The Really Big Thing Was …
Oregon really is a player in this whole thing.
Let me expand this to whatever team is going to win the Pac-12 Championship, but after the impressive win over UCLA on Saturday, Oregon is looking more and more like it’s good enough to close out strong.
Of course the College Football Playoff committee can and will do whatever it wants, but as I have to keep mentioning because no one wants to buy it, 2018 Ohio State is the only 12-1 Power Five conference champion to not get into the CFP, and that’s only because Notre Dame was 12-0.
So far since this thing got going in 2014, if you win at least 12 games and your Power Five championship, you’re in unless something crazy happens.
Now, could the committee take its Because It’s Alabama clause and apply it to one of the losers of Tennessee-Georgia or Michigan-Ohio State if either one finishes 11-1, but would it do that if there are four – maybe even five – 12-win Power Five champions?
Maybe. Again, it can pick Central Michigan if it wants to, but I’m not sold it would do that.
However, it’s already starting that the 49-3 loss to Georgia to start the season might be a deathblow if it’s between a 12-1 Pac-12 champion Oregon team and Tennessee, or an SEC Championship loser if it’s 12-1.
But the committee also likes teams on a roll.
Oregon has its win over previously unbeaten UCLA, it has a slew of okay victories – Washington State beat Wisconsin on the road, BYU beat Baylor, Stanford beat Notre Dame – and it still has good games ahead.
At Cal, at Colorado, Washington and Utah at home, at Oregon State. Those last three are problems, but that’s a positive – that could build up the resumé that much more.
And there’s no USC on the slate.
If the Trojans can get through the rest of their schedule unscathed – at Arizona, Cal, Colorado, at UCLA, Notre Dame – to be 11-1 vs 11-1 Oregon for the Pac-12 Championship …
To hammer this home, the CFP can change its own precedents on the fly, but just beware – you really might have to deal with a Pac-12 team in your tournament.
– UT pass D, Jayden Daniels Winners & Losers
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– The season is taking a break What It All Means