Why Aren't Pac-12 Teams Winning Conference Games at Home?

Cue the music to The Twilight Zone... because something very mysterious is going on this year in Pac-12 football. In a top to bottom conference in which every league game is to tough to win, the one historical advantage that every team banked upon were the all-important "home games."

It's an old adage in college football that if you want to go bowling at the end of the season, the key was to win all your home games and play .500 on the road. By and large, those numbers will give you at least 9 wins year in and year out (unless you play in the SEC, where most of the teams seem to have seven or eight home games every year). Nine wins means a trip for the holidays.

This year, the world of Pac-12 football has turned upside down. Eleven games into conference play, and the home teams have only won TWICE!

And it is NOT because the ranked teams are beating up on the unranked (UR) teams. In fact, there seems to be no rhyme nor reason. Out of those eleven games, these are the numbers:

• UR Stanford beats #6 USC in L.A; 41-31
• #21 Stanford beats UR Oregon State in Corvallis; 42-24
• UR Cal beats UR Washington in Seattle; 30-24
• #9 UCLA beats #16 Arizona in Tucson; 56-30
• #18 Utah beats #13 Oregon in Eugene; 62-20
• #19 USC beats UR Arizona State in Tempe; 42-14
• UR Arizona State beats UCLA in L.A.; 38-23
• UR Oregon beats UR Colorado in Boulder; 41-24
• UR Washington beats #17 USC in L.A.; 17-12

Breaking those numbers down, this is what we see:

• FIVE UNRANKED teams have won on the road in conference play.
• THREE of those UNRANKED teams have beaten RANKED teams on the road.
• ONE ranked team has beaten a lower ranked team.
• ONE lower ranked team has beaten a higher ranked team.
• Only TWO ranked teams have beaten UNRANKED conference foes on the road.
• Perennial power USC has lost TWICE at home already to UNRANKED Pac-12 teams. 

The only two times that Pac-12 teams have won at home are:

• #24 Cal beats UR Washington State; 34-28
• #18 Stanford beats UR Arizona; 55-17

Things are stranger than fiction this year in Pac-12 football. How long will it go on?