USC’s position in Pac-12 championship race just got better — thanks, Oregon!

The #Pac12 race looks very different after @Ducks_Wire’s Oregon team beat UCLA. Let’s go through the paths for USC after the Ducks dumped the Bruins.

It’s not as though USC needed Oregon to beat UCLA to have any chance of winning the Pac-12. A victory by UCLA would not have closed the door by any means. There was certainly a roadmap for the Trojans regardless of the outcome of UCLA-Oregon on Saturday afternoon.

However, now that Oregon has defeated UCLA, the outlook for the Trojans is clearer and — on balance — better.

The value of Oregon beating UCLA for USC is that the Trojans do have more paths to the Pac-12 Championship Game. They had paths with a UCLA win, but they have more paths thanks to the Ducks’ victory.

Let’s map out some of the dynamics of the new Pac-12 race: