Amid the Week 13 chaos, one conference champion did emerge from the smoke

The Oregon State Beavers are coming, folks. Not for a College Football Playoff spot, or even a top 25 spot, or perhaps even a bowl, but still — after a pretty thrilling 41-38 win against (their only) conference foe Washington State on Saturday night, the 5-6 Beavers are Pac-12 champions! Corvallis, Oregon is alive! You may have missed this game during the madness that was Week 13 in the college football world, but no matter if this win gets swept under the rug, it's still a signature win for OSU's first-year head coach Trent Bray.

If anyone tells you this isn't a real conference championship, they either don't respect the natural beauty of a beaver dam or college football played on the CW. And both of those options are equally scary.

Fifth-year senior kicker Everett Hayes nailed a 55-yard kick to give Oregon State the lead with 21 seconds remaining and the Beavs bowl hopes stayed alive with a week remaining in the regular season.

Oregon State gets huge win amidst rough season

Oregon State head coach Trent Bray had one of the hardest jobs in college football this season. In his first year commanding the Beavs, his roster was decimated before he even had a chance to recruit; 25 players left the program after Oregon State was left without a conference, forcing Bray to quickly build a team out of unheralded recruits and JUCO transfers.

It hasn't been pretty — the team had lost five in a row before Saturday — but this is a signature win for Bray, who will try to rebuild an Oregon State program that was progressing positively until the rest of the Pac-12 jetted for the greener pastures of the ACC, Big Ten and Big 12. Those teams are no longer welcomed in Corvallis, Oregon, though, so who really won conference realignment?

Next up for Bray and Oregon State? A chance to turn the College Football Playoff race upside down — the Beavers play Boise State on Friday in a game with both CFP and Heisman implications for Broncos running back Ashton Jeanty, who passed 2,000 rushing yards on Saturday against Wyoming.

If beating Washington State was a statement win for Bray, beating Boise State would be affirmation that Oregon State got the right guy, despite scraping by with a .500 record in his first season.