A major change took place in the Pac-12 football conference on Wednesday afternoon.
The Pac-12 announced that they would be changing the format for teams to get into the conference championship game, starting in 2022, now based on win-percentage vs. other conference teams, rather than the winner of the north and south divisions.
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“Starting in 2022, the two teams with the highest conference winning percentage will face off in the championship game,” the conference stated in a release. “This change would have resulted in a different Pac-12 Football Championship matchup in 5 of the past 11 years.”
According to the release, this change was passed with unanimous support from coaches in the Pac-12, as well as athletic directors and board of directors.
The Pac-12 says that the current 2022 schedule, with matchups based on divisions, will remain in place, but things will be re-evaluated after the season. There is a feeling that the conference could do away with divisions in the near future.
While this is a great move for parity in the conference, it could make for a tougher road to the conference championship game in the future for the Oregon Ducks. The northern division in the Pac-12 is widely viewed as the weaker of the two, and Oregon has found a lot of success since the conference expanded to 12 teams and put divisions into place. making it to 5 of the 11 conference title games since it was introduced in 2011.
Should scheduling be opened up and not require Oregon to play against North division teams every year, it could give them a harder path forward into the title game, which is held in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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