The Pac-12’s final week of games seemed pretty Monday morning. By Monday afternoon, everything changed.
Washington and USC were originally slated to play in the title game this Friday, but Washington pulled out due to COVID-19 issues in the Huskies program, and Oregon will now play No. 13 USC for the conference title.
Writer for the San Jose Mercury Jon Wilner was the first to report the Pac-12 giving Washington no timetable to cancel the game. He says there’s nothing surprising about what happened in the end.
“There was a lot of skepticism from the get go that Washington was going to be able to play,” he said. “There’s no other conference that has the division format that’s going to play a championship game if one of the winners can’t go.”
USC remains undefeated heading into Friday’s championship. There’s little hope they could make the CFB even if it stays that way. “What a lot of fans don’t understand is, it does the conference no good to have a Top 10 team,” Wilner explains. “You want your best teams with the best chance to succeed, so it kind of undermines the collective branding and promotional value.”
The 2020 college football season has been marred with crazy results, so it’s not crazy to think USC still can’t make the CFB. It’s just very farfetched. “There’s a 5-percent chance” of the Trojans getting a spot, says Wilner. “But the thing is, it’s not a 5-percent chance for USC to get into the conversation…”
Washington was named Pac-12 North champ by virtue of having a better winning percentage than Oregon.