*** The Pac-12 Hotline newsletter is published each Monday-Wednesday-Friday during the college sports season and twice-a-week in the summer. (Sign up here for a free subscription.) This edition, from Jan. 15, has been made available in archived form.

Mirror, Mirror

Top-25 rankings don’t mean much, save for the selection committee’s last edition.

The early top-25 rankings — those published now, for instance — mean even less.

But they aren’t completely devoid of significance.

The rankings and projections that will dominate the next seven months help frame the expectations for teams and coaches — expectations which are then part of the end-of-season judgment.