Game Against Southern Cal A Great Opportunity For UW
Before we get carried away, we should point out that Saturday’s game between 13th-ranked USC and 17th-ranked Washington is not a Rose Bowl showdown.
But it’s the closest thing we’ll ever see to one in October.
Until next week, perhaps.
While the possibilities remain plenty with a month remaining in the regular season, the next two weeks will go a long way toward deciding who will represent the Pacific-10 Conference in the Rose Bowl.
“It’s about time to start playing out the scenarios,” USC coach John Robinson said Monday. “Oregon, Washington and us - I think it’s like a playoff between us.”
The other seven teams in the league already have at least two losses.
“My assumption,” Robinson added, “is that the conference champion will have no more than one loss.”
That’s probably a safe assumption, even though two of the past three conference champions have had two defeats.
Robinson, who has spent most of his 10 seasons at USC involved in a Rose Bowl race, knows how it works.
“Whoever wins this game has an edge,” he said. “Washington plays Oregon next week and has to win two in a row.”
That’s pretty much what it amounts to for the Huskies, especially since they would lose to both the Trojans and Ducks in any tie-break circumstance if they lose the game to either team.
But if they are able to stretch their current two-game winning streak into a four-game winning streak, they would take command of the race: One victory in their final two games (at 24th-ranked UCLA and at home against Washington State) would send the Huskies to Pasadena.
Notice, though, that of Washington’s four games left, three are against ranked teams and the other is against their cross-state nemesis.
“I’m just trying to win the next game,” UW coach Jim Lambright said, sighing. “For the team that wins it, it just makes the next week more important.”
The Huskies have won 32 of their past 35 games at home, and are the only one of the contenders with three home games remaining. If they win their three home games, they win the league title.
“I’m glad the two critical games pass through here in Seattle instead of Eugene or L.A.,” Lambright said. “I’ve been in this thing long enough to know that we’ve got four more games.”
The Rose Bowl race has gone down to the last week in each of the past two years, with UCLA and Oregon emerging victorious. Before that, Washington clinched the league title early three years in a row - after Game 6 of the eight-game Pac-10 schedule in 1990 and after Game 7 in 1991 and 1992.
A Washington victory Saturday would send the Huskies into their game against 10th-ranked Oregon still needing a victory to stay ahead of Ducks, who are 6-1 and ranked ahead of UW and USC.
Affecting the race is the mere fact that Oregon and USC do not play each other this season.
Oregon’s 3-1 league record has it poised one game behind the leaders, but its 3-0 non-conference record puts it in good stead should it end up tied atop the standings.
Other than the game against Washington, Oregon’s remaining three games are against opponents with losing records.
As for that much-talked-about clause in the tie-break system that favors the team that hasn’t been to the Rose Bowl longer than the others? Forget it. The non-conference records supersede it, and Oregon, USC and Washington have different records.
Having those three non-league wins in hand basically means the Ducks cannot lose a Rose Bowl tie-break unless they finish in a two-way tie with a team they lost to during the season. USC went 2-1 in non-league games and Washington 1-2.
The Trojans are trying to rebound from Saturday’s 38-10 loss at Notre Dame, which dashed USC’s national championship hopes.
Robinson said he hoped something positive could come out of the thrashing in South Bend, which was the most stunning defeat in the Trojans’ 13-year winless streak against the Fighting Irish in that USC was more highly rated for a change and a significant favorite, yet was so thoroughly outplayed.
“It could serve as a wakeup call,” Robinson said.