Friday Recap: 3 Championships Result In 3 Upsets

December 18, 2020 by Staff

The PAC-12, Conference USA and the MAC all held their conference championship games on Friday night and all 3 favored teams went down to defeat.

Oregon (4-2) won 31-24 at USC (5-1) 31-24 in the PAC-12 Championship, scuttling any chance that conference had of landing a final four slot in the College Football Playoff Championship tournament. The Ducks backed into the game when Washington had to bow out due to Covid. A week earlier, Washington had to also cancel its game with the Ducks, which ironically made the Huskies the PAC-12 North champs because of a better record. Therefore, Oregon wins the conference without winning its division. Totally apropos for 2020.

Ball State (6-1) handed Buffalo (5-1) its only loss of the season, 38-28, in the MAC Championship game at Detroit. Buffalo's only MAC title was won in 2008 by defeating Ball State 45-24. It's the fifth conference title for the Cardinals, but the first since 1998 and the first since the conference split into two divisions in 1997. The Bulls lost the 2018 title game to Northern Illinois 30-29 as NIU rallied from as many as 19 down and scored the game-winning points with 1:09 to play.

Marshall was perfect until the last two games of the season when the Herd lost to Rice 20-0 and followed that up with a 22-13 loss to UAB in Huntington in the Conference USA Championship game. It's the second title for the Blazers in the last 3 seasons. Marshall dropped to 7-2 while UAB improved to 6-3.