This weekend’s conference championship games will help determine the field for the College Football Playoff. For ESPN’s Desmond Howard, one playoff contending team might be on upset alert tonight.
Appearing on Get Up, Howard said that USC could be in danger of losing to Utah in the Pac-12 Championship Game. He pointed out that Utah have already beaten the Trojans and that the Utes would “love” to derail their rival’s playoff hopes and potentially end USC quarterback Caleb Williams’ Heisman Trophy campaign.
“You’re looking at a Utah team that knows, not thinks…they don’t believe, but they know they can play with USC,” Howard said. “They would love to not only upset USC’s college football playoff hopes, but at the same time they would derail their quarterback, Caleb Williams, Heisman campaign.”
Howard believes that if the Trojans lose they will be replaced in the College Football Playoff by the Ohio State Buckeyes.
“At that point you’re looking at a USC team that has losses, especially two losses to the same team,” Howard said. “For USC to lose twice to Utah, I think that Ohio State would slip in the back door and get into the College Football Playoff,” he said.
USC have had a tremendous first year under Lincoln Riley and are coming off back-to-back wins over ranked teams in UCLA and Notre Dame.
Their only loss was a 43-42 loss to the Utes in Utah, while this game will be played at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
The game will be played at 8:00 pm. ET and will air on FOX.