Pac-12 Plot Twist – Could Vegas Host Ducks vs. Beavers For All The Marbles?
By STEVEN VAUGHAN, 750 THE GAME
Sports can be unpredictable. That is part of what makes them great to watch, and certainly fun to talk about.
The unexpected bombshell this week of the merge between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf Series took the sports world by surprise. But it got us thinking – what other plot twists would you like to see in sports?
John Canzano waded into that topic on 750 The Game and cast his eye toward the highly anticipated Oregon and Oregon State football season this fall.
“Is it possible that the Ducks and Beavers could play on Black Friday in a Civil War football game at Autzen Stadium and that one of them may have one loss or be undefeated? And the other may have one of two losses?,” Canzano asked. “Then after that game, they would meet just eight days later in Las Vegas and play for the Pac-12 Championship?
“What I’m talking about is a Civil War game for all the marbles.”
This couldn’t have happened before last year as the Pac-12 sent North/South Division winners to the conference championship game, taking a Ducks-Beavs conference title matchup off the table.
As of 2022, however, the conference sends the top two finishers in the standings to Vegas. Oregon vs Oregon State in the Pac-12 Championship is officially a possibility. Just last year two teams from the South division wound up facing off at Allegiant Stadium with Utah taking down future Heisman winner Caleb Williams and USC.
According to Bet MGM, the Ducks are +375 to win the conference and the Beavers are +750. Canzano says with the expectations so high that it wouldn’t be crazy to see Oregon and Oregon State finish 1-2 in the standings.
“If you’re picking Oregon or Oregon State to win the Pac-12 I’m not laughing at you,” Canzano said. “And if you’re picking Oregon and Oregon State to finish 1-2 in the conference, I wouldn’t laugh at you either.
“I think you’d have to have one of them undefeated. Winning the Black Friday game and ending the regular season undefeated or maybe one loss. And you have to have the other school as a two-loss (team). It would have to be a 10-2 vs an 11-1 or a 12-0 for this to happen. I think it’s going to be that tight at the top of the conference.”
Canzano says this isn’t his official prediction for how the season will play out. But as long as we’re talking plot twists, it’s not as much of a long shot as one may think.
After all, the PGA Tour and LIV Golf are coming together and few, if any, saw that coming.
Listen to the segment at the 1:52:48 mark on the podcast below. Catch the Bald Faced Truth with John Canzano weekdays 3-6 p.m. in Portland exclusively on 750 The Game.
