The Pac-12 opened the season with five ranked teams and was expected to have a competitive race to the conference championship, maybe even get a team into the College Football Playoff for the first time in five years.
The big league out West got off to a shaky start.
The Pac-12 became the first Power Five conference to lose six games on opening weekend since the SEC in 2016. All six were to unranked teams, too, second-most by a Power Five conference in 21 years.
“At times we look on paper, but paper has never won a football game. It’s actually what you do out on the football field,” Arizona State coach Herm Edwards said. “I think if you look at what’s happened in college football, and I said when I first took this job, there are a lot of upsets in college football and no one can ever figure it out.”