Caleb Williams, USC Trojans. (Photo by Chris Kodoto/Getty Images)
Not every team with big ambitions in college football won in style.
Not only is winning matches tempting the College Football Playoff Selection Committee, it is winning matches in style!
While an ugly victory is more important than a big loss, there are only too many points available in the playoff in its current format. Although expansion has occurred, only four teams are participating in this season. More importantly, the team may have to do more than just win its Power Five Conference, especially if it has already suffered a loss during the regular season.
Here are three playoff contenders desperate for a big victory with some style points as well.
College Football Playoff: 3 teams hurt themselves due to lack of style points
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Sure enough, narrow victory margins and defensive issues hurt USC a bit
USC still has to play its game in Week 10 on Saturday night at home for 3-5 cal, but that would be an ideal time for the Trojans to win the conference game by a huge margin. They might be 5-1 in a Pac-12 game, but all of their wins have been 17 points or less. The Pac-12’s 17-point victory came more than a month ago against Arizona State at home, a program that sacked its coach after just three games…
While the non-conference victories over Rice and Fresno State were by large margins, they didn’t clash with anything close to the five powerhouse contenders. USC still has a chance of achieving another solid non-conference win over Notre Dame at the end of the season. For now, it would be really helpful for USC to tackle Cal and Colorado at home before finishing the Pac-12 game at UCLA.
Even if USC reached Las Vegas with a record of 11-1 (8-1) and the Pac-12 didn’t win by a margin greater than 17 points, the Trojans would still have a chance in the playoff. A road win over UCLA would be huge for them, as would a Pac-12 Championship Game win over either a one-loss Oregon or a two-lose Utah team that gave USC their only loss of the year. They need a meaningful explosion.
USC can still do the playoff, but they will need to do some defensive things for the sake of the committee.
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