PARITY PREVAILS IN THE PAC-10.

Byline: STEVE DILBECK

The Pacific-10 Conference finally goes out last season and makes some serious national noise, and how do they come back this year?

Talking parity.

This is not, however, to be confused with parity that smacks of the mediocre. Nope, this is supposed to be parity that means they're all just so equally darn good.

``I think any team in this conference is capable of winning the championship,'' said Oregon coach Mike Bellotti.

Bellotti can afford to be generous, since his Ducks were officially tabbed as the Pac-10's preseason favorite on Wednesday in an annual poll of West Coast media. It's the first time Oregan has been voted the conference favorite.

But every conference coach was chiming in with the same refrain at Wednesday's annual football media day. No longer is there a monster school that has to be gone through on the way to the conference title.

``Now you have to go through every town,'' said Washington State coach Mike Price.

Take Price's WSU. Last season the Cougars went 4-7, losing three games in overtime. This year they return 18 starters. They were picked to come in last.

The Pac-10 is coming off an unexpectedly glorious season. Pac-10 teams went 26-10 against nonconference opponents (.722) and three schools finished the season in the top seven in the Associated Press' final poll. They capped it off with Washington (11-1) winning the Rose Bowl, Oregon State (11-1) shocking Notre Dame 41-9 in the Fiesta Bowl and Oregon (10-2) upsetting Texas in the Holiday Bowl.

This year, if the Pac-10 is going to have a team in the Rose Bowl, it will be playing for the national championship on Jan. 3. This is the Rose Bowl's first turn at playing host to the official title game.

Despite the conference's success last year, the preseason polls are not expected to feature much from the Pac-10. But Oregon-Oregon State weren't highly rated to start last season, and a conference team could again emerge high in the polls as the season evolves.

``Our team could because of our first two games,'' said Washington coach Rick Neuheisel. ``We certainly have the opportunity because we play Michigan and Miami right out of the blocks. If we were successful in those two games, we'd have to be considered in the mix.''

Most top conference schools have tough early tests. Oregon opens with Wisconsin, but at home where the Ducks have won 20 consecutive games - the longest streak in the country.

Oregon returns eight starters on offense, including quarterback Joey Harrington, a Heisman Trophy candidate, and running back Maurice Morris (1,106 yards). Yet even the favored Ducks have their questions. They lost seven starters on defense and both their punter and kicker.

``Every year is a new deal,'' Bellotti said. ``You have talent, coaches and opponents, but it's the chemistry that makes the difference.

``It's that little bit of magic that happens to win a game that carries over and the kids start to believe, and then you can't stop it. Who gets that, who keeps their playmakers healthy, is the team that's going to end up on top of this conference.''

That's what happened last year to coach Dennis Erickson at Oregon State, selected to come in second this year.

Last season in their opener, the Beavers needed a blocked field goal in the final seconds to beat Eastern Washington 21-19 at home. They had to scramble the next week to win 28-20 at New Mexico.

But when they started believing they might be pretty good, they finished on a tear, their only loss a 33-30 defeat at Washington.

``If you stay healthy coming into conference, you never know what can happen,'' Erickson said. ``You get on a run like we did last year, things just start happening.''

The Pac-10 is a quarterback's conference, and the Beavers return one of the best in baby-faced Jonathan Smith. And Smith can hand off to Ken Simonton (1,474 yards), another conference Heisman candidate.

UCLA, picked by 10 of the 33 media members to finish first, also returns an impressive quarterback-running back duo in Corey Paus and DeShaun Foster. The Bruins, though, open at Alabama and Kansas, and play host to Ohio State. And they still have that defense.

Everywhere there are uncertainties, everywhere possibilities.

Washington has to replace the conference's Offensive Player of the Year, quarterback Marques Tuiasosopo. Stanford brings back 18 starters off a 5-6 team. Cal's Tom Holmoe knows he will likely be coaching with his job on the line. USC, Arizona and Arizona State all have new head coaches.

Everybody looks oddly competitive.

``I think we're all closer to the top than we are the bottom,'' Bellotti said. ``I usually talk about how the prognosticators don't really know very much, but now I have to hope that they're right.''

PAC-10 PRESEASON MEDIA POLL

1. Oregon (20) 310

2. Oregon St. (3) 270

3. UCLA (10) 262

4. Washington 228

5. Stanford 191

6. USC 185

7. Arizona St. 128

8. California 90

9. Arizona81

10. Washington St. 70

--First-place votes in parentheses.

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PAC-10 PRESEASON MEDIA POLL (see text)