For the fourth time in six years, the Pac-12 won’t send a group to the College Football Playoff.
The proceeded with nonappearance has constrained the meeting’s national perceivability and harmed its recognition, however Oregon mentor Mario Cristobal said their program won’t make any booking concessions to encourage a simpler way to the four-group season finisher.
“They want to play the best teams in the country all the time, and there is no way we’re going to go away from that mentality to try to schedule down to appease — whatever, I guess I should stop there before I get in trouble, right?” Cristobal said. “These guys deserve to find out how good they are by playing against the best, so we’re going to continue doing that.”
Oregon entered Friday’s meeting title game against No. 5 Utah well out of the season finisher picture, partially because of a season-opening misfortune to Auburn. Had the Ducks not planned Auburn and made due with three simpler nonconference games – like the calendar Utah played – their 37-15 win against the Utes may have set them in place to get solid thought for a season finisher spot.
The Ducks play Ohio State the following two seasons and Georgia in 2022.
In spite of the misfortune to Auburn, Oregon stayed in season finisher dispute until a 31-28 misfortune to Arizona State on Nov. 24.
“I don’t know if I’ll get in trouble for talking about [playoff] systems, but I think there has to be a lot of weight placed on winning your conference,” Cristobal said. “You can go through your conference and win your conference — especially one where you play nine conference games like we do — that has to and needs to carry a lot of weight going forward.”
Utah, regardless of playing BYU, Northern Illinois and Idaho State in nonconference play, went into the game with a sensible shot to turn into the third group from the Pac-12, joining Oregon (2014) and Washington (2016), to arrive at the season finisher. Had the Utes won convincingly and LSU beaten Georgia in the SEC title game, Utah would almost certainly have gotten the No. 4 seed.
The Pac-12’s season finisher unquestionably is certainly not another issue.
“I’ve been asked that a lot of times the last couple years, three, four years, I pretty much always have the same answer: You got a very balanced league, nine conference games. You got to pretty much run the table in conference, nonconference as well. 12-0, 11-1, that’s pretty much what you got to be.”
Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said.
“Nobody has been able to do that because we beat each other up every year. We play that ninth game, which gives you another opportunity to take a loss. There’s been a lot of balance. I hate the word ‘parity,’ but competitive, it’s a very competitive conference.”
Before the game, Pac-12 magistrate Larry Scott was gotten some information about the plausibility of their gathering again being forgotten about, and they gave no motivation to accept they would advocate for season finisher extension.
“When we designed the playoff, we understood there were four slots,” Scott said. “There are five big conferences, independents. That would mean years that teams couldn’t get in. So we understand that.”
Oregon (11-2) will play in the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day, while Utah’s bowl goal stays vague. It’s conceivable the Utes (11-2) could get an everywhere compartment into the Cotton Bowl, a piece of the New Year’s Six, however the disproportionate misfortune makes it likely that they will drop to the Alamo Bowl. On the off chance that Utah isn’t chosen for the Cotton Bowl, the Alamo Bowl will have the choice to pick Utah or USC. Should the Alamo Bowl pass on Utah, the Utes will play in the Holiday Bowl.