Just before the Pac-12 championship game on Friday, the Washington Huskies ran through a cloud of purple smoke as they took the field. The pyrotechnic display in advance of their thoroughly dominant win over Colorado could represent the collective sigh of relief the purple-clad fan base released Sunday upon learning that the Huskies would represent the Pac-12 in the third College Football Playoff.
While the logic of the Huskies' inclusion seemed airtight, college football fans on the West Coast often suspect conspiratorial leanings back east. They grumble about biases based on region and money and media and Trilateral Commissions and the like.