Pac-12 Football Championship Game 2022 Oregon’s two biggest rivals made sure the Ducks wouldn’t make it to the Pac-12 football championship game for a fourth year in a row.
Oregon State roared back to beat the Ducks 38-34 in their annual rivalry game on Saturday afternoon, and then the Washington Huskies beat Washington State 51-33 in the Apple Cup to create a three-way tie for second place in the Pac-12 standings between Washington (10-2, 7-2), Oregon (9-3, 7-2) and Utah (9-3, 7-2).
The No. 14 Utes won the tiebreaker on the strength of their conference opponents holding a higher combined winning percentage than that of the Ducks’ and Huskies’ conference foes. And so the Utes will meet the No. 6 USC Trojans (11-1, 8-1) in the Pac-12 title game at 5 p.m. PT Friday at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
It was a tough outcome for the No. 9 Ducks, who entered the day needing simply to beat the 21st-ranked Beavers to advance to the Pac-12 championship.
After losing to Oregon State, the Ducks still had a chance to make the conference title game if the Cougars would have beaten the Huskies. That would have handed Washington its third conference loss, leaving Oregon and Utah tied in the conference standings with two Pac-12 losses each. The Ducks would have won the head-to-head tiebreaker on the strength of their 20-17 victory against the Utes a week ago in Eugene.
Instead, the Ducks will stay home next weekend and await news of their bowl destination on Sunday, Dec. 4.
With help from three other teams, Utah is headed back to the Pac-12 championship game for the second consecutive year.
The Utes will be playing USC in Las Vegas for the Pac-12 title.
Utah’s win at Colorado, Washington’s win at Washington State and Oregon State’s win vs. Oregon put Utah, Oregon and Washington in a three-way tie for second place in the Pac-12 with a 7-2 conference record.
UCLA’s win at Cal helped the Utes with the tiebreaker.
This is the first year that the the two best teams in the conference play for the Pac-12 title. Previously, it was the North division champion vs. the South division champion in the Pac-12 championship game.