Cal Football: Top 2 Teams by Conference Percentage Will Meet in Pac-12 Title Game
In an effort to improve the league’s chances of landing a team in the College Football Playoff, the Pac-12 Conference announced that beginning with the 2022 season the two teams with the highest conference winning percentage will square off in the championship game.
For the past 11 seasons, champions of the north and south divisions have been paired in the Pac-12 title game. Under this new format, five of those matchups would have been different.
“Our goal is to place our two best teams in our Pac-12 Football Championship Game, which we believe will provide our conference with the best opportunity to optimize CFP invitations and ultimately win national championships,” Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff said in a statement.
“Today’s decision is an important step towards that goal and immediately increases both fan interest in, and the media value of, our Football Championship Game.”
The Pac-12 said the current conference schedule, based on two divisions, will remain intact for 2022. But scheduling scenarios going forward will be reviewed, which also suggests the possibility of changes to the divisional format.
In the seven seasons, beginning in 2015, since the formation of the four-team CFP, the Pac-12 has accounted for just two of the 28 teams selected.
Oregon was chosen in 2015 and won its semifinal against Florida State before losing to Ohio State in the championship game. Washington was selected in 2017 and lost to Alabama in the semifinals.
Whether or not the format change for the Pac-12 championship game actually enhances the league’s CFP prospects remain to be seen.
But four of the five past matchups that would have been different using this arrangement favor the Pac-12 North.
In 2011, ’12 and 15, Stanford and Oregon would have dueled for the Pac-12 as the league’s two teams with the best conference winning percentage. Instead, UCLA twice played in the game and USC got there once, at the expense of the Cardinal in 2011 and the Ducks in ’12 and ’15.
Likewise, in 2018 the Pac-12 title would have been settled with rivals Washington and Washington State facing off, rather than UW taking on Utah.
Only the 2020 conference title game would have seen a change benefiting the South, with USC facing Colorado instead of Washington.
In every case where the matchups would have been changed, a team ranked higher using the BCS rankings (from 2011-13) or the FBS rankings (2014-21) would have gained a berth in the Pac-12 title game.
The Pac-12 was able to make this change after the NCAA Division I Council on Wednesday approved the deregulation of the existing rule that limited an individual conference's autonomy to determine its football championship game participants.
Based on a motion by the Pac-12 and unanimously supported by all FBS conferences, the NCAA's Football Oversight Committee previously recommended this deregulation to the Division I Council.
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo
