Going into a new season, every fan base across the nation is going to take a look at their upcoming schedule and figure out which games they think they can win, and which ones they think might result in a loss. The goal is to see how strong their record will be at the end of the year, and what chance they might have to get into a prominent bowl game.
We wanted to do a similar exercise, but rather than predicting which games will be won and lost by Pac-12 teams, we wanted to figure out which games are the most important for the conference as a whole.
While individual success is great, it means very little when the teams around you don’t hold up their end of the bargain and instead tank the national view of the conference. Teams like Oregon and Utah have run into this problem as of late, and it’s killed their chances of getting into the College Football Playoff despite finishing the year with very respectable records.
When it comes to Power-5 conferences, the Pac-12 ranks near the bottom, and they’ve missed out on the CFP in 5 straight seasons despite getting 2 teams in during the first 3 years. If the winner of the Pac-12 Championship game is going to have any hope of getting into the playoff, they’re going to need the national perception of the conference to change.
In order for that perception to change, Pac-12 teams are going to need to win some big games.
Fortunately, there are a lot of big games on the schedule this year, with an impressive slate of non-conference matchups that could offer an opportunity for some west coast teams to make some noise.
Here are the 18 most important games for Pac-12 teams this season, both in non-conference and conference play: