Oregon: F (17-26 vs. Ohio State). The Big 10 always loses the Rose Bowl. Ohio State always loses its bowl games. Oregon and Ohio State had two common opponents. Oregon beat Purdue by two and USC by 27. Ohio State lost to Purdue by eight and USC by three. Both teams had not been to the Rose Bowl in a while, but playing in BSC bowls is routine for Ohio State, while Oregon is much more hungry for a big bowl. All signs should point to an easy Oregon win. They deserve in F for the faceplant on the big stage.