Kirk Herbstreit believes Pac-12 will land a team in the College Football Playoff

Rece Davis asked ESPN college football analysts Kirk Herbstreit, Booger McFarland, Joey Galloway and Greg McElroy a simple question on Tuesday night’s college football show: Will the Pac-12 get a team into the College Football Playoff?

All four answered the question, and each one had a different perspective on the matter.

“I don’t think they’re gonna get left out,” McFarland said. “I was really, really, really amazed with what Washington did. I didn’t think that Washington could stand up to the physicality of the Oregon Ducks. Not only did they do that, they proved that from an offensive standpoint, they started to remind me — and I know it’s kind of sacrilegious to compare this — but of that 2019 LSU team. The way that Michael Penix is so accurate. They got those receivers. They can literally be stifled for a couple of drives, and then they can go on a two-, three- four-play drive and score.”

Washington is the current favorite to make it to the College Football Playoff from the Pac-12 thanks to its recent win over Oregon and its undefeated record.

“Wait ’til Jalen McMillan comes back healthy,” Herbstreit said. “He tried to go last week, unable to go but they have such depth at receiver. Michael Penix is a treat to watch and they can run the football better than you realize. But I think they still have a long way to go. The beauty of the Pac-12 is the gauntlet. I do think, Rece, to your question, I think they definitely are gonna get a team. I think the voters eventually, the committee, will respect that conference, the depth of that conference. Even if they were to trip up along the way, I think the Pac-12 Championship, the winner of that game will eventually emerge and get into the playoff. But that the depth of the conference is fun and even Oregon, I know they lost but they can’t be out of this thing yet either. They looked good the other day.”

The conference also has three other one-loss teams in Oregon State, USC and Utah that could all theoretically play their way into the Pac-12 championship and a playoff spot.

“There is no better situation in college football than what we have coming up in the Pac-12,” Galloway said. “With the amount of teams that they have that can still get in this thing, that may earn and deserve a right to get into it, it’s going to be exciting watching this play out with everybody playing everyone. I think they get in.”

McElroy agreed with the group that the Pac-12 will get a team in the playoff from the group of Washington, Oregon, USC, Utah and Oregon State. But he also said there are plenty of teams in the strong conference that could play spoiler.

He said UCLA is a prime example.

“Now I don’t think UCLA is very good,” McElroy said. “I think they have a lot of issues offensively, but they could very easily get in between one of the aforementioned teams en route to a one loss or no loss conference championship run. I think that the depth of the league is extremely good. I think it’s universally respected and I can’t imagine the scenario where they’d be left out, but I also think it’s going to be tough for them to survive the gauntlet that is the Pac-12 schedule.”