David Stevenson

It happened again last weekend.

Pacific 10 schools failed to show up for their games.

I'm not talking about the Washington and Oregon schools öö the weekend's four winners.

I mean the other ranked Pac schools, who all lost big-time games against big-time teams.

Colorado, which was coming off of an embarrassing loss to Southern California last week, drubbed UCLA on the road. The other three losses came when Wisconsin blew out Arizona, Kansas State held on against USC and Air Force slipped by California in the last minute.

This weekend severely hurt the conference's notoriety, but sadly, this has been an annual trend.

The split of Miami and Washington in 1991 marked the last time a Pac-10 member won the national championship. In 1972, USC was the undisputed champion and the last time the Pac had the nation's best.

In recent history, there hasn't been a school that has been a national powerhouse or one that's been ranked in the top ten consistently.

Instead, the conference provides the country with a rotation of one-hit wonders. It's been nine years since a Pac-10 school has gone to the Rose Bowl in back-to-back years, not including last year's national championship game. In that span, the Big-10 won seven of those meetings.

Not to say that variety is bad, but when not one program can hold on to the top spot in the conference, it shows a brutal inconsistency that prevents teams from being able to be taken seriously or contend as a repeated national power year in and year out.

It happens every winter. A Pac school gets national recognition, then dies a horrible death.

Arizona State and Washington State each fell off the national radar after their Rose Bowl years when their quarterbacks graduated.

Then there was UA in 1999.

Arizona went 12-1 with a Holiday Bowl in a win against Nebraska in 1998 but went 6-6 the following year.

Two seasons ago, Oregon State whipped Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl and finished 11-1, but failed miserably amid national title talks with a 5-6 record last season. This year hasn't been any different, with last week's losses along with Washington's loss to Michigan in week two.

But every year, the conference is always in the hunt for the Sears Cup öö no thanks to the football teams. Last year, Stanford, UCLA and Arizona all finished in the top ten for the best all around schools in athletics, with the Cardinal taking home the trophy for the seventh-consecutive year.

However, the conference has excelled in several other sports. On the baseball diamond, the Pac has won 24 national championships.

In men's volleyball, the Pac has won 22 championships.

Powered by UCLA and Arizona's dominance on the softball field the Pac-10 has taken home 14 National Championships. Last year, neither the Bruins nor the Wildcats managed to bring home the hardware, but the California Bears brought home the softball title for the Pacific 10.

It's not just the national championships, though, that are a good measuring stick. Consistently, Arizona, UCLA, USC and Stanford field high-quality basketball, volleyball and softball teams. But they have something their football counterparts severely lack ÷ winning on a consistent basis.

Maybe that explains why Arizona only drew 40,000 and change at Homecoming last year against Stanford.