[tps_title]Unlikely battle of two second-place teams[/tps_title]
Here we are in the eighth week of the college football season and Arizona and Washington State are in second place in their respective divisions in the Pac-12. Arizona is not a surprise because it won the Pac-12 South last year. Washington State?
After Cal’s second straight defeat last night, a 40-24 loss at UCLA, the Cougars are all alone behind Stanford in the Pac-12 North. Washington State is 2-1 and Stanford is 4-0.
Arizona is in a three-way tie for second place in the Pac-12 South with UCLA and ASU, all with 2-2 records. Utah is atop the division with a 3-0 record. If the Wildcats beat Washington State, they will be alone in second place with a 3-2 record.
The Wildcats and Cougars have a limited past as two winning teams in the conference in the same season.
When the league featured 10 teams from 1978 to 2010, the teams both finished in the upper-division of the conference only six times, the last time in the 1997 season when Washington State finished first and Arizona was fifth.
Since the conference expanded to 12 teams with north and south divisions, Washington State and Arizona have not both posted winning league records in the same year.
