Pac-12 Power Base Shifts to the Pac Northwest

Talk about a one-two punch.

And they come from totally different perspectives.

The Washington Huskies are proving themselves capable of challenging for a playoff spot.

The Washington State Cougars have proven they can not only lose to underdogs on a given day, but also pound the bejesus out of power programs on the next.

Last week, the Huskies ka-rushed Stanford, serving notice to a nation. At the same time, the Cougars blew through Oregon on the ground, of all things.

This week, the in-state rivals traded opponents and matched each other's results. In spades:

The combined scores these past two weeks:

Evergreen State schools 207, Their Opponents 76

The programs that had won the past seven Pac-12 championships just got eviscerated. That's what.

This conference is renowned for spread formations producing wild action generating wacky results. No titlist has ever run the table in conference games. In fact, including its Pac-10 days, only two champions -- Washington in 1991 and USC in 2004 -- have gone unbeaten and untied.

Both won mythical national titles, albeit the Trojans' was tainted. It'll likely take another undefeated Pac-12 team to gain the brackets. Washington's gonna have to beat the odds -- again -- to do it. It would obviously include besting the unpredictable Cougs in the Apple Cup.

But they're shaping up to make a helluva run.