Fresh off of their initial Top 10 rankings in the College Football Playoff’s first 2019 poll, the University of Utah and the Oregon Ducks sat idly by this past weekend as crucial games for playoff jockeying took place.

As Minnesota took down Penn State, LSU hung on to beat Alabama, and Oklahoma narrowly escaped what would have been a shocking loss, the Pac-12 sat anxiously by wondering if they would be shown respect in this week’s rankings or be devalued due to both teams’ BYE weeks. And for at least one week, the Pac-12’s two one-loss teams received more respect than the Big 10’s shocking leader, the Minnesota Golden Gophers.

While Georgia remains ahead of of the Utes and Ducks, That’s not expected to last, as with their best case scenario they’ll likely face either LSU or Alabama in the SEC Championship game.

The beauty of all this is that while the Utes are locked in on a one game at a time approach, everyone else gets to dissect and also look ahead. Right now the concept is simple, just win, keep winning, and you are likely in. At the point that we are at, it’s shaping up like at minimum it could be no. 5 versus no. 6 in the Pac-12 Championship Game. Some may disagree, but it’s hard to see a scenario where the winner of the Pac-12 Championship Game in this instance, would be kept from the field of four as each team’s only loss leading into the game, would have been near the start of the season.

Again there are still plenty of games to be played, but Ute fans and Ducks fans need to be rooting for each other on a weekly basis. And on a week where each team could have been justifiably gypped, the national respect for both programs is evident as each team moved up one spot: Utah to no. 7 and Oregon to no. 6. As long as each team continues to do what they’re expected to do, they’re on an epic collision course for the Pac-12 title and more.

Below are the November 12 CFP rankings: