Okay, we all know the Pac10 has only played a round robin schedule since the 2006 season, but that doesn't take anything away from the achievement. Oregon is the first, and with the 2011 expansion, will be the only team that has ever defeated all 9 Pac10 opponents in a season.

Just running the table is a rare event; since the creation of the Pac-8 in 1964, only 12 times have teams gone through conference play without a blemish .. and only four of them completed perfect seasons by winning their bowl games.

And, until 2010, only four different programs had managed the feat. And only one did it multiple times. Guess who?

The only team to do it more than once in 47 years of Pac-8/10 play, USC ran the table in conference an astonishing eight times ('68,'69,'72,'73,'76,'78, '04, '05), if you don't consider the wins of '04 and '05 as vacated thanks to the hubris of Reggie Bush. Keith Jackson called the '72 Trojans, led by Sam "Bam" Cunningham, the best team he'd ever seen; this was the first Trojan team to finish Pac play with a perfect record, after destroying Ohio State 42-17 in the Rose Bowl.

No other team pulled off the perfecta until UW, with Steve Emtman on defense, went 8-0 / 12-0 in 1991, securing their only half of an actual "national championship" by convincing a bunch of "coaches" they were better than Miami.

Jake the Snake Plummer led ASU to a win over #1 Nebraska, and came within a few minutes of a perfect record in '96; the late loss to Ohio State in the Rose left them 8-0 / 11-1.

UCLA rode the arm and vomitus of Cade McNown, and the broken ankle of Reuben Droughns to a 8-0 / 10-2 mark, but lost its last two games.

Oregon still has a chance to have a blemish on its record, but whatever happens in Glendale, that 9-0 mark is one for the ages. 

And, next season, some team will have a chance to go 10-0. Chances are, that 10th game will be at Autzen.

Which may be why this man is smiling.

via media.oregonlive.com