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  Jeff Agase Agase has seen the last two years of UCLA football and fears the worst this Saturday. Feel free to participate in some premature commiseration at agase@ucla.edu.

Come Jan. 3, 2002, the team that hoists the national championship trophy at the 50-yard line of the Rose Bowl will probably be from somewhere in Florida, Texas, Oklahoma or Nebraska.

Those who complain about the alleged East Coast bias in college football rankings claim it’s frustrating and annoying, not to mention unfair.

It shouldn’t be, but in the spirit of Canadian public television, I’ll give the conspiracy theorists equal time and a chance to have their case stated.

Their argument goes something like this: every Saturday, geriatric media-types from the Eastern Seaboard nestle into 30-year-old indentations in their La-Z-Boys, watch SEC, Big XII, ACC and Big 10 football, salivate over how great it is, wipe up their drool, and cast their votes, elevating the teams they see on television to the top of the polls.

Meanwhile, the Pac-10 surfer dudes aren’t starting their games until 7:30 p.m. Pacific Time. As it is already 10:30 p.m. on the East Coast, the guys with the votes are asleep, passed out on a winning bingo card, with visions of Lee Corso dancing in their wee little heads. If they are awake, they’re certainly not watching Pac-10 football; instead, they’re doing something stupid, like watching “Charles in Charge” reruns or reading.

And while this conveniently creative scenario would likely make Oliver Stone proud, I have, after laborious research (read: glancing at my ESPN Sports Almanac), come to a simple two-step solution to the Pac-10’s conundrum:

Step 1: Win more games.

Step 2: Repeat Step 1 – consistently.

What’s that you say? The Pac-10 had a great 2000 season, posting a stellar non-conference record and finishing with three teams in the top 10?

That would be just great, if it hadn’t so embarrassingly sleepwalked its way through the 1999 season. One great year just isn’t enough. Forget the cryptic Bowl Championship Series formula, which is probably computed by that robot girl from “Small Wonder.” If the Pac-10 begins to regularly field two or three excellent teams, which many say it has done this year, the rankings will take care of themselves.

You see, the Pac-10 has a bit of an image problem. It seems that the rest of this great Union sees our brand of pigskin as everything from pass-happy to flat-out weak. What it all comes down to, many say, is that the Pac-10 plays diet football.

That may be why both of the polls, in addition to virtually every other major college football publication, is reluctant to put any Pac-10 team in their preseason top 5. Sports Illustrated has Oregon State at No. 1, but television psychic Miss Cleo could do a better job than SI at picking national champions. I can just see her: “Oohh, the King of Cups is smiling down upon you, Coach Spurrier!”

But I digress. The Pac-10 hasn’t won a national title since Washington shared it in 1991 and hasn’t had a consensus national champion since 1972. Every other major conference has done it since then.

So let’s quit the complaining. Both SI and ESPN say the Oregon-Oregon State “Civil War” game may decide who plays for the national title, but the media’s attention is fickle. Even though the Pac-10 seems to be the hippest thing in preseason bandwagoning, a few disappointing non-conference losses and we’ll be back to the drawing board, throwing up bowl game cannon fodder for the nation’s more respected conferences.

A repeat of 2000’s eye-opening early season performances – like last year’s UCLA wins over Alabama and Michigan and Washington’s win over Miami – and the geezers on the East Coast will have to take notice.

There’s little doubt that an undefeated Pac-10 team would get a crack at the national title. The system simply lends itself to it. But even if the conference champion should lose a single game, another strong year from the Pac-10 may just break the predictable polling cycle college football fans have grown to loathe.

Nothing would satisfy West Coast fans more than seeing a Pac-10 school keep a 55-year-old tradition alive and play in the Rose Bowl, site of this year’s national championship. This season, more than any other in recent history, lends itself to the possibility. For those who have bemoaned the nation’s ignorance of West Coast football, it's time to put up or shut up.

Check the schedule.

• Sept. 1: UCLA at Alabama (national TV), Wisconsin at Oregon.

• Sept. 8: Michigan at Washington (national TV), Kansas State at USC.

• Sept. 15: Washington at Miami (national TV).

• Sept. 22: Ohio St. at UCLA (national TV).

It seems the fate of the Pac-10 may be decided in less than a month. It’s simple, really. Either play great football and be respected for consistency or do what the rest of the nation is hoping the Pac-10 will do and once again fade away, playing games no one watches, pathetically crying about the “East Coast bias.”

It’s time to stop the whining and keep on winning.