No. 13 USC rebounded from some first-half struggles to put away UCLA at the Rose Bowl on Saturday night, 36-14. The game wasn’t terribly exciting, but it was another workmanlike effort for the Trojans, who have now won seven in a row.
How Utah-Colorado will decide the Pac-12 South for either CU or USC
USC beats UCLA, and now the South picture is simple.
Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
Most significant is what it means for the Pac-12 South’s standings. In that race, USC finishes conference play with a 7-2 record. (The Trojans’ last game is a nonconference meeting with Notre Dame.) Colorado is 7-1 in conference play, heading into a regular season finale against Utah this upcoming Saturday in Boulder.
USC beat Colorado on Oct. 8. As a result, the Trojans hold a head-to-head tiebreaker against the Buffs. That means if Colorado loses on Saturday, the teams will tie at 7-2, and USC will advance to the Pac-12 Championship Game. If Colorado wins, the Buffs will finish 8-1 and take the division outright to move on.
It’s probably a bitter pill for Utah fans to swallow. A win for their team would hand the division to a team they beat. Meanwhile, the Utes are out of the running at 5-3 after a heartbreaking loss to Oregon.
CU is the Cinderella, but either result could be OK
Colorado’s an incredible story, and one that only got better when the Buffs beat a ranked Washington State at Folsom Field on Saturday. They haven’t lost at home all year, and they’ll have that advantage against a good Utah team. The atmosphere should be frenetic. Anyone who’s not a USC fan will be rooting for the home team, and the Buffs are indeed playing a team that just lost to Oregon at home.
Is there a case for USC not quite being the villain it usually is? Sure. The Trojans aren’t any kind of underdog, but that they’ve come back from a 1-3 start to put together a New Year’s Six-caliber season is impressive. Redshirt freshman quarterback Sam Darnold has turned their year around, and fans of a competitive Playoff wouldn’t mind such a dangerous team staying on the fringe of the debate for an extra week.
But Colorado will be a home favorite. Win, and the Buffs are in. We’ll all be watching.
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