FanHouse Nic Grigsby

LOS ANGELES -- Only the Pacific 10 Conference can show some muscle but take a step back on the same day.

Highlighted by Washington's victory over No. 3 USC on Saturday, the Pac-10 proved once again that it's not a conference dominated by one team. It was the fourth consecutive season that the highly-regarded Trojans -- who are 33-1 in their last 34 games against non-conference opponents -- were knocked off by an underdog Pac-10 squad.

It was a measure of revenge for the Big Ten this afternoon in Iowa City as the Iowa Hawkeyes knocked off the Arizona Wildcats, 27-17.

The Hawkeyes were led by their defense, which held Arizona's powerful rushing attack to 146 yards and kept the nation's No. 2 rusher, Arizona's Nic Grigsby, to just 74 yards on 11 carries. Arizona didn't score an offensive touchdown until 1:55 remained in the fourth quarter and only managed eight first downs all afternoon.

Iowa quarterback Ricky Stanzi started slowly, throwing a first-quarter interception which Arizona's Trevin Wade returned for a touchdown. Stanzi finished 20 of 32 for 205 yards.

If Mediocrity had a football team, its mascot would most likely wear a giant foam Mike Stoops head

Ahhh, mediocre college football. Three words that go together like turkey, gravy, and stuffing.

While the majority of space here at FanHouse and on every other college football publication will be focused on the Top 25, season after season a huge slice of the college football fan pie (mmmm...fan pie) find themselves supporting a team who would most aptly be described as thoroughly mediocre, at best. I'd venture to guess that for every legit contender, there are probably three teams with a couple of flaws so glaring that only those blinded by the partisanship of homerdom can pretend their team's downsides won't inevitably sabotage any hopes of playing in a bowl of even moderate respectability.

And therein lies one of the most cruel realities of the college football landscape: winning 6 or 7 games is no small feat, and yet every year coaches and players around the country will be abused for achieving that very milestone. Of course, when you play in a conference like the Pac 10 -- who rewards its third place finisher with a December 31 game in El Paso's Sun Bowl -- can you really be that surprised when fans and pundits are critical of barely topping out above .500?

Who from the Pac 10 will slide to the middle of the pack in 2008? Here's a quick rundown of the leading candidates for Pacific time zone mediocrity this season.