P12 championship game and/or the rose bowl. Not winning the south = no rose bowl for Utah.

The most likely scenario for the south is that it's going to come down to the Utah @ Colorado game, the winner being the champion

How Utah can win the south: Beat Colorado and only drop 1 of ASU, Oregon, and Washington.

How Colorado can win the south: Win out (UCLA, Wazzu, AZ, and Utah all of which they're favored to win). If they don't win out, USC has a shot at the south as they hold the tie breaker over Colorado, but not Utah. Colorado can probably drop one game to any team not named Utah and still remain the south champs (unless USC beats washington and UCLA).

How USC can win the south: Win out (any loss and they're almost assuredly out of the running... they still have to face their rival UCLA, and Washington. Tall task). Utah needs to drop two more games (Utah holds tie breaker), Colorado needs to drop one game (SC holds tie breaker).

imo, Colorado looks like the favorite to win the south. They've looked really good, but the pac pretty well sucks this year, so I guess anything can happen.

If Utah somehow wins the south, they still may not get a rose bowl berth. Here are a couple scenario's that keep them out:

Assuming Washington wins out, they could lose the title game and that ensures no PAC team to the playoff. and the winner is rose bowl bound.

If Washington wins out and wins the title, they may get snubbed by the playoff anyway as their schedule has been pretty weak. Utah or USC will have been their best win.

If Wazzu wins out (beating Washington) and Washington wins out until the apple cup, then Wazzu will face Colorado, USC, or Utah. The highest ranked team in the PAC will probably remain Washington with one loss and they won't be playoff bound, so if somehow the p12 champ did go to the playoff (not happening with two losses) then the rose bowl berth would still go to Washington.


Ok, I have a headache now, four to five weeks worth of variables is hard to keep straight in your head.