On Wednesday, the NCAA Division I Council voted to eliminate division requirements for conference title games. The rule wasn't supposed to go into effect until the 2023 season, but apparently the Pac-12 couldn't wait as it announced also Wednesday that it was dropping divisions for this season. Instead, the two teams with the highest conference winning percentage will face off in the championship game. Sportsbooks frankly were caught a bit off guard here, as no futures odds to win the Pac-12 ch anged, although they still could. USC is currently the +140 favorite.
The Pac-12 has a fairly new commissioner in George Kliavkoff, a publicity specialist who came from MGM Resorts International, where he was president of entertainment and sports. It's no surprise that Kliavkoff wanted to get ahead of the curve here and get some attention for a league that has fallen far behind the other Power 5 conferences in football. The Pac-12 has had a representative in the national semifinals just twice and not since the 2016 season. The Pac-12 also was the conference that originally brought the motion of deregulating title games to the council.
Most other leagues likely follow the Pac-12's lead, will but not for 2022 because schedules already are set. The current Pac-12 conference football schedule, based upon two divisions, will remain in place for this year. The two divisions were originally created in 2011 after Utah and Colorado were added to the league.
" ;Our goal is to place our two best teams in our Pac-12 Football Championship Game, which we believe will provide our conference with the best opportunity to optimize CFP invitations and ultimately win national championships,” said Kliavkoff.' “(Wednesday's) decision is an important step towards that goal and immediately increases both fan interest in, and the media value of, our Football Championship Game.”
The elimination of division requirements would have led to a different Pac-12 title game in five of the last 11 years, although No. 10 Oregon vs. No. 17 Utah would have still been the game in 2021. Here are those that would have changed without a divisional requirement:
2011 – No. 9 Oregon vs. UCLA would have been No. 4 Stanford vs. No. 9 Oregon