ESPN and the College Football Playoff committee announced the first Top 25 where the playoff is concerned and Oregon is No. 6, right behind Washington at No. 5
Ohio State, Georgia, Michigan, and Florida State, all undefeated, make up Nos. 1-4 and if the season ended now, those teams would make up the national semifinal.
Fortunately for everyone else, the season still has a month to go and there’s plenty of football to be played. If everything goes according to plan, the Huskies and Ducks will meet up for Round 2 in December, but this time it will be for the Pac-12 title and a spot in the playoff.
The Ducks couldn’t have picked a better time to come up with their biggest road win of the season. ESPN and GameDay were on hand to witness Oregon defeat Utah 35-6.
“I wouldn’t want to play Oregon right now. If you’re asking who the best is, not the most deserving, I’m not going to say they should be No. 1,” Kirk Herbstreit said. “If you’re asking me who I do not want to play, it would be Oregon.”
Rece Davis said the Ducks could win the national title and Joey Galloway said Oregon is playing better than Washington at this moment.
It’s a foregone conclusion that one of those top four teams will lose as Michigan and Ohio State still have to play, which opens the door for the Duck-Huskies winner, assuming everyone is still at the same spot a month from now.
Washington still has to go to USC, host Utah and Oregon State before the Apple Cup. Their No. 5 ranking is far from safe. The same can be said of the Ducks as they host Cal before a huge game at Autzen against USC. Arizona State should be a win, but then Oregon will host the Beavers in a game where anything can happen as we all witnessed last season.
But as of now, the Ducks have nothing to complain about and need to make sure they have something to play for when Dec. 1 rolls around.
