The PAC-12 is NOT having a down year. You have Utah, Washington and Colorado ranked (WSU should be ranked, but they lost their first game).
The reason why the PAC-12 is down is not because it sucks. Sagarin ranks it #2 in the country.
It is down because USC, Stanford and Oregon aren’t doing as well. That’s it. If name brands aren’t on top, then the conference sucks. It’s lazy journalism at its best.