All of which puts lie to the ongoing, untruthful, institutional boast that the PAC-12 is comprised of elite "research" universities.

The PAC-12  is composed of  Stanford (#5), Cal-Berkeley (#21-tie), UCLA (#21-tie), USC (#21-tie) and Washington (#56) 
but also the also-rans: 
Colorado (#90), Oregon (#103), Utah (#110-tie), ASU (#115), Arizona (#124-tie), Washington State (#140-tie), Oregon State (#145-tie).

They rejected BYU (#61-tie) as being insufficiently "research" (read that liberal) enough - though it is far harder to get into than any of the also-rans - not to mention being possessed of a legion of alumni all over the West.