IMHO Sunday: Two down and one big USC/Utah Pac-12 Championship Game in Vegas to go.

In my humble opinion, cardinal and gold thoughts on what I see, what I hear, and what I think from Los Angeles. One to go: In the trilogy of gridiron challenges presented to the CFP No. 6 USC Trojans, Lincoln Riley’s breathtaking team knocked off No. 15 Notre Dame, 38-27, Saturday in the Coliseum and suddenly finds itself on the precipice of sweeping consecutively UCLA, Notre Dame, and next Friday in the Pac-12 title game, a rematch against No. 14 Utah Utes, which advanced to the Pac-12 Championship Game on Saturday by smashing Colorado, 63-21, and No. 9 Oregon being upset by No. 21 Oregon State, 38-34, in Corvallis. One to go – Part 2: So, it’s the Trojans and the Utah Utes next Friday night in Las Vegas, and there is so much now at stake in terms of reality, it’s enough to make Los Angeles suddenly take extra seriously the prospect of the Trojans being a very real player in the College Football Playoffs mix. If the Men of Troy can get their revenge against the Utes – a team that ran a two-point conversion at the end of the game in Salt Lake City to upset the Cardinal and Gold, 43-42, it’s highly possible that with three straight impressive wins against CFP ranked opponents, USC may be rewarded with a CFP post-season invitation to the football’s version of the Final Four.