The USC community is buzzing after George Kliavkoff and the Pac-12 Conference — following an NCAA Division I Council vote early on Wednesday — moved quickly to adjust the format of the Pac-12 Championship Game.
The division champion format is gone. The new format is what the Big 12 has been using the past several years: The top two teams in the conference standings will meet for the league title.
The news could not be better or more welcomed at USC. The Trojans are no longer boxed in by a division title chase. They don’t have to win the Pac-12 South. They just need to finish in the top two. Their margin for error is a lot greater.
The pursuit of the Pac-12 title, a central goal, is the same for USC and Lincoln Riley.
The path to that goal has changed, at least to an extent.
Before Wednesday’s huge development, USC needed to beat Utah or get two Utah losses to have a good chance of advancing. Would USC still love to beat Utah? Of course. That remains the most direct path to Las Vegas in early December.
Howver, what’s new today is that USC’s game in Salt Lake City is much less of a must-win. The Trojans don’t want to lose that game, but if they do and win every other Pac-12 game to finish 8-1 in the conference, they’re a near-lock to play for the title. Oregon or another team would have to go 8-1 to bump the Trojans out.
Given that Oregon and Utah play each other this season, guaranteeing a loss for one of those two teams, the Ducks and Utes know they can’t lose a Pac-12 game other than that meeting in Eugene. If they do, they know that the loser of their head-to-head matchup will finish 7-2.
Here’s the bottom line: Before Wednesday’s formatting change, an 8-1 Pac-12 record did not give USC a great chance of making the Pac-12 title game unless the one loss was against a non-Utah opponent. Now, that same 8-1 record would make USC a near-lock for the title game.
Before Wednesday’s big change, USC needed to beat out Utah to make the Pac-12…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Football | Trojans Wire…