It’s as if the whole weight of the Pac-10 is on Cal’s shoulders.

The Bears, still trying to shake off the stink of last year’s season-opening 35-18 loss at Tennessee, get a shot Saturday at revenge, redemption, retribution or whatever you want to call it.

Can’t wait.

The college football season actually starts Thursday (oh happy day), kicking off three consecutive days of games involving Pac-10 teams. Life is good. No, make that GREAT.

But it will be a long weekend for the Pac-10 if Cal fails, setting off howls of laughter from the SEC sector. Do you really want those fanatics to have more ammunition in the whole “we have the best conference” debate?

Yeah, didn’t think so.

“The South is different. They have their own mentality down there,” said Arizona State coach Dennis Erickson. “That’s just the nature of the beast.”

Cal’s face-first flop at Tennessee last season is undeniable, indefensible. It was 35-0 midway through the third quarter.

“That’s the worst we’ve ever played, I think,” coach Jeff Tedford said.

It haunted the Bears through a very fine season. Cal ended 10-3 and clubbed Texas A&M in the Holiday Bowl.

“We won 10 games last year and I think the question that gets asked the most is Tennessee,” Tedford said. “Maybe you might get a little bit, ‘Oh, by the way, good job in the bowl game.’ ”

The Cal-Tennessee rematch – the only game on opening weekend involving two ranked teams – has become the centerpiece in the discussion of the strength of the Pac-10 beyond USC.

“Perception is perception,” Arizona athletic director Jim Livengood said. “But the way we view it now is that perception is almost reality. So, that game is big in so many ways.”

Yet, it is hardly the only key nonconference game.

The reality of the Pac-10 is that the teams often need to schedule interesting opponents to fire up the laid-back ticket-buying fan base.

In the South, an Alabama spring scrimmage drew 92,000 fans. Cal’s spring game? Well, the Bears did have more than 2,000.

Anyway, the point is the Pac-10, by necessity, often seeks big nonconference matchups, which is why the league will play eight games against teams who are ranked in the AP preseason poll.

League teams also will play three games against Notre Dame and two games against dangerous Utah.

And conference teams twice take on BYU, which was 11-2 last season. Arizona kicks the tires on the Cougars this week before UCLA gets a chance Sept. 8.

The SEC, by way of comparison, plays five nonconference games against preseason ranked teams, but the competition basically stops there. The SEC feasts on a full platter of teams from the Sun Belt and Division I-AA.

(Yes, I know that division has been renamed the Football Championship Subdivision, but I am so far refusing to recognize it.)

Let’s take USC out of the equation. The top-ranked Trojans are supposed to beat everybody.

Here are three great opportunities for the Pac-10:

1. Cal vs. Tennessee, Saturday

2. Notre Dame at UCLA, Oct. 6

3. Oregon at Michigan, Sept. 8

Three games in which the Pac-10 has a chance to look bad:

1. Oregon State at Cincinnati, Sept. 6

2. UCLA at Utah, Sept. 15

3. Boise State at Washington, Sept. 8

Three games in which you hope the Pac-10 doesn’t get blown out:

1. Washington at Hawaii, Dec. 1

2. Washington State at Wisconsin, Sept. 1

3. Ohio State at Washington, Sept. 15

“Any time our teams step out of conference, those are huge games,” Livengood said.

“There is so much constant reference to what your record is against other schools, other conferences, those kind of things. And at the end somebody is anointed No. 1.”

No more talk. Let the games begin.

Go Cal.

Anthony Gimino’s e-mail: agimino@tucsoncitizen.com

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THREE BIG PAC-10 DEBUTS
1. Everson Griffen, DE, USC – So freakishly athletic that coach Pete Carroll doesn’t quite know who to compare him to. Griffen, from Avondale Agua Fria High School, could start against Idaho. It’s just a matter of time.

2. Jahvid Best, RB, Cal – He’s a speedster who can be a dynamic returner, so you know this comparison is coming. “Two words come to mind,” Cal junior linebacker Zack Follett told the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News. “Reggie Bush.”

3. Rob Gronkowski, TE, Arizona (right) – UA fans already know all about him, and coach Mike Stoops said that Gronkowski might start Saturday (never mind that Gronkowski isn’t on the depth chart for now).

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