The College Football Playoff selection committee released its initial set of rankings on Tuesday evening, and as expected, the University of Utah and three other Pac-12 teams cracked the top 15.
As far as the rest of the New Year’s Six goes, this initial ranking is essentially window dressing for Utah. The only NY6 game the Utes can legitimately get to is the Rose Bowl, which means it needs to win the Pac-12 again. Another loss this month would be Utah’s third overall and second in the conference, likely knocking it out of contention for the Pac-12 championship game, thus knocking it out of contention for the NY6.
The big Pac-12 storyline of the night was Oregon, which got destroyed in its opener by then-No. 3 Georgia in Atlanta, 49-3, but has since ripped off eight straight wins to put it back in CFP contention. The question was, and still is, might the selection committee forgive the Georgia loss given that, one, the Ducks have been lights out since and, two, the Bulldogs have since ascended to No.
There is optimism after Tuesday that that may indeed be the case for Oregon, but there are still hurdles to clear. The Ducks, Trojans, and Bruins are all 7-1 overall. Only once since the CFP’s inception in 2014 has a one-loss Power Five champion been left out of the four-team event. The Pac-12 will have an even clearer picture of its situation after Nov. 19. On that date, Oregon hosts Utah and UCLA hosts USC, both games carrying with them massive Pac-12 championship and College Football Playoff implications.
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