Kid goes 8-2; plays for the most storied football program in the country with most certain deep pockets.... And bolts. If Notre Dame cannot keep players then no one can. The direction of college football is getting ludicrous. No other competitive sports league in the world operates this way. Absurd.

Do the Utes hold off a hot USC team to defend their title?

We talked about how we’d expect Utah to win, now we talk about how we’d anticipate USC winning…

https://utah.rivals.com/news/pac-12-championship-preview-usc-wins-if

Granted, it's just one spot.

But that does open a pathway to the Rose if USC wins Friday.

Albeit one that has to end with a very narrow USC victory (last second stuff) so nothing like 2019's game.

That could possibly keep Utah ahead of Washington in the final CFP poll and therefore a viable option to be selected if SC goes to the playoffs.

Did not expect Utah to be ahead of Washington.

In case y’all didn’t know. We run it out here.

Alex and Ryan Young of the USC Rivals site give their predictions on the Pac-12 Championship:

I thought this was a really impressive win in a lot of ways:
- Branden Carlson's three point shooting really kept the Arizona defense off balance
- Keba Keita looked like a defensive and rebounding machine
- Arizona started to claw back in the second half and instead of folding and giving the game away, Utah threw their own run together and regained their big lead. I liked the grittiness.
- Free throws concerned me, but thankfully it didn't become a huge issue

Great way to start the Pac-12 schedule. Let's hear what everyone else's thoughts.

Alex's series with USC's publisher Ryan Young continues with their players to watch in the title game:

Looks like three-team race now:

Alex takes a closer look at the most recent addition to the class:

Home against Arizona who appears to be the class of the league.

Our team is still establishing its rotation and will have its work cut out for them tonight. Still, we should see a clear step forward from last year.

Curious to see how Mike Saunders is used tonight and how he performs.

Utah stopped the #4 team in the country in their tracks tonight and put together an impressive win to start the conference schedule:

Tough conference opener with the #4 team in the country, so it'll be interesting to see how this one plays out.

Starting 5 for Utah is Carlson, Carlson, Madsen, Anthony, and Worster.

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I’ll have an article up shortly. Matthews silently committed to Utah during his OV when Utah beat USC.

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Any information on how healthy these two will be tomorrow night. Staying in Mesquite tonight. Headed to Vegas tomorrow. Go Utes!!!!

Right here:

I combined with USC publisher Ryan Young on some Pac-12 Championship Previews. Here’s the first one…

https://utah.rivals.com/news/pac-12-championship-preview-utah-wins-if

nm

Halie and I are heading out later today to beat tomorrow’s storm and last minute traffic craziness. Everyone be safe!

I’ll be dropping some collaborative pieces with USC publisher Ryan Young soon, like I’ve done for past the lat two Pac-12 Championship games.

I am still flabbergasted that Rising would chose to leave. Not a given he will but I would be stunned if he sticks to his decision to leave. He is the 5th rated passer in THE CONFERENCE and he is the 9th rated passer in yards tossed. Hardly leave early statistics. Mid season Rising was the 5th rated passer in the NCAA.... He is now 28th behind the likes of Hall at TDS.

Further... there are TEN senior quarterbacks who are rated higher than rising. 10 guys eligible to be drafted due to graduation alone. In addition, there are 13 JUNIORS that are rated higher than Rising. So... Of the 23 draft eligible guys, Rising is behind them all. I would be utterly stunned if he is not back next year:

He may never be a league guy let alone a leave early guy. Hope I am wrong on the former but I would 100% expect him to be back in SLC next year.

Spread this link around for Clark. It’s a quick and easy vote.

https://paycom.com/jim-thorpe-award...9XdFkf2BMBF00flbAvpBs4fVTCtzPWWEV7t906SusPYuc

Here’s Sean preview for the big rematch:

https://utah.rivals.com/news/pac-12-championship-game-opponent-preview-usc