Comment on Saturday Night Five: CFP now out of reach and why it matters; officiating woes; Oregon State’s statement; UCLA’s forward leap

Saturday Night Five: CFP now out of reach and why it matters; officiating woes; Oregon State’s statement; UCLA’s forward leap

Instant reaction to Pac-12 developments on and off the field … 1. MIA for the CFP (again) The Pac-12 emerged from the initial College Football Playoff rankings on Tuesday with an extraordinarily narrow path into the semifinals. The conference required a dominant finish by either No. 15 Oregon or No. 18 USC and massive help in the form of losses elsewhere to simply join the playoff conversation in the final weeks of the season. Then came the double-whammy, first with USC’s cancellation on Thursday and then with Oregon’s loss on Friday. The Trojans can’t do better than 6-0 and won’t face a ranked opponent until at least the championship game — they aren’t getting in and probably won’t come close. And after their come-from-ahead loss in Corvallis, the Ducks are toast. Meanwhile, the other undefeated teams, Washington and Colorado, are unranked by the CFP selection committee and lack the rocket fuel on their upcoming schedules to climb into the top 10. All hope is gone. The Pac-12 will miss the playoff for the fourth consecutive season and, equally damaging from a PR standpoint, it won’t even be in the stretch-run conversation for the second time in three years. As far as the playoff trappings are concerned … the ESPN and Fox studio show banter … the social media debates … the recruiting benefits … the Pac-12 is no different than Conference USA. It’s a non-entity. That’s not entirely a surprise.

 

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