Most chaotic possibilities coming out of Championship Weekend

Oregon gets revenge against Utah in the Pac-12 championship game

For the first month of College Football Playoff rankings this season, it looked like Oregon was in prime position to play their way into the four-team field. It would have marked the first time in five years that the Pac-12 landed a team in the Playoff. Even with a loss to a sub-.500 Stanford team, the committee was high on Mario Cristobal’s team in large part because of their signature win at the Horseshoe against Ohio State.

Then the Ducks went to Salt Lake City in mid-November and collapsed against Utah, falling 38-7 on the road to eliminate the Pac-12 once again from the Playoff picture.

Or are they completely out of the picture? The Ducks get a rematch against Utah in the Pac-12 championship. After years of hosting the title game at the 49ers stadium in Santa Clara, the conference heads to Las Vegas this year. Oregon is due for a hot hand in Sin City, with their last victory in Las Vegas coming against Air Force way back in 1997.

More important is the fact that Oregon has won each of its last four trips to the Pac-12 championship game by an average of more than three touchdowns per game. 2014 offers an instructive example, as Arizona defeated the Ducks in the regular season at home — and then got crushed 37-15 in the championship rematch.

If Oregon blows out Utah by a bigger margin than Utah defeated the Ducks in Salt Lake City, and the chips fall right in other championship games, could the Pac-12 burst back into the Playoff picture?