Golden Nuggets: Pac-2?

Jon Wilner doesn't have much confidence in the Pac-10 receiving more than two bids this year.  It's premature doom and gloom, but he has a good point.

But let’s say that Cal earns the Pac-10 automatic bid. Does any other team have the non-conference resume (besides USC) to warrant an at-large bid?

Washington hasn’t won a game outside Seattle.

Oregon lost at home to St. Mary’s and Montana.

Washington State’s SOS is No. 241 (Sagarin).

Here’s the problem:

Cal (or Washington or Oregon … pick a team) isn’t going to improve its at-large profile by winning intra-conference games.

The cannibalistic nature of league play does no good, and considerable  harm, if all the meat is rotten.

It’s not like winning at Arizona would mean much, since BYU won there by 30.

It’s not like winning at UCLA would mean much, since Cal-State Fullerton won there.

Basically, there are no opportunities for Cal (UW, Oregon, etc) to post impressive, RPI-boosting  victories because everyone is stained — there is a plague on all their houses.

And it’s not like the selection committee will gather ’round and declare: "We have to have at least two Pac-10 teams in the field."

Instead, it will disregard conference affiliation and compare one at-large candidate to another.

It will evaluate UW and Oregon, for instance, to teams from the Big Ten and ACC and Big East.

And it sure seems like the Pac-10 will come up short on all fronts.

After the jump, JO gives special teams an F, four players receive combine invitations, Jorge will miss this weekend's games, robots like Cal bball while humans don't, Cal is the lone participant in this week's bracketology and more.

Cal Football

• Syd, Alualu, Tucker, and Boateng received invitations to the NFL combine.
• JO reviews special teams.  Other than Bryan Anger, pretty much every facet of special teams was a failure.  Whoever replaces Alamar will have his hands full with this unit.  JO's grade: F
• Tepper, Miller, Alualu, and Young earned spots on Ted Miller's all-bowl team.

Cal Basketball

• Jorge will be out one more week, meaning he will miss this weekend's games. He's at about 80% right now, but should be ready to play soon.
• Cal is the lone Pac-10 representative in this week's bracketology.
• Not many humans like the Pac-10 this week, and the gentle robots only have minimal favor towards Cal.  Cal is 40th in the Sagarin ratings and 32nd in the CollegeRPI.com ratings.
• The Cal women have had a tough season so far and this weekend's set of games should tell us whether this talented but inexperience team is any good.