Pac-10 Basketball Preview: Aww Screw It I'll Rank The Mascots

Let’s face it, basketball wise, it’s a down year for the Pac-10. 

So instead of writing some in depth preview (that ship has sailed anyway, as we’ve already started playing), here’s my list, from worst to best, of Pac-10 mascots.

This is intended as a lighthearted distraction from the number crunching of sports, so please don't take offense when your schools ugly mascot isn't ranked highly.  

This, folks, is an easy one. 

I hate the Stanford tree with the passion of 10,000 fiery suns.  First of all, it’s not even the school’s mascot (it’s the band’s).  Second of all, it’s a tree.  Third of all, well mascots have no business being trees so I think I’ll stop there. 

I’m not trying to pick on the Bay Area schools, but Oski comes in at number nine.  There’s something about this bear that screams child molester to me, and mascots have no business being on “to catch a predator”

Sure, I’m an Oregon fan, but Benny the Beaver comes in at number eight not because of my hatred for OSU, but because Benny the Beaver is one of the top five ugliest mascots in college sports.  He's not quite Bucky Badger, but he's close.  

The WSU cougar comes in at number seven simply because it represents Washington State athletics, and therefore by rule must finish towards the bottom of any Pac-10 ranking.  

Wilbur loses points because the student section at his school is idiotic. 

Let’s look at the Oregon game from 2009 when they started to rush the field with time left on the clock, and Oregon driving.  Oregon, of course, eventually won, and that was followed by an Arizona fan throwing a water bottle at an Oregon cheerleader’s head.  Not cool. 

Huskies are awesome Dogs, so this mascot had a chance to be ranked a lot higher, but the only real points the Washington mascot earns is that it is a husky. 

Joe Bruin is a likeable enough bear.  Unlike his big brother to the north, he doesn’t look like a pedophile, so he earns points there.   I can’t think of anything particularly cynical to say about him, but I don’t really like him either.

Unlike the Duke Blue Devil, the Arizona Sun Devil actually looks like a devil.  He’s mischievous, he’s fun, he’s a good, solid mascot.  

Tommy Trojan (and his horse Traveller) have two of the coolest traditions in the Pac-10—the stabbing the sword into the ground, and Traveller’s majestic gallop up and down the sideline after USC scores.   He’s a badass and he is a great representation of the storied history of USC football

Yes, I am biased, and that has a lot to do with Puddles being number one.  But there are so many more reasons. 

One, he can beat the living daylights out of your mascot. Two, he can do more pushups that any other mascots (Puddles does a pushup for every point Oregon scores at football games.  In the 2010-2011 season he did over 2,000). Three, he can dance better than your mascot.  Four, he can play the drums better than your mascot.

To me, it’s a no brainer that this multi-talented Duck comes in at number one.  

As a side note, his name is actually simply the Duck, though everybody calls him Puddles.