Pac-12: Nine-game schedule not to blame for playoff absence

It also gets $4 million for each team that plays in a non-playoff bowl (Fiesta, Peach, Rose and Sugar this year). OR played MI State close in East Lasing but couldn’t come away with a late victory.

There’s a lot of meaningful football left to be played, but if those situations come to fruition, the Pac-12 would get its blue-blood championship game-just not the way it imagined.

The conference’s decision to play a nine-game conference slate has been tabbed as one reason for missing the playoff.

We know from previous year that the only major conference not to get a team into the playoff was the Big 12, which lacks a conference championship game. USC interim coach Clay Helton said McQuay would only be available against OR in an emergency. “I think it’s something we should talk about at the league meetings”. The Ducks now rank No. 1 in the conference in a number of offensive categories, including scoring (41.8) and total yards per game (532.6) and they’re spearheaded by running back Royce Freeman, the nation’s No. 5 rusher (1,392).

Colorado deserves higher regard than being known as the 11th-best team in the Pac-12, but the Buffaloes just can’t seem to break through.

Despite the unsightly numbers, Pellum’s unit has made clutch plays in the fourth quarter to seal each of the team’s wins during the Ducks’ four-game winning streak. Stanford lost at Northwestern, ASU lost in what was essentially a road game at Texas A&M, OR lost a non-conference game at MI State and USC lost a non-conference game at Notre Dame. Clearly, the award folks didn’t get the memo on UO’s Nelson, who has played receiver, run the ball, returned kicks, leveled more hits in return coverage and started the past five games at safety.

“Everyone has been talking about the playoff every day since the offseason”, Stanford coach David Shaw said.

Here is a quick breakdown of the Top 13 teams in the College Football Rankings. “It’s only the adults and particularly people in the media that sit and stew and look for somebody to blame and wonder how in the world can you ever come back and play again”.

“It’s like we’re supposed to be walking around with our heads down, lamenting”, Shaw said.

But though they’re national afterthoughts now, winning the Pac-12 would still be a significant achievement, and the two teams remain in the thick of it in the South race, along with USC.

Few realized it before this season, when Adams transferred to OR from Eastern Washington. A win on Saturday over Cal gives the Cardinal the division title. While the Trojans have previously depended on a slowed down tempo that grinds out points on the ground, they’ll rely a lot on Kessler’s arm on Saturday.

“I don’t think there’s any discernible strategic difference”, OR coach Mark Helfrich said of USC’s approach under Helton compared to Sarkisian. UCLA and USC are in control of their own destinies. All the Trojans have to do to win the PAC-12 South is win their next two games against OR and UCLA. They’ve given up 256.3 yards per game and rank No. 9 in the Pac-12 in pass defense.

Eight Pac-12 teams are already bowl eligible with two more seeking that status in the final two weeks of the season. Ditto the Ducks in the North Division, but only if Stanford, who they shocked last Saturday on the Farm, loses this weekend to Cal. Why USC Will Win Big setting. But OR (7-3, 5-2) is not almost as imposing at Autzen this season, getting blown out by Utah and losing to Washington State. Watch this game at 3:00 pm PT on Pac-12 Networks. The other? Washington State vs Colorado. Meanwhile, UCLA lost its third game in the Pac-12 to the Washington State Cougars. Both teams have won four in a row after starting 3-3. Player Who Matters The USC O-line is coming off a mediocre game in Boulder, in which the team averaged 3.5 yards a carry. He did offer another solution, however.