The UCLA football team will represent the Pac-12 South Division in the first ever Pac-12 Championship Game on Dec. 2 at a location to be determined.
The Bruins were handed a spot in the title game thanks to Colorado’s 17-14 win at Utah on Friday and could win the South Division outright with a win over USC tomorrow.
The Utes took themselves out of a potential three-way tie giving UCLA the tiebreaker over Arizona State regardless of what happens on Saturday. A win by the Trojans would leave them alone in first place in the South Division but they are ineligible for postseason play because of NCAA-mandated probation.
UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel was not made available for comment. He will hold his usual Monday press conference on Sunday afternoon because the team’s week of preparation is shortened playing on a Friday. He did release the following statement.
“One of the goals we established as a team when we entered camp this fall was to play for the first-ever Pac-12 title. Keeping in mind that we are still focused on beating USC tomorrow night, we are certainly excited to represent the South Division on December 2nd in the conference championship game.”
The Pac-12’s championship game is hosted by the school with the best overall conference record which will either be No. 4 Stanford or No. 9 Oregon based on the result of Saturday’s rivalry game between Oregon and Oregon State.
If the Beavers are able to stage an upset, the Bruins will be headed back to Stanford where they were beat 45-19 on Oct. 1. If the Ducks prevail, the Bruins will travel to Eugene, Ore. UCLA and Oregon did not play during the regular season. UCLA’s last trip to Autzen Stadium resulted in a 60-13 loss.
If UCLA upsets No. 10 USC on Saturday it will be the outright Pac-12 South Division champions and head into the title game “through the front door” as Neuheisel talked about this week.
A loss to the Trojans would put the Bruins in the title game at 6-6 and in danger of losing bowl eligibility with a loss that would drop them to 6-7.
UCLA and the Pac-12 conference could apply for a waiver if that were the case. UCLA officials, however, were unavailable on Saturday to comment on the waiver situation.
Neuheisel would rather not think about waivers as his team prepares to take on USC on Saturay for the outright Pac-12 South Division Crown.
“The winner is going to be able to say, ‘We won the south division,’” Neuheisel said earlier this week. “That’s how hopefully this game is for years and years to come.”