10 Power 5 National Championship dark horse contenders
By John Buhler
If we’re being completely honest, the Pac-12 and Big 12 are the two Power 5 conferences that will have the hardest time getting teams regularly into the College Football Playoff — at least given how things stand now. For the Big 12 in particular, a conference-title game needs to happen, whether by expansion or otherwise.
What hurts the Pac-12, on the other hand, is that teams are compelled to play nine-game conference schedules just to keep fans in their seats. With programs in major cities like Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Salt Lake City, there are plenty of things to do that don’t involve watching a far-superior Pac-12 team beat up on some hapless mid-major. In the end, having that additional conference game amounts to one more Saturday for an elite Pac-12 team to be upset.
Though a nine-game conference schedule doesn’t help anybody in the Pac-12, there are three things that could help the UCLA Bruins represent the conference in the third annual College Football Playoff:
1.) Sophomore quarterback Josh Rosen might be the best pro prospect in the Power 5.
2.) Jim Mora is the right head coach to take UCLA to new heights.
3.) The Pac-12 South should be the easier of the two divisions this season.
UCLA still has a brutal schedule this fall, with Texas A&M and BYU both on the road. Because the Bruins are one of four Pac-12 California schools that play one another annually, they’ll have to face the Stanford Cardinal at home early (September 24th) and the California Golden Bears late (November 26th).
UCLA’s two other games against the Pac-12 North (against the Washington State Cougars and the Oregon State Beavers) are more than winnable. Indeed, the Bruins should be thankful they didn’t draw either the Oregon Ducks or the Washington Huskies this season.
Excepting the still-pretty-bad Colorado Buffaloes, there could be as many as five bowl-eligible teams in the Pac-12 South. The Arizona schools might take a step back in 2016, but arch rival USC could be on the rise and the Utah Utes might be the best team that no one is talking about — again.
USC has the hype, but a far less favorable schedule than its L.A. rival. Utah should be the favorite to win the Pac-12 South, but UCLA does get the Utes at home on Oct. 22nd. With most of the Bruins’ rough Pac-12 games coming at home in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, one could argue that it might be a stark advantage for UCLA to win the Pac-12 South this season.
Given that the Pac-12 North could have as many as five bowl teams (sorry, Oregon State) and three teams certain to be in the top 25 (Oregon, Stanford, and Washington), a conference championship as an underdog could be the boost that UCLA needs to make it to the College Football Playoff.
With a certified stud in Rosen growing more confident with every snap, these 2016 Bruins could easily get hot enough to topple two teams in the College Football Playoff as a No. 4 seed and win a National Championship. UCLA’s schedule is brutal, and it’s hard not to see two conference losses on the horizon, but the Bruins have to be one of the two dark horses to win it all coming out of Pac-12 this season.
Next: 7. Michigan State Spartans.