With just one week remaining until the selection committee makes its final determinations, four different West Coast programs have a shot at reaching the College Football Playoff. There is only room for three of them to get into the field, but even then, one-quarter of the first expanded bracket could hail from the region. That representation is long overdue after the Pac-12 was regularly shunned from the big stage during the four-team era.
Boise State, UNLV and Arizona State are a win from clinching automatic playoff berths, while Oregon is a lock to make the field regardless of what happens in the Big Ten Championship Game. That title bout, plus the championship matchups in the Mountain West and Big 12, will play integral roles in shaping the bracket.
As for the rest of the region, the season is either done or effectively complete. Sub-.500 teams saw the campaign close over the weekend, while bowl squads face the challenge of remaining motivated over the coming weeks. Take, for example, USC, where a disappointing year makes bowl season a reminder of its failure to rebound in Year 3 under Lincoln Riley.
OREGON FACES NEW, SURPRISING OBSTACLE
All signs pointed to an Oregon-Ohio State rematch in Indianapolis, but following the Buckeyes’ shocking upset loss to Michigan, the Ducks’ path to a first-round bye goes through a new opponent. Dan Lanning and his program meet Penn State for the first time as Big Ten foes, and the winner secures a conference crown and the potential No. 1 seed in the playoff. Saturday marks these schools’ first meeting since 1994 and just their fifth matchup all time. The Nittany Lions hold a 3-1 series advantage.
BOISE STATE, UNLV TO MEET IN CFP PLAY-IN GAME
UNLV has not beaten Boise State as a Mountain West foe. There is no better time for the Rebels to end their drought than this weekend, when the conference’s two best teams meet for the second time since Oct. 25. These squads have been the premier playoff contenders from the Mountain West all year, and it is only fitting that they meet again as the top two Group of Five teams in the country. Tulane’s loss on Thanksgiving paved the way for the winner of this battle to punch a ticket to the playoff, and if the Broncos go 2-0 against the Rebels on the year, they should also secure a first-round bye.
ARIZONA STATE A WIN FROM LEGENDARY SEASON
From its preseason projection as the worst team in the Big 12 to the conference title game in the span of five months, Arizona State is on a meteoric rise that almost feels destined to continue into the playoff. Only one team — Iowa State — stands between the Sun Devils and the first CFP appearance in program history. This is already a magical year due to the unforeseen success, but Kenny Dillingham can take his alma mater to a completely different level if he secures league supremacy. A win in Arlington guarantees the Sun Devils their sixth 11-win season of all time and opens the door to a legendary postseason appearance. The best part is that nobody outside of Tempe saw any of it coming.
COLORADO, BYU NARROWLY MISS BIG 12 CUT
Of the 256 possible scenarios in the final week of Big 12 play, the most likely outcome is the one that played out. That is, each of the two-loss teams reigned supreme to create a four-way tie for first place. Colorado and BYU drew the short straws and missed the championship game cut due to the league’s tiebreaker policies, but the disappointing conclusion — which keeps them both out of the playoff — should not define what was a remarkable breakthrough campaign. Deion Sanders and Kalani Sitake performed two of the best coaching jobs in the sport this fall to spark sizable steps forward and to put their programs squarely in the public eye for nearly the entire season.
SIX WINS A NEW LOW FOR LINCOLN RILEY
This season would have still been a failure even if USC upset Notre Dame, but a rivalry win to close the schedule would have at least taken some of the sting off the worst campaign of the Riley era. Instead, the Trojans limp into bowl season at .500 and face their loudest questions since before Riley arrived as the program’s promised savior. He was reluctant to address his future after the loss to the Fighting Irish, but it is a situation USC must sort out after a second-straight step backwards from the 11-win 2022 season.
FINAL NOTES
UCLA showed continued fight under first-year coach DeShaun Foster even with nothing but pride on the line. The Bruins missed bowl eligibility a week ago with their rivalry loss to USC but kept their late-season mojo intact as they fended off an upset bid from Fresno State. The needle points upward in Westwood entering a key offseason.
Kyle Whittingham is a name to watch over the coming days as he plots his future atop the Utah program, and if Friday’s game was his last, it was a fitting way to go out. The Utes scored as many points on defense as they did on offense to close out the year with a win.
It was a rough weekend for the Power Four schools in the Bay Area. Stanford lost to local rival San José State to finish at three wins for the fourth-straight year, while California suffered its most lopsided defeat of the year with quarterback Fernando Mendoza sidelined due to an illness.
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In the Pac-12, Washington State bottomed out for the second time in as many years with another disappointing second half of the season. The Cougars went scoreless in the second half of a loss to lowly Wyoming to extend their losing streak to three games, and while a bowl game is on the horizon, they have no momentum after dropping consecutive contests to teams with losing records.
