How will the Pac-12 Cancellations Impact National Rankings?
With the newly released AP Poll with it’s rankings of all college football teams, it will definitely look different. The top 2 teams in the Pac-12 are 9th and 17th, even though both teams will not play this season due to COVID-19 concerns
Oregon is ranked 9th and USC is ranked 17th on the recently released AP Poll which is something that teams and analysts will have to take with a grain of salt sort of speak due to the cancellation of their conference. While these respected teams should feel proud of this accomplishment in terms of how they stack up with other teams, it also leaves the curiosity of what could have been. Both teams were looking to improve based on last season as Oregon had a record of 12-2 and went 8-1 in their own conference, while USC had a record of 8-5 and went 7-2 in the same conference.
Oregon Ranked 9th in the Nation
Oregon was definitely one of the top teams in the Pac-12 last season as they ranked 2nd in total yards 6,181 and also ranked 2nd in the defensive category. Last year they only gave up a total of 232 points and 320.6 yards. Most of their team will be left intact as most are still in their Junior and Sophomore years, and there are a few Freshmen that will have to wait for their chance to play for the Ducks. They’re star Quarterback last season, Justin Herbert, was drafted by the Los Angeles Chargers as he had a total of 3,333 yards gained which he converted for 32 touchdowns and had 238.1 yards per game. In the wake of Herbert being drafted, this leaves an opportunity for Sophomore, Tyler Shough, to show what he’s got.
USC Ranked 17th in the Nation
For USC, there is more room for improvement based on their record from last season, although their season numbers were really good. They were led by Quarterback Kedon Slovis, who had an impressive season last year as he had 3,502 total yards with 30 touchdowns. He possibly could’ve improved on these numbers even more had he not missed a game against Washington in which he had suffered a concussion. They’re defense could use some improving as they ranked 6th overall in their conference by allowing 408.5 yards, and a total of 382 points.
For these two teams, both of their accomplishments last season shouldn’t be overlooked just because their season was cancelled. With everything that is going on in the world, it was a decision that was based on keeping the players safe this season and not risking any exposure to the Coronavirus. While analyst will have to create new lists and predict different leaders based on teams that are still trying to play this season, these two teams deserve recognition for making it in their respective rankings.
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