College football rankings: Oregon’s loss to Utah crushes Pac-12 in new conference power rankings
By Nick Villano
Oregon losing to Utah ends the Pac-12’s hope of making the College Football Playoff and has big ramifications in this week’s college football conference rankings.
What a weekend in college football. There were some insane blowouts (what happened to you Michigan State?), some really close matchups (looking at you Arkansas-Alabama), and as usual, there were some upsets (Oregon lost its spot in the Playoff). The framework of the championship completely changed. Maybe it’s only one team who lost its spot, but now the team that jumps in could really test the playoff committee.
Cincinnati is still trying to prove it deserves a spot in the top four, but with Notre Dame and Michigan coming off their own huge wins, the committee could still choose the Irish or Wolverines to jump the Bearcats. When it comes to the conference rankings, things have to change this week.
College football conference rankings going into Week 13
5. ACC
Things went from bad to worse for the ACC this week. Wake Forest, the last team that was ranked in the top 15, got smoked by Clemson. It was humbling, to say the least. Maybe the Tigers are finally starting to put it together after the worst start in a very long time. However, seeing Wake Forest fall in that way was sad. Pitt and NC State had big wins that could push them further into the top 20 of the rankings. All of the other scores were pretty much chalk across the conference.
4. Pac-12
The Utah Utes made sure that the Pac-12 would be held out of the College Football Playoff for the fifth-straight year. Washington was the last team to make the Playoff back in 2017. Oregon lost the one rivalry game they could not lose, and they were never really in the game. Britain Covey’s punt return with no time left in the first half really put a nail in the Ducks’ coffin. That made it 28-0, and the Utes had the biggest win in a long time secured at halftime. The cross-city rivalry of Los Angeles was another blowout, with UCLA just destroying USC to secure one of the worst seasons for the Trojans in a long time. Oregon State had one of their biggest wins on the season, and it might get the attention of the rankings after beating Arizona State. They could see themselves around the bottom of the Top 25 soon enough.