Stanford, Utah blow Pac-12’s chance of College Football Playoff spot
The Pac-12 is out of the running for a College Football Playoff spot after losses from Stanford and Utah to Oregon and Arizona, respectively.
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With many looking ahead to Stanford’s game against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish as a College Football Playoff play-in game a funny thing happened along the way as the Oregon Ducks pulled off the upset and stunned the Cardinal on Saturday night.
Stanford and Oregon has been one of the best Pac-12 games of the year for the last several years and it lived up to that reputation again in what was full of intrigue and late drama as it went down to the final seconds before the Ducks prevailed.
The Cardinal had a chance to tie the game with a two-point conversion after a touchdown with 10 seconds left in the game made it 38-36 but the Oregon blitz threw off Kevin Hogan and he couldn’t complete the pass. The onside kick was unsuccessful and the Pac-12’s hopes of getting a team in the playoff will be as well.
Stanford had their chances to take control of the game in the fourth quarter but two fumbled snaps, including one with 2:06 left in the fourth doomed David Shaw‘s team. Stanford can and should still win the Pac-12 North but with two losses there’s no chance the Cardinal can weasel their way in the four-team playoff.
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Further, any chance running back/return man Christian McCaffrey had of winning the Heisman Trophy is over, but he still has a chance to earn an invitation depending on what happens the next three weeks.
All in all, this was a loss for Stanford, McCaffrey and the entire Pac-12, except for Oregon, of course, who stuck it to their Pac-12 North rivals and stays alive for the Pac-12 Championship Game which looked unfathomable after losses to Utah and Washington State early.
The Utes had a chance to salvage one last sliver of hope should they be the last one standing if chaos ensued and they were a one-loss Pac-12 champion, but they lost 37-30 in overtime to the disappointing Arizona Wildcats.
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This means the Pac-12 champion is guaranteed of having at least two losses and ending the conference’s chances of having a team in the playoff again.