Thank God there are conference championship games outside the Power 2. Neither a 4-loss Purdue team or a 3-loss LSU team move the needle. Of course, now that the Odyssey has thrown shade on these games, expect at least one of these 17-point dogs to pull the upset.
One aspect of conference championship games that the Odyssey finds distasteful is the high frequency of rematches. One of the beauties of college football is that “one and done” is the norm.
However, 2 tasty rematches are on the docket this weekend. Can USC punch its ticket to the playoff with a victory over Utah? The Utes posted a scintillating 43-42 victory in Salt Lake City on a gutsy, last-minute, 2-point conversion. Can any mortal defense slow down Caleb Williams? The Odyssey likes USC in this game on the theory that beating a quality team twice has proven to be difficult if history is any measure.
The Odyssey notes that Utah won an interesting tiebreaker with 2 other teams that went 7-2 in the Pac12, Oregon and Washington. If the first tiebreaker to determine team #2 in the Pac 12 title game was head-to-head among the 3 teams, Washington would have won out with a 1-0 mark. The Huskies beat Oregon in a thriller and did not play the Utes. However, the Pac12’s tiebreaker was the team whose opponents had the highest win-loss percentage in conference play. Advantage Utah. (Remember that each Pac12 team does not play 2 conference opponents).
TCU has impressively gone through the Big 12 undefeated. Impressive in the sense that the Big 12 had 0 weak sisters this year. While the Horned Frogs would be a great story to get to the playoffs undefeated, Kansas State is a hell of a team with two excellent QBs. We do not think TCU will beat the Wildcats a second time.
Speaking of rematches, the Odyssey would throw up if Ohio State makes the playoff and again plays Michigan. The Game is simply not The Game if played multiple times in a year. We shall see!