Pacific 12 Conference

The Utah players know what some people think. They know that winning a couple of Bowl Championship Series bowl games over the last six years hasn't convinced all the skeptics. And simply joining the Pacific 12 Conference hasn't answered all the questions about a mid-major hoping to break into college football's upper echelon. "Do they belong? Can they handle it?" senior offensive lineman John Cullen said. "We know we have to prove ourselves. " Their first test comes Saturday at the Coliseum against USC in a matchup that is generating more than the usual buzz around Salt Lake City and other parts of the country.

More than a month before Thanksgiving, UCLA's goose already looked cooked. Arizona's football team, with a five-game losing streak and an interim coach, roasted the Bruins by 36 points in Tucson on Oct. 20. The embarrassing loss prompted calls for Coach Rick Neuheisel's ouster, but UCLA responded with consecutive victories over California and nationally ranked Arizona State to pull into a first-place tie in the Pacific 12 Conference's South Division....

Drew McAllister will start at safety for USC on Friday night against Colorado as T.J. McDonald serves a suspension for an illegal hit, Coach Lane Kiffin announced Tuesday. The Pacific 12 Conference suspended McDonald for the first half against the Buffaloes for his hit on Stanford receiver Chris Owusu on Saturday. USC was assessed a 15-yard, personal-foul penalty for McDonald's fourth-quarter play, which helped fuel a game-tying drive by the Cardinal. "I thought the flag was enough, but I respect their decision," McDonald said as he walked to the locker room after practice.

Blame it on UCLA. Quarterback Brock Osweiler was perfectly content shuttling between Arizona State's football and basketball programs last season, possibly spreading his gangly 6-foot-8 frame a little too thin. Then the Bruins came to town. On a sunny afternoon in Tempe last November, Osweiler came off the bench and erased a 17-0 UCLA lead, throwing four touchdown passes in a 55-34 victory for the Sun Devils. "Prior to that, I hadn't performed like I had envisioned," said Osweiler, a junior.

Utah was the Pacific 12 story line of last week, the new-to-the-conference Utes playing USC in the first Pac-12 football game. The spotlight stays there this week. Utah plays Brigham Young on Saturday in what Utes Coach Kyle Whittingham called "the biggest sporting event in the state every year. " Yet, the rivalry is changing. With Utah now in the Pac-12 and BYU an independent, conference ramifications are no longer involved. The schools were Western Athletic Conference members from 1962-99 and left together when the Mountain West Conference was formed.

It's not entirely ridiculous to think after watching USC and UCLA conclude spring practices Saturday that one (or both) of these current Pacific 10 teams could finish 11th or 12th. The conference, after all, doesn't officially become the Pac-12 until July 1, when Utah and Colorado join and the league splits into North-South divisions. OK, it's not going to happen. Washington State is still in the conference and newcomer Colorado, coached by former UCLA player Jon Embree, is probably going to pay basement rent for at least a few years.

The retro UCLA jersey was endangered the moment it entered Shabazz Muhammad's house. The basketball prodigy's mother had purchased the replica of the jersey that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wore when he was with the Bruins as a gift for her middle-school son, only to later find it hanging in his closet with a large hole cut in the middle. Muhammad's father couldn't resist the urge to snip on. He played basketball for USC. "My wife was hot with me," said Ron Holmes, a wing player for the Trojans from 1981 to 1985.

Christian Tupou is a student-athlete. He plays football, and more specifically he plays defensive tackle. The combination of these simple traits traps USC's Tupou in a series of stereotypes that thrust him to the bottom of the intellectual scale at a top-tier university. But listening to Tupou talk and watching him show his football skills muddies the water. The starting redshirt senior has boatloads of athletic intelligence in addition to school smarts. With fall camp fast approaching, he's studying Pacific 12 Conference centers and guards to see which hand they use to snap the ball, and to see how far apart their feet are. In games he'll use his off-season studying to help him shoot his gaps.

USC played No. 4 Stanford even. The Trojans forced the high-powered Cardinal into triple overtime and appeared on the verge of sending the game into a fourth extra period. That's when it all went bad for the Trojans. Stanford linebacker A.J. Tarpley recovered a fumble by USC running back Curtis McNeal in the end zone, sending the No. 20 Trojans to a 56-48 defeat before a stunned crowd of 93,607 Saturday at the Coliseum. Stanford stayed on track for a possible national title and improved to 8-0 overall and 6-0 in the Pacific 12 Conference.

USC is the favorite to win the 2012 Pacific 12 Conference title, according to a preseason poll of media who cover the league that was released Tuesday. The Trojans were the overwhelming pick to win the South Division, receiving 117 of 123 first-place votes. And 102 voters picked USC to win the Pac-12 title game against Oregon, the landslide pick to win the North Division.  The media poll has correctly picked the conference champion in 28 of the previous 51 polls, including 11 of the last 12. The Times does not vote in polls or for awards.