Pac-12 football rankings: USC plays Utah for the title, but Washington rises
When two teams in a conference play for the championship, one would naturally think they should be ranked No. 1 and No. 2, especially if that conference’s championship game matches the top two teams in the standings and doesn’t use divisions the way the Pac-12 used to.
Yet, life isn’t always that simple.
We rank teams based on resumes, not projections or anticipated results. Therefore, we can’t look ahead in terms of the current rankings we assign to teams.
However, we can certainly tell you if our rankings will change. This is a good time to do that.
There won’t be any Pac-12 rankings next weekend because only one game will be played in the conference, the Pac-12 Championship Game between USC and Utah.
We’re going to rank the Pac-12 this week, and we’ll tell you how the rankings will change based on the outcome of the Pac-12 title game.
Here we go:
COLORADO
Woof.
That’s the tweet at the end of a miserable, humiliating Colorado football season.
We’ll see who coaches this team very soon.
Follow Buffaloes Wire for coverage. Deion Sanders is apparently thinking about taking this job.
STANFORD
The Trees fell this year, and David Shaw decided he had enough.
ARIZONA STATE
The Sun Devils looked like a team which could make some noise, but they fizzled in November. Then they hired Oregon offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham, as Ducks Wire noted.
CAL
Justin Wilcox lost to Colorado and had to change his offensive staff.
ARIZONA
Five wins for Jedd Fisch in Year 2, including a win over rival Arizona State, marks this year as a success.
It could have been better if the U of A had beaten Cal, though.
WASHINGTON STATE
The first priority for Jake Dickert entering 2023: Get some offensive linemen in the transfer portal.
OREGON STATE
Oregon State’s nonconference results are better than UCLA’s, but UCLA beat Utah and Washington, and OSU went 0-2 against those teams.
UCLA
UCLA lost to Oregon, which offsets UCLA beating Washington and Oregon losing to the Huskies. Both teams beat Utah.
The ultimate difference: UCLA lost at home to Arizona.
OREGON
The Ducks are fourth in these rankings. Spots 5-12 are permanent and final. The top four can change based on the outcome of the USC-Utah game.
Oregon will rise to No. 3 if Utah loses to USC. The Utes made the Pac-12 title game, so they are ahead of the Ducks now, but their head-to-head loss versus Oregon carries weight if they lose a fourth game and fail to win the Pac-12 title.
WASHINGTON
The Huskies did it.
They went 10-2 and would be in the Pac-12 title game if they hadn’t lost to Arizona State.
The Tempe Curse is real for Washington. It has not won in Tempe since 2001. ASU was 3-9 this season, and U-Dub still couldn’t get a dub in the Valley of the Sun Devils this year.
That point aside, if Utah loses to USC, Washington will finish second in the 2022 Pac-12 pre-bowl rankings. A USC win would do something very special for Washington, too: Because a USC win puts the Trojans in the College Football Playoff, the Pac-12 would need a team for the Rose Bowl. Washington would get in over Utah in that scenario. The Huskies are huge USC fans this week.
UTAH
The Utes backdoored into the Pac-12 Championship Game. They won’t mind. They got there. They do need to beat USC, though, to rise to No. 1. If they lose, they will fall to No. 4. Oregon will move up to No. 3 and Washington to No. 2.
USC
If the Trojans lose to Utah, they finish No. 2 in the Pac-12 for the year. If they win, they finish No. 1 in their conference and in the top four in the country, meaning a College Football Playoff berth.
We went through various playoff and bowl scenarios for USC. You will want to check out this collection and share it with your friends.
