Oregon knocks off USC: How Ducks’ victory affects Big Ten Championship, CFP pictures

In what amounted to a Elimination from the College Football Playoff matchup between two top-15 titans of the Big Ten, No. 7 Oregon kept its conference championship and national title hopes alive Saturday with a spirited 42-27 victory over No. 15 USC.

The Ducks (9-2) need a win at Washington and a Michigan win against Ohio State next week to reach the Big Ten championship game for the second straight season as defending league champion.

The Trojans’ loss (8-3) eliminates the Trojans team from various championship title scenarios and now the race will be decided on the rivalry weekend with undefeated Ohio State and Indiana leading the way ahead of Oregon and Michigan, 45-20 winners at Maryland.

Oregon never trailed after Malik Benson’s 85-yard punt return midway through the second quarter and put it away with Noah Whittington’s touchdown run with 5:30 left after USC cut a two-score deficit to eight points on Jayden Maiva’s Lake McRee run in the final frame.

Before we get into what Oregon’s win means in the overall playoffs, here’s a look at the updated Big Ten Championship storylines following Week 12:

Big Ten Tiebreakers, Explained

• Tied teams will be compared based on matchups during the regular season.
• Tied teams will be compared on the basis of their record to all common conference opponents.
• Tied teams will be compared on the basis of their record to common opponents with the best conference record and will advance through the common conference opponents based on their order of finish in the conference standings. Tied teams will be compared based on the best cumulative conference winning percentage among all conference opponents.
• The representative will be chosen based on the highest ranking by SportSource Analytics (team evaluation score metric) after the regular season.
• The representative will be chosen by drawing lots from among the tied teams carried out by the commissioner or his delegate.

Big Ten Championship scenarios after Oregon win

• If Oregon beats Washington next weekend and Michigan beats Ohio State, the Ducks will be in the title game.
• If Michigan beats Ohio State and Washington beats Oregon, the Wolverines will be in the title game.
• If Ohio State beats Michigan, the Buckeyes will be in the title game.
• If Indiana beats Purdue, the Hoosiers will be in the title game.

Michigan has won four in a row against the Buckeyes, but an upset of top-ranked Ohio State next week would be the most improbable victory in the current hot streak.

For the Ducks to get a home opener, they will have to beat Washington on the road during rivalry weekend. An Oregon loss and a 10-2 result would put their team in a deadlock with several other 10-win teams at large and risk the Ducks falling behind Oklahoma and Notre Dame with two losses given the hot streak each has shown over the past month.

Oklahoma knocked off No. 22 Missouri on Saturday for its third straight quality victory, while the Fighting Irish beat Syracuse, 70-7, and let Stanford go.

In Latest CBS Sports Playoff ProjectionOregon was seeded eighth, hosting No. 9 Oklahoma in December. However, if Oregon, Oklahoma and Notre Dame win, we expect the Ducks to move up to No. 6 in the final bracket to replace Ole Miss, who could slide if Lane Kiffin heads to LSU.

Committee Chairman Hunter Yurachek explained after the third playoff seeding why the Ducks had a spot ahead of the Sooners.

“Oregon, even though their strength of schedule may not be as strong as Oklahoma, we feel like they are a very strong team on both sides of the ball,” Yurachek said. “Offensively and defensively, they rank in the top 10 in most of the statistical categories we use, compared to other teams.”

Yurachek pointed to Oregon’s recent ranked win at Iowa and said the committee still views the win at Penn State in September as a quality win.

“I know Penn State is not the same Penn State we expected this year,” Yurachek said. “Still, it’s a very tough place to play, as evidenced by the fact that Indiana had to make a last-second touchdown to win there a few weeks ago. So there was a lot of discussion about that, but Oregon, at 9-1, remained one spot ahead of Oklahoma.”