FanPost

Let's play Worst Case Scenario.. A 6-team tie is possible..

It's close enough to the end of the season to start playing What-If. And one What-If result appears to be very, very disturbing.

It's unlikely, but possible, that six teams could wind up tied for 1st place in the conference at 6-3.

And if that happens, guess who goes to the Rose Bowl?

USC.

Here's how it could happen

Nov 21:  Cal wins the Big Game @ Stanford, and Oregon loses @ Arizona; and OAC somehow loses @ Wazzu.

Nov 28: USC beats UCLA. Arizona beats ASU.

Dec  3: OAC wins the Civil War.

Dec 5: USC beats Arizona, and Cal beats UW.

Oregon, Stanford, AZ, OAC, USC and Cal would all be 6-3 at that point.

In this scenario you start breaking the tie by comparing the records of the tied teams against each other:

team rec losses
AZ 3-2 (Cal, USC)
OAC 3-2 ( AZ, USC)
USC 3-2 (Stan, Ore)
Ore 2-3 (Stan, AZ, OAC)
Stan 2-3 (Cal, OAC, AZ)
Cal 2-3 (Ore, USC, OAC)

Oregon, Stanford and Cal are knocked out.

In the new head-to-head, USC wins the conference -- because they would have beaten both Arizona and the barkrats.

Yes, it's highly unlikely that WSU will somehow pull a miracle in Pullman. I did say "worst-case scenario".. but none of the other links in this chain of events are completely outrageous. (For that matter, it's not at all clear that USC will win another game the way they're tanking it lately.)

And if the games do come down like this, but WSU does actually lose to OAC, the barkrats would be going to Pasadena... which is pretty much a worst-case scenario by itself.

But can you imagine the field day the media would have with a rematch of USC-TOSU in the Rose Bowl? The mind boggles.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of SB Nation or the Addicted To Quack Moderators. FanPost opinions are valued expressions of opinion by passionate and knowledgeable Oregon fans.

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