Just one more point...
The reason the PAC-10 is considered the toughest conference (though maybe not "the best"), is because of how many quality teams there are...
Perfect point, one of your arguments a lot is that conferences like the Big East, ACC, and Big 12 are better... no one even compares to the PAC-10 top to bottom..
West Virginia is a PERFECT EXAMPLE....
They are 22-9 11-7 in the Big East sitting in 6th position... But out of those 11 wins, 2 wins against St Johns (OSU-esce), Rutgers (OSU-esce), USF (OSU-esce), and Providence twice (Washington-esce... Meaning 6 of their 11 wins were against levels of competiton comparable to the bottom 2 teams of the PAC-10...
What if West Virginia could ONLY play against Uconn, Pitt, GU, Syracuse, Louisville, Marquette, Nortre Dame, Villinova, and say Rutgers.
If they had to play these teams week in and week out a total of 18 times, what would their record be?
The fact that they only had to play GU, Louisville, Uconn, and ND once this year is huge, and BTW they lost all four....
The fact is these other conferences may be considered better, as far as having more teams, but the PAC-10 is the Toughest, and coming out 9-9 or better is impressive no matter where you are....