clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

How Arizona football can win the Pac-12 South

The Pac-12 South is the most complicated division in college football, but for Arizona it's really quite simple.

Casey Sapio-USA TODAY Sports

There are so many scenarios to play out in the Pac-12 South. Five of the six teams -- sorry Colorado -- can potentially win the division and make their way to the Pac-12 Championship game to face Oregon, but it's really quite simple for the Arizona Wildcats.

Luckily for the lazy, ESPN's Kyle Bonagura was brave enough to sort it all out based on this set of tiebreakers.

Arizona football's two losses to the Los Angeles area schools and current 1-2 Pac-12 South record hurt it to a great degree. Rich Rodriguez's crew has the fourth most-likely odds to make the title game, with only Utah needing more to go in their favor.

Here's the simple single way the Wildcats make the title game.

  • Arizona beats Utah next week.
  • Arizona beats ASU in two weeks.
  • UCLA beats USC this week.
  • UCLA then loses to Stanford the day after Thanksgiving.

That scenario is certainly possible, but there's not much worth discussing beyond that. The Pac-12 has proven too unpredictable. It's almost a waste of time to do anything but sit back and enjoy. But now you know.

Here's a look at the tiebreakers.

Pac-12 Football Championship Game tiebreakers: A look at Arizona

1. Head-to-head results (best record in games between tied teams): Lost to UCLA and USC, yet to play Utah and ASU.
2. Record in inter-divisional games: 1-2 with two games left (Editor's note: this is where Arizona got itself into trouble)
3. Record against the next highest placed team in the division (based on the record in all conference games), proceeding through the division: TBD

4.Record in common conference games: TBD
5. Highest ranking in College Football Playoff poll entering the final weekend of the regular season: TBD