The Pac-12 announced on Wednesday that it would be implementing a new format for its conference championship game. Instead of the best in the North Division playing the best in the South, the two overall squads with the best conference records will now face each other come 2022.
So what does this mean for Colorado? Well, Stewart Mandel of The Athletic tweeted that he believes the Buffs will now have a tougher battle to reach the title game. At first thought, it does seem reasonable that having to compete with a few extra teams would make things more challenging.
But that’s not what history tells us.
If the new format had been implemented in 2020, the Buffs would have been in that season’s Pac-12 Championship Game. Colorado’s 2016 Pac-12 South winning team also remains safe.
Here is what Michelle Gardner of the Arizona Republic said about 2020:
The 2020 game would have been vastly different. The official game was to have pitted USC against Washington but Washington was unable to compete due to COVID and was replaced by Oregon. Under the soon-to-be-implemented format, USC would have played Colorado.
Man, it would have been great to play USC that year. The Trojans were scheduled to face the Buffs in what would have been a major Pac-12 matchup, but COVID-19 regulations canceled the game, likely ruining CU’s chances at winning the division.
While making comparisons to the 2020 college football season comes with its faults, the new conference format may not be all bad for Colorado.
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