Washington's Rome Odunze: Pac-12 has always been 'slept on'

HOUSTON -- Ahead of Washington's final game as a Pac-12 school, receiver Rome Odunze said he hopes Monday's College Football Playoff National Championship game can help change what he believes is a false perception about the quality of college football in the conference and on the West Coast.

"I think the Pac-12 has been slept on for the entire time that it has existed," Odunze said. "Sadly, it's coming to an end."

The Huskies, along with Oregon, UCLA and USC, will depart for the Big Ten next season, while six others will leave for the ACC (Cal and Stanford) and Big 12 (Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Utah). Oregon State and Washington State will continue to play as Pac-12 schools with the hopes of rebuilding the conference in the future, but they will play the bulk of their games against Mountain West opponents next season.

After its collapse prior to the start of the season, the Pac-12 went on to have its best season in several years. During the regular season, the conference's collective winning percentage in nonconference regular games (.806) and against Power 5 opponents (.583) was the best of any conference.

Still, Odunze said, there has been a sense that Pac-12 football as whole isn't given the same attention as other conferences nationally.

"I think that's the age-old question right now," Odunze said of the Pac-12's reputation as a weaker conference. "I think that's something I've been trying to answer, my family's been trying to answer, West Coast has been trying to answer for a long time.

"It's something that I don't think can be truly answered other than the fact I don't think people are watching enough football out on the West Coast, point blank, period."

Odunze acknowledged he's biased as someone who grew up on the West Coast watching Pac-12 football, but he feels the conference does not get as much media attention as college football does in the South and on the East Coast.

"That's just the nature of it," he said. "But at the end of the day, what happens in between those lines is what happens between those lines and teams that really prove it on the field are going to rise to the top and that's what's happened this season."

Part of that attention problem is due to the Pac-12's lack of participation in the four-team playoff. Washington is the first Pac-12 team to reach the College Football Playoff since the Huskies' appearance in 2016 and the conference's third participant, along with Oregon in 2014, in the playoff's 10-year history.

Without a breakthrough team, there has not been a team to carry the banner for the conference like Washington is doing this season. The conference's depth this season is something coach Kalen DeBoer said was important in preparing the Huskies for Monday's game against top-ranked Michigan.

"We're proud of where we come from and the conference we represent and everything that has led to us having our success this year," DeBoer said. "We got put through the wringer with our conference schedule playing a lot of good teams. I think it helped us prepare for a semifinal game. And it will have helped us prepare for this championship game on Monday."

Quarterback Michael Penix Jr., who began his career at Indiana in the Big Ten, expressed a similar perspective about the strength of the Pac-12 and its role in shaping the Huskies.

"The Pac-12, I feel like in my opinion was the toughest conference this year all around," he said. "At one point in time we had eight teams ranked in the top 25. I feel like that speaks for itself. We had a lot of competition, a lot of good opponents each and every week."

Washington is a 4.5-point underdog in the championship game, according to ESPN BET.