The Pac-12’s football championship game will no longer automatically feature the North and South division winners after the NCAA relaxed its rules on who can play in conference title games.
Shortly after the NCAA announced the change, the Pac-12 said it will use conference winning percentage to determine which two squads meet for the league title in Las Vegas.
Since its inception in 2011, the Pac-12 title game has had the North and South champs meet for the crown, resulting in unranked schools playing on multiple occasions. Per the league, five of the first 11 title games would have had a different team in them under the new format, including in 2020 when Colorado would have replaced Oregon (who filled in for Washington after it didn’t have enough players due to COVID) as Utah’s opponent.