Pac-12's wacky rivalry week is upon us

In the Pac-12, rivalry weeks are usually intense. But rarely as intensely crowded as this.

When the conference added Utah and Colorado, it had to find a way to shoehorn four additional matches into one additional week. When the draft schedule appeared last spring, each team was set to play its rival first, then again at the very end of the season.

As originally proposed, the first week would feature three matches (rival school on Tuesday, then two other opponents that same Friday and Saturday). The final week of the conference schedule—Thanksgiving week—was reserved for just a single match, pairing rivals once again.

Three pairs of schools—Bay Area, LA and Rockies—accepted the initial schedule. On that first week, Cal beat Stanford in Palo Alto, UCLA beat USC at Galen Center, and Utah beat Colorado in Boulder (notice that all three home teams lost.)

The other three pairs—the Washingtons, the Oregons and the Arizonas—decided to move the first rival match to the final week of the season, meaning two rivalry matches in one crazy week.

USC (19-2) has already clinched the Pac-12 title, and travels to Westwood Friday, where UCLA (17-4) has already locked down second place.

Cal (15-6) visits Stanford (15-6) Friday.

• If Cal wins, the Bears claim third place, and either Washington (13-7) or Oregon (13-7) or both can end up in a tie with Stanford for fourth place. For that to happen, the Huskies would have to sweep WSU (4-16), and the Ducks would have to do the same to OSU (7-13).
• If Stanford beats Cal, the Cardinal take third place, Cal and Oregon could end up in a tie for fourth (they split their season series.) In that scenario, the Huskies, even with a sweep of WSU, could end up in sixth place. The Huskies split with Oregon and lost twice to Cal.

Washington's Krista Vansant (16)
[Volleyblog Seattle Photo by Leslie Hamann]

Tuesday, November 22nd
Arizona St. at Arizona	7:00 PM
Oregon at Oregon St.	7:00 PM
Washington St. at Washington	7:00 PM
Wednesday, November 23rd
Colorado at Utah	7:00 PM
Friday, November 25th
USC at UCLA	5:00 PM
California at Stanford	7:00 PM
Oregon St. at Oregon	7:00 PM
Washington at Washington St.	7:00 PM
Saturday, November 26th
Arizona at Arizona St.	7:00 PM