Pacific 10 Conference

It seemed like a no-brainer, but USC Coach Lane Kiffin waited until Thursday to make it official. Senior Allen Bradford , who rushed for 223 yards last week against Washington, will start at tailback Saturday against No. 16 Stanford. "Hopefully, he'll be a big part of the game," Kiffin said. "We're going to need to run the ball. We're going to need to run it a lot. " Bradford was No. 1 on the depth chart at the start of training camp, but he was displaced by junior Marc Tyler , who started four of the first five games, including last week's 32-31 loss against Washington.

Las Vegas loves UCLA . . . at least this week. The Bruins face a Washington State team so undermanned that the point spread barely budged even though UCLA quarterback Kevin Prince didn't practice all week. The Bruins opened as 27-point favorites and are still giving 24 to 25 points. Staff writer Chris Foster looks at the issues surrounding the game. Richard the first? All signs point to Richard Brehaut starting at quarterback for UCLA. Prince injured his right knee against Texas and nursed the injury all week.

USC is undefeated and nationally ranked but now opens a stretch of games that should give the Trojans a more realistic sense of identity. Washington had an open date last week after getting blown out at home by sixth-ranked Nebraska. Staff writer Gary Klein looks at some of the issues surrounding Saturday's game: Coaching colleagues USC Coach Lane Kiffin and Washington Coach Steve Sarkisian matured together as ambitious assistants on Pete Carroll's staff. Now they each earn millions running their own programs.

UCLA tailback Johnathan Franklin fumbled after being walloped by Texas defensive back Aaron Williams , and then trudged to the sideline, where he was met by Coach Rick Neuheisel . Asked what he was told, Franklin said, "I'd rather not say," then offered a sanitized version: "'You can't do that to the team. Keep your head up, keep working.'" The "keep working" part was the key. Franklin was back on the field on the Bruins' next possession and ground out a seven-yard run on the first play.

Just about all the quarterback talk at USC this week centered on Washington's Jake Locker and how he was expected to put his last performance behind him when the Trojans play the Huskies on Saturday at the Coliseum. Matt Barkley hopes to do the same. USC's quarterback ranks 14th nationally and second in the Pacific 10 Conference in passing efficiency, but the sophomore has had two passes intercepted in each of the last two games. Those mistakes, Barkley acknowledged, could result in defeat if the pattern continues.

The Pacific 10 Conference doesn't officially change its logo to "12" until next season, when Utah and Colorado become members, but we can't wait. How about that Pac-12? Forget the bottom feeders, Washington State and Colorado -- every conference has a couple of those. The mighty Southeastern, for example, currently tolerates Vanderbilt and Georgia. If you count Utah, which we have already welcomed in with a gift bag, the Pac has five schools ranked in the top 18 of Sunday's Associated Press poll.

University of Colorado regents have authorized the school's chancellor to move forward with plans for the school to join the Pacific 10 Conference on July 1, 2011. An agreement with the Big 12, the school's current conference, would allow it to withhold $6.86 million in revenues that it would be entitled to receive before then and to join the Pac-10 a year early. The regents made the decision during a Tuesday meeting. Earlier in the day, the Big 12 and Nebraska announced a settlement in which the conference will withhold $9.255 million from the estimated $19 million in revenues that would have been distributed to the school the last two years the Cornhuskers are in the Big 12. Nebraska becomes an official member of the Big Ten on July 1, 2011.

UCLA quarterback Kevin Prince has aggravated the shoulder he originally injured against USC last season, prompting coaches to keep him on the sideline for the final minutes of practice Tuesday. His right shoulder has improved somewhat since the weekend but remains sore, according to a source close to the team who wasn't authorized to speak publicly about player health. Prince participated in much of Tuesday's session before sitting out at the end as backup Richard Brehaut directed the first-string offense through a two-minute drill.

Less than a year has gone by since Washington announced its emergence from college football purgatory. In a big way. The Huskies, coming off a winless season, a program in shambles, upset third-ranked USC on the way to a very respectable 2009 season. Hopes will run even higher this fall with Coach Steve Sarkisian entering his second year on the job and star quarterback Jake Locker resisting the NFL to return for one more go-around. So why is this team looking for something, well, less?

Larry Scott's first year as Pacific 10 Conference commissioner was anything but boring. At the first game he attended, Oregon tailback LeGarrette Blount punched a Boise State player on national television. He has since presided over the NCAA probation of his league's flagship football program, USC, and expanded the conference to 12 schools after a brazen bid to create a "Pac-16" failed. A former Harvard tennis player, Scott came to the Pac-10 from the Women's Tennis Assn., where he served as chairman and chief executive.