Looking ahead, USC and UCLA rising up the polls together (for once!) is pristinely timed. On the other side, the rest of the Pac-12 schools must be rolling their eyes - oh, so now you two are going to flex that muscle we always heard about? These dreamy scenarios have to be making the Big Ten (and Fox) giddy. That’s mostly due to the Trojans having to host resurgent Notre Dame, which has won three straight games after starting 0-2, in the season finale at the Coliseum. USC will have the same opportunity next weekend with Utah, but it will be much harder since the game is at night in Salt Lake City.įrom here, UCLA has the easier path. The Bruins showed they can play physical with a tough team like the Utes but also flash their speed when the window opens to do so. Big 12 conference championship scenarios tv#Identifying those 14 teams shouldn’t take much detective work, but here goes: Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, Michigan, Clemson, USC, Oklahoma State, Tennessee, Mississippi, Penn State, Oregon, UCLA, Texas Christian and Texas (the Longhorns have two losses, sure, but if they somehow got to 11-2 they would have a compelling argument they’d be undefeated if starting quarterback Quinn Ewers did not get hurt in the first quarter against Alabama - yes, a long shot, but the CFP committee can’t resist a TV ratings winner with a case).Īs it stands, USC will be ranked higher, but UCLA has proven more on the field thanks to Saturday’s convincing win over Utah, last year’s Pac-12 champ. But projecting ahead, I see 14 teams left that could reasonably make the College Football Playoff semifinals, and two of them reside in L.A., where, coincidentally, the CFP national championship game will be played at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood on Jan. The specific rankings don’t matter this early, with so much carnage still to come. 11 Oregon, which crushed Arizona 49-22 on the road Saturday.) Sunday’s Associated Press poll will look something like that. Saturday night, Fox college football analyst Joel Klatt tweeted his new rankings, which featured No. Big 12 conference championship scenarios professional#sports fan, even if your interest trends toward the professional ranks, the prospect of USC-UCLA stepping into a new era in which it becomes an annual display of our city’s excellence on the football field should be a reason to care. This is USC-UCLA, set in a city that exports enough future NFL talent to college programs each year to fill more than a few teams’ recruiting classes. This isn’t Oregon-Oregon State, which is regionally defined in a part of the country that produces few blue-chip recruits. Has it really been 34 years since USC and UCLA played not just for the Victory Bell bragging rights, but also for a shot at the national championship?įor whatever reason, the Trojans and Bruins just can’t seem to play well at the same time. If you just did a double-take, welcome to the club. Big 12 conference championship scenarios series#This Sunday morning in L.A., sports fans wake to the brink of a Dodgers playoff run and the upcoming NBA nonsensical melodramas, but the most surprising and highest impact development lies here: USC and UCLA are both 6-0 for the first time since 2005, with an all-too-real chance of playing their first top-10 rivalry matchup since 1988 - a few weeks after the Dodgers won the World Series over the A’s. People who nitpick USC are showing their true colors at this point - they’re either self-loathing Trojans or folks whose faces turn cardinal at the thought of USC winning. In the East Coast prime-time slot, Riley’s sixth-ranked Trojans were challenged once again, this time by a capable Washington State team, but ran off 20 unanswered points to win comfortably 30-14. 11 Utah, winning their second-straight top-15 game at the Rose Bowl 42-32. In the afternoon, Kelly’s 18th-ranked Bruins puffed out their chests for four quarters against No. That’s what we’re staring at after Saturday, a day in which no top-10 teams lost across the country, but L.A.’s relevance skyrocketed. 19 in a game that actually matters nationally because both programs are running legitimate operations - no spoilers allowed, only contenders. UCLA Sports Plaschke: Dorian Thompson-Robinson once again proves he’s the best college QB in L.A.Īs great as Caleb Williams is playing for USC, Dorian Thompson-Robinson proved during UCLA’s big win over Utah that he’s L.A.'s top college quarterback.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |