MAURA DOOLEY
College Football Insider: What’s next after Oregon’s Pac-12 title win?
SPONSORED – The roller coaster that was the 2020 Pac-12 football season has come to an end.
Describing it as less than ideal is probably a bit of an understatement. Only UCLA and Oregon State played all seven games on their schedules.
The 3-1 UW Huskies won the North without ever facing Oregon because their game was cancelled due to a spike in positive COVID-19 tests for Washington. Then, only 24 hours after being named the winner of the division, the Huskies had to withdraw from the title game due to the lingering COVID issues within their program. That’s when Oregon (3-2) was moved into to the title game without having to face UW and coming off of two straight losses, sparking criticism of the Pac-12’s decision making.
Many thought the conference should have done away with the divisions and given the 4-1 Colorado Buffaloes, who were left without an opponent when Oregon was moved into the title game, a shot at USC. However, the Pac-12 never wavered on their decision to stick with divisions despite the unique nature of this season. It certainly wasn’t what many hoped it would be and it feels rather incomplete, but the Pac-12 did complete the 2020 football season.
The end result was the Pac-12’s only undefeated team, USC, falling to Oregon 31-24 in an upset Friday night at the Coliseum. USC announced shortly after the loss that it would be adding itself to the long list of schools in the conference opting out of bowl games, which also includes UW. It seems many schools are ready to put the extra grind of this season behind them.
Arizona State is another school that has announced it will not be accepting bowl bids this weekend. In a statement, ASU athletic director Ray Anderson called this a “challenging season” and said it has been “emotionally exhausting” for the student athletes. There are a couple of Pac-12 teams scheduled to play this bowl season, though.
In this week’s College Football Insider brought to you by Mac & Jack’s Brewing Company, 710 ESPN Seattle’s Maura Dooley breaks down Oregon’s win over USC and the Pac-12 teams heading to bowl games.
