Perhaps. But the problem is that even when the PAC-12 scheduled good OOC games, we lost ALL of them. Washington lost to Auburn at home, Stanford and USC were creamed by the Domers, USC was also creamed by Texas, UCLA was demolished by Oklahoma, and Arizona was decimated by Houston and BYU. Oregon and Washington State didn't play a single FBS team. And even Arizona State's win against Michigan St, in retrospect, really wasn't much (and the Sun Devils barely have a winning record in conference play against the mostly much weaker division). I'd be much more willing to grouse if I actually thought our unranked teams were better than their ranked teams. But all objective evidence supports the opposite conclusion.
And all this against a backdrop of a conference that finished 1-8 in bowl games last season (and the one win was a 6-6 Utah team). Until we start winning our matchups against the other conferences, I quite frankly don't think we deserve the benefit of the doubt. We have had no team even plausibly close to the CFP semifinals in the last two seasons. IMHO, the PAC-12 needs to put up or shut up. 8- vs. 9-game conference schedules don't explain why all our teams lost their big OOC games in the first three weeks of the season.
And all this against a backdrop of a conference that finished 1-8 in bowl games last season (and the one win was a 6-6 Utah team). Until we start winning our matchups against the other conferences, I quite frankly don't think we deserve the benefit of the doubt. We have had no team even plausibly close to the CFP semifinals in the last two seasons. IMHO, the PAC-12 needs to put up or shut up. 8- vs. 9-game conference schedules don't explain why all our teams lost their big OOC games in the first three weeks of the season.