The Pac-12 missed the College Football Playoff in 2017, part of an all-around lousy year for what’s recently been the least powerful of the Power 5 conferences.
Washington State is still the Pac-12’s last Playoff hope
The Cougars have now beaten three top conference contenders in their last four games.
Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images
The Pac-12 is going to miss the Playoff for the second year in a row unless it gets a miracle run from the last team that has a chance: the Washington State Cougars.
WSU beat Stanford in a 41-38 thriller in Palo Alto, one week after an all-time day in WSU’s little pocket of Eastern Washington. And now that the dust has settled, the story’s the same as it was seven days prior: one-loss WSU is the league’s last, best, and only Playoff hope.
Everyone else in the Pac-12 has multiple losses. No two-loss team’s made the Playoff yet, and this conference won’t be the first to get one in.
The SEC would’ve had a two-loss team in the Playoff last year if Auburn had beaten Georgia in the conference championship. Someday, it’ll happen. A conference will have enough good teams, and Championship Weekend will be weird enough, that a two-loss team will make the four-team field to cap off the season. But that’s not going to be the 2018 Pac-12.
One by one, the conference’s expected contenders (and everyone else) have piled up enough losses to be effectively out of Playoff contention:
- USC had two losses in its first three games, to Stanford and Texas.
- Stanford had a second loss a week into October, after Notre Dame and Utah beat it.
- Washington took its second loss in Week 7 at Oregon, following an opening L to Auburn (and that Auburn loss has not exactly appreciated in value since then)
- Oregon had a loss to Stanford already, then got wrecked in Pullman.
- Colorado started 5-0, pretty much exclusively against terrible teams. The Buffaloes then lost three in a row.
The Pac-12 really just isn’t that good, straight up. It entered Week 9 ranked last among the Power 5 conferences in S&P+.
So now the Pac-12’s hopes are in the capable, always responsible hands of Mike Leach and his WSU Cougars.
Washington State wouldn’t be certain to get in even if the Cougars didn’t lose again through the Pac-12 title game. While a one-loss power conference champion has never missed the Playoff before, Wazzu could have to contend with:
- Alabama
- (Maybe another SEC team and/or Alabama, if the Tide magically do not win the SEC)
- An unbeaten or one-loss Notre Dame, probably
- A one-loss Big Ten champion, probably
- A one-loss Big 12 champion, probably
And maybe even a two-loss team from a conference better than the Pac-12. It’s all hazy, but suffice it to say Washington State wouldn’t be a slam dunk.
But screw math. Numbers are lame. WASHINGTON STATE’S A PLAYOFF CONTENDER A WEEK AFTER WINNING A COLLEGE GAMEDAY GAME.
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