The University of Utah — the team that just won’t go away — and USC — the team that is going away — meet Friday night to decide the Pac-12 football champion in a game that is not lacking for backstories. It requires some prologue.
For starters, the Pac-12 has waited years to become nationally relevant again and to place another team in the playoff, and now it has a team in position to do just that.
The Pac-12 has just one complaint: Why does it have to be US-freakin’-C, the Traitor Trojans?
Anyone but those guys.
USC, ranked No. 4 in the latest College Football Playoff rankings, is one win from all but clinching a berth in the national playoff. All the Trojans have to do is beat Utah in the conference championship game in a highly anticipated rematch. Normally, that would be a reason to celebrate in the Pac-12, but …
Last June, both USC and UCLA announced they are divorcing the Pac-12 after 100 years of marriage — they’re going to the Big Ten, beginning in 2024. They’ve found someone richer and better looking, and they’ve got one foot out the door and their suitcases packed. Their departure is delayed only to avoid financial penalties. Meanwhile, the Pac-12 (soon to be Pac-10) and USC are forced to live together.
It’s not an amicable breakup. Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff called the USC/UCLA departure a money grab and claimed they were selling out the athletes. The athletic directors at USC and UCLA were not invited to a meeting of their conference peers and, as the New York Times noted, by mutual agreement they did not attend the league’s media day. Utah coach Kyle Whittingham has referred to the league as the Pac-10.
The good news for the Pac-12: Six of their member schools appear in the top 17 of the latest CFP rankings, which equals the number they’ve totaled in the final rankings of the last five years. The bad news: two of them are USC (No. 4) and UCLA (No. 17).
If the Trojans defeat the Utes, they’re likely to become the first Pac-12 school to win a berth in the national playoff in six years, but would the outbound Trojans really represent the Pac-12? If a team has signed up for the Big Ten, how does this help the reputation of the spurned conference?
It’s an awkward situation at best.
No one in the Pac-12 can be happy about USC’s rise to the top of the league given the impending departure, the bad feelings and the manner in which the Trojans turned things around. Whittingham made the Trojans Exhibit A to demonstrate that the transfer portal is out of control, giving athletes more freedom to move from team to team than Little Leaguers and professionals.
Following the 2021 season, Lincoln Riley traded the head coaching job at powerhouse Oklahoma last year for the head coaching job at USC and, aided by the transfer portal, top players followed him there from various schools, including the Trojans’ current starting quarterback — Heisman Trophy candidate Caleb Williams via Oklahoma — their top two rushers — Travis Dye via Oregon and Austin Jones via Stanford — three of their four leading receivers — Jordan Addison via Pitt, Mario Williams via Oklahoma, Brenden Rice via Colorado — and five of their six leading scorers. According to The Ringer, 20 players transferred to USC during the last offseason, 17 of them making USC’s two-deep in camp.
Voila, instant title contender. The Trojans went from 4-8 a year ago to 11-1. Oklahoma went from 11-2 to 6-6.
This has drawn criticism from all corners of the country. “We didn’t take players from Oklahoma. We took players from the transfer portal,” Riley told radio host Colin Cowherd. That’s splitting hairs.
In the days before Utah and USC met in Salt Lake City a few weeks ago, Whittingham told reporters, “Obviously, the transfer portal is being manifest how impactful it can be there (at USC) and at Oklahoma. Oklahoma had mass departures. USC had a mass influx of talent. You see what’s happening. Teams are going to be able to make major improvement or go the other way more than ever … there’s far more turnover on your roster now than there ever has been in the modern era of college football.”
A few days later, Utah handed USC its only defeat of the season, 43-42, winning on a gutsy two-point conversion at the end of regulation.
All of which sets the stage for the rematch, one that no one expected.
When the Utes played Oregon two weeks ago it was billed as a must-win game for both teams. The Utes lost 20-17. Their season seemed finished. Four things had to happen for them to reach the championship game: UCLA had to beat Cal; Utah had to beat lowly Colorado; Washington had to beat Washington State; and Oregon State had to beat Oregon (the latter had occurred only twice in 14 years). Against all odds, it all happened. That placed Utah in a three-way tie for second with Oregon and Washington and the Utes won the tiebreaker.
So they will play in the conference championship game for the fourth time in the last five years, this time against a national championship contender. It’s difficult to say which outcome is more desirable for the Pac-12.
Pac-12 Championship Game
No. 11 Utah (9-3, 8-2)
vs. No. 4 USC (11-1, 8-1)
Friday, 6 p.m. MST
Allegiant Stadium
TV: Fox
Radio: ESPN 700