The College Football Playoff is in chaos.
USC got decimated by Utah, 47-24, in the Pac-12 championship game in Las Vegas on Friday night, opening the door for the likelihood that they will get leapfrogged by Ohio State in the quest to play for a national championship.
Caleb Williams, the likely Heisman trophy winner who plays quarterback for USC, suffered a hamstring injury in the first quarter. While he played the remainder of the game and even made some miraculous throws, his mobility was limited.
“You ever have an old rubber band? That’s kind of what it felt like,” Williams told reporters after the game.
USC’s defense, meanwhile, struggled mightily to get stops as Utah broke one tackle after another. The Utes had over 500 yards of total offense as Cameron Rising threw for 310 yards and three touchdowns and Ja’Quinden Jackson carried the ball 13 times for 105 yards and two touchdowns.
USC’s loss, and the dominating manner in which it happened, opens the door for one-loss Ohio State to jump over them into the College Football Playoff.
Ohio State’s lone loss of the season came last week to Michigan. The Pac-12 championship game was USC’s second loss — the Trojans also lost a 43-42 barnburner to Utah on Oct. 15.
The top three ranked teams — Georgia, Michigan and TCU — all play in their respective conference championship games Saturday, but would all figure to make the College Football Playoff even with losses based on their bodies of work.
There is some unfairness over Ohio State leapfrogging USC when the Buckeyes did not qualify for the Big Ten championship game and thus did not have to play this weekend. However, the manner in which USC loss might give the committee no choice but to make a change. Ohio State also had wins against Penn State and Notre Dame, both ranked in the top 10, to help their cause.
As it stands now, Georgia would likely play Ohio State and Michigan play TCU. However, one intriguing scenario is that if TCU loses its Big 12 championship game to Kansas State on Saturday, there perhaps would be a Michigan-Ohio State rivalry rematch in the first round.