Because it’s never too early to start thinking about which teams will be meeting up in Santa Clara on Dec. 5, let’s see how the division races are shaping up and what each team needs to do to get to the Pac-12 Football Championship Game (here are the standings for your viewing pleasure).
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Pac-12 North:
Wellllll now, that was close. The Cardinal escaped the Palouse with a 30-28 victory after Erik Powell, who was 5-for-5 on field goal attempts in the first 59 minutes of the game, hooked one wide right from 43 yards out on the last play of the game. As such, the Cardinal (7-1, 6-0 Pac-12 North) is still the only undefeated team in the Pac-12 and still controls its own destiny for a spot in Santa Clara. The only difference now after beating Wazzu is that Stanford doesn’t have to be perfect – it is two up in the loss column on every team in the Pac-12 North. In fact, if Stanford beats Colorado and Oregon loses to Cal, the Cardinal can clinch the North on Nov. 7, because that would ensure that the only team that could equal Stanford in the conference standings would be Washington State, which Stanford just earned the tiebreaker over. Survive and advance, yo.
That one hurts for the Pullman faithful. As a result of the loss, Washington State needs Stanford to lose at least two more conference games to get itself into a tiebreaker scenario with the Card and would need Oregon to finish with the same record as Stanford and Washington State to have a chance at getting the tiebreaker (the scenarios are too many to draw out here, just know that Wazzu does not own the head-to-head with Stanford). The better scenario for the Cougs would be to win out and see the Cardinal lose all three of its remaining conference games. Washington State owns the tiebreaker with Oregon via its win in Eugene over the Ducks.
The defending Pac-12 champs are still in the fold after an escape of their own in Tempe, winning the most thrilling game of the season so far by beating Arizona State 61-55 in triple overtime (though Stanford-Wazzu might have something to say about that). In order to play on Dec. 5 for the second straight year, the Ducks need to win out (which would include beating Stanford) and have the Cardinal lose one more game outside of the Nov. 14 showdown. To make things less muddy, another Washington State loss would help since the Ducks lost to the Cougs earlier this season.
If you’re looking for some silver lining around this three-game losing skid, Cal fan, it’s that none of the Golden Bears’ losses have come against Pac-12 North teams, meaning Cal would hold individual tiebreakers over every Pac-12 North team if it wins out. Of course, that means Stanford losing its remaining three conference games and the Ducks and Cougs dropping at least one more as well. First things first though – the Golden Bears can keep their very slim Santa Clara hopes alive by beating Oregon in Eugene next weekend.
