By Arash Markazi

5. Arizona

Nestled in between five mountain ranges in the Sonoran Desert is an oasis that has become an Eden for top college basketball players and bronzed beauties from around the country looking for a place to play in more ways than one. While Hall of Fame basketball coach Lute Olson has made Tucson one of the top college basketball hotbeds since taking over in 1983, Wildcats Olympians and SI Swimsuit models Amanda Beard and Jennie Finch are showing why women's sports are also a huge draw at Arizona.

6. Washington

Seattle is home to Microsoft millionaires, Starbucks tycoons and the Washington Huskies. Husky Stadium is the only place west of Knoxville where you can take in a football game from the waterfront. Beneath Mount Rainier and atop Lake Washington you'll find that on any given Dawg Saturday, luxurious yachts and barges crowd the water space just for a glimpse of the purple and gold. Though the Huskies have lost some of their bite, there is still plenty to do in the gem of the Pacific Northwest.

7. USC

It may be home the best football team in the land and more Olympians than most countries, but when it comes to on-campus life, Southern Cal doesn't quite cut it. Any student looking for a good time on the weekend (or weekday, for that matter) must hop into a car and drive at least 15 minutes outside of the rough neighborhoods that border the school's not-so-prime location near South Central -- unless they plan on partying on Fraternity Row for the umpteenth time. In fact, most students venture to UCLA on a frequent basis and begrudgingly mingle with Bruins at various cinemas, eateries and shops located along Westwood Village. Although the area around USC is improving, it will be years before the school makes it out of the bottom half of the conference in this category.

8. Stanford

It's affectionately called The Farm, but the nightlife around Palo Alto is probably less exciting than in some farm towns. Although most of their teams (except for football) are perennial title contenders, most Cardinal fans are laid-back and more enamored with the antics of the zany band and the ridiculous tree mascot.

9. Washington State

One former Washington State coach used to half-joking say that Pullman wasn't the end of the world, but you could see it from there. Pullman is a college town in every sense of the word as its population of about 25,000 people is all about Washington State. Despite the civil pride -- Cougars emblems are found everywhere from intersection signs to license plates -- the town offers little in the area of nightlife, and the annual snow storms and chilly temperatures make getting around an adventure. Most visitors, including visiting teams, must stay in neighboring Moscow, Idaho, closer to the University of Idaho.

10. Oregon State

It might be the safest campus in the conference, but it's easily the dullest as well. The school that consistently gets tabbed as the worst in the Pac-10 resides in Corvallis, a farm town that is as lazy as the bend in the Willamette River. Most visiting teams choose to stay an hour's drive south in Eugene near the Oregon campus rather than in Beaver country.

Check out No. 1 Arizona State