It feels like the Pac-12 is being a bit underrated this season — and that’s coming from someone who doesn’t have a single Pac-12 team in his Power Rankings. But the league has four teams in the top 28 at KenPom, four teams in the top 35 of the BPI and four teams in the top 31 of the NET rankings. That pales in comparison to the Big Ten and Big 12, but those are head and shoulders above everyone else this season. Compared to every other league, the Pac-12 is right in line.

UCLA and USC’s road sweeps of the Arizona schools this past weekend put the rest of the league on notice, but Oregon and Colorado are also in the mix. The Ducks will have maybe the most on-paper depth in the league once Will Richardson returns from injury, while Colorado has already defeated USC and Oregon. Stanford has a lottery pick in Ziaire Williams and a star senior in Oscar da Silva, while Arizona has plenty of young talent and has a blowout win over Colorado.

One team I haven’t mentioned? Preseason favorite Arizona State. The Sun Devils are really struggling and sit at just 4-5, but if Bobby Hurley can get everyone healthy and get his rotation intact at some point, they’re going to be a dangerous group. And in terms of individual talent, the league has two players ranked in the top 10 of ESPN’s 2021 NBA draft rankings and two more in the top-25.

The Pac-12 hasn’t had more than four NCAA tournament bids since 2016 (although they might have received that many last season), but that could change come Selection Sunday.