Why a Utah Rose Bowl win is far from guaranteed

“Alabama Syndrome” and how it impacts these Rose Bowl predictions

In short, Alabama Syndrome falls on those who automatically assume that a visibly flawed team is great solely because of one game. The game in question typically involves beating a school that is placed on a higher pedestal than it deserves.

After that definition, hopefully, you can see why I named the idea after Alabama. Two teams—Tennessee and LSU—beat Bama this year and, despite the Crimson Tide clearly being far from the perfection that we expected, were automatically regarded as title contenders. And what do you know, both times were proven to be colossal overreactions.

When it comes to the people blindly believing that Utah has the Rose Bowl in the bag, I cannot help but feel that they are doing so because of the Pac-12 title game and nothing else. If they would just look beyond that one win, they would remember that Utah is far from a perfect team.

The regular season left the Utes with a good—but not great—record of 9-3, and there were several opportunities for us to gauge their strength with as it unfolded. But unfortunately, there are so many who have failed to actually do so.

For starters, the Utes did not play one great opponent this year, with all of their foes holding multiple losses today. They did, however, play several that were at least decent: Oregon State, UCLA, USC, and Oregon in that order. But how did they do against these four?

Their most convincing win was 42-16 over the Beavers, who lost starting quarterback Chance Nolan early in the affair. After that, they lost by two scores to the Bruins, survived the Trojans by a single point, and got held to their lowest score of the season in a collapse against the Ducks. Combining those unconvincing moments with the humiliating Week 1 loss to Florida essentially stamps “beatable” on Utah’s forehead.

But nonetheless, the masses are eager to throw all of that away over one strong showing against USC—a rematch that the Trojans themselves played a big role in the outcome of. Why is that?

The answer is quite simple, really: USC, similarly to Alabama, is a team that carries an iconic brand. An image that meaningful comes with many who desperately want the Trojans to be great, even when they visibly aren’t (and them having a Heisman winner at QB only adds to that desire).