Latest Pac-12 news that could save future of the conference

The Pac-12 has recently announced that win percentage will soon be what decides its title game participants, and it’s obvious why such a call was made.

To put things as delicately as possible, the Pac-12 Conference has not been worthy of much praise in recent memory. This is mainly due to its lack of national contenders, along with some of the league’s bigger brands being somewhat “down” at the moment.

The Pac-12 is not blind to these concerns, though, and has recently taken what comes off as a rather desperate attempt to change that over the course of these next several years.

In other words, it appears as if the conference is hoping to do its part in rebuilding one of its greatest athletic programs, USC Trojans Football.

Now that may sound a tad far-fetched, as the Pac-12 has only so much power in regards to shaping USC’s chances of success, but removing the divisional ties from league championship participation could improve them tremendously in the long run.

For starters, let’s look at what we know: the Trojans have recently acquired an outstanding head coach in Lincoln Riley, and his area of expertise heavily falls on the offensive side of the ball. With him has come a boost in media buzz and attention from some promising recruits/transfers.

As for what is happening around SC, there is only one true threat that can keep it from reaching the peak of the Pac-12 mountain for the foreseeable future, and that is the conference’s defending champ, Utah.

The Utes are in beautiful shape right now

Utah has a defensive mastermind, Kyle Whittingham, at the helm, a man who has been gifted with the title of longest-tenured head coach in the Pac-12 due to his prowess. Along with that, his team is also placed higher in the league’s recruiting rankings than it’s ever been before (4th).

Other formidable conference foes, like UCLA and Oregon, should both easily take a back seat to the Utes in USC’s eyes, despite being in rather decent spots today. This is because the Bruins have struggled a fair amount with the Trojans since 2015—that was the last year that the former beat Utah as well.

When it comes to Oregon, it has also had some undesired run-ins with Whittingham’s squad (3-4 against the Utes since 2015). And even if the Ducks did lead the Pac-12, USC would still manage to dodge them in the regular season a good portion of the time.

So let’s say that the promising future of Trojan Football isn’t enough to topple Utah for the Pac-12 South crown, and it keeps struggling to survive its division. Especially when playing in what is already an unappealing conference, will that make anything about Riley and his team look good? Probably not.

However, if Utah’s divisional ties to SC are the only thing keeping the latter from making the title game, then why not take away one of the main reasons for even having divisions? That way, the Trojans are all the more likely to sneak in and take the crown regardless of whatever inferiorities they may have to their Mormon foes.

It’s simple: USC makes the conference title game, eventually, downs Utah, can show off its current success in league play to prospects (along with its historical dominance) to help win them over, and boom—the Pac-12 officially has its greatest CFB program back in control.

If the future of the College Football Playoff involves expanding the bracket and/or turning Power 5 championships into automatic qualifiers, then it will only take a matter of time for USC to go from “good” to “contender;” and the Pac really thought that no one would piece it all together.