It will be interesting when bowl season rolls around and we get an idea of how good the Pac-12 is.  While individual bowl games can be problematic, enough teams from each conference go to bowls that a general idea of how good a conference is emerges.  The Duck coaching staff needs both Nebraska and the Pac-12 to perform really well.  Helfrich still has  a chance to get the Ducks into a bowl to help influence his job retention and the image of the Pac-12 (Ahem, "control the things we can control.").  We shall see.