Pac-12 could be league left out of college football’s final four

Last year, it was the Big 12 Conference. Now it seems certain the Pac-12 will be left out when the four-team playoff field is assembled.

That conference's two best candidates, Stanford and Utah, lost on Saturday, giving each team two defeats. Both already were on the outside looking in, with Stanford seventh in last week's College Football Playoff ranking and Utah 10th.

Now both will drop when the latest ranking is announced today.

The only hope for the Pac-12 is for chaos to break out over the next three weeks, and there will be upsets. But 14 teams have one or fewer losses, and the chances of enough teams going down to get in a Pac-12 team is more of a long shot than Holly Holm beating Ronda Rousey.

No Pac-12 means the Big 12 probably gets a team in this season with the likely representative coming down to the Nov. 28 game between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. As if that rivalry already wasn't intense enough.

AROUND THE NATION — The rough final stretch of the season continues to get more difficult for Texas Christian. Quarterback Trevone Boykin (ankle) and wide receiver Josh Doctson (arm and wrist) are questionable for Saturday's game against Oklahoma. … Coach Todd Berry's firing by Louisiana-Monroe on Saturday created the 11th opening nationally. Berry was at Monroe the past six seasons, taking over after serving as UNLV's offensive coordinator for three years. … Navy is likely to be the highest-ranked Group of Five team today, which means the Midshipmen would be in excellent position to make a New Year's Six game. Navy plays Army on Dec. 12, throwing a potential wrench into the bowl system. CFP executive director Bill Hancock released a statement that read, "If the committee believes the result of the Army-Navy game could affect Army's or Navy's ranking and therefore its place in the playoff or its selection as the group of five representative, only the pairings that affect Army and Navy would be delayed until after the Army-Navy game."

AROUND THE MOUNTAIN WEST — Cornerback Elijah Battle (6 feet, 180 pounds) of Dodge City (Kansas) Community College and offensive lineman Garrison Wright (6-5, 313) of Butler C.C. in El Dorado, Kansas, will visit UNLV this weekend. … Quarterback Kurt Palandech is listed atop UNLV's depth chart for Saturday's 7:30 p.m. game against San Diego State at Sam Boyd Stadium. Dalton Sneed, who is redshirting, is second. That means usual starter Blake Decker probably won't play, and more information will be available on his injury at today's weekly Rebels news conference. … UNR (6-4) is bowl eligible, but that doesn't mean the Wolf Pack will get in a postseason game. The Mountain West has six slots, and might have more eligible teams than available bowls. So the Wolf Pack will be cheering — OK, at least hoping — for UNLV to beat the Aztecs and improve their chances. … Boise State outgained New Mexico 638 yards to 413 and ran 114 plays to the Lobos' 52. And somehow lost at home to New Mexico 31-24. The Lobos were 30-point underdogs.

LV BOWL UPDATE — Las Vegas Bowl executive director John Saccenti talks the game's current picture. The bowl, which will be played Dec. 19 at Sam Boyd Stadium, has the first choice of the Mountain West or Brigham Young against the sixth selection of the Pac-12 Conference.

"Well, we've stopped trying to figure out who is going to be the champion of the Mountain Division in the Mountain West conference. With Boise State falling at home to upstart New Mexico, none other than Air Force has taken over the top spot at 5-1. However, the Falcons still play both the Broncos and Lobos to end the regular season, so everything could change among those three teams over the next two weekends. San Diego State keeps rolling along at 6-0 in the West Division ... Teams in the Pac-12 keep beating each other up, which means no one is in the top 10 in the national polls, but five schools are in this week's Top 25 rankings. ... Other than the big Air Force at Boise State tilt on Friday, some matchups our committee will be watching this weekend include the in-state battle between Arizona and Arizona State, USC at Oregon and UCLA at Utah. BYU saw its winning streak snapped at Missouri, but still has a chance to close out things with nine wins overall."

MY FINAL FOUR — I vote in the Sweet 16 Poll organized by the Football Writers Association of America and the National Football Foundation.

Here is my top four:

1. Ohio State. The nation's best roster, but hasn't played like it yet. Howver, there are no great teams this season.

2. Clemson. Gets attention for offense, but Tigers' defense is seventh nationally.

3. Alabama. The team no one wants to play.

4. Oklahoma State. Tough tests coming up against Baylor and Oklahoma.

HEISMAN ODDS — Handicapper Bruce Marshall (goldsheet.com) provides Heisman Trophy odds each week:

Derrick Henry, Alabama 7-5

Deshaun Watson, Clemson 2-1

Leonard Fournette, Louisiana State 5-2

Baker Mayfield, Oklahoma 5-1

Ezekiel Elliott, Ohio State 10-1

Keenan Reynolds, Navy 20-1

Trevone Boykin, TCU 25-1

Christian McCaffrey, Stanford 25-1

Matt Johnson, Bowling Green 35-1

Corey Coleman, Baylor 40-1

Contact Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2914. Follow him on Twitter: @markanderson65. He is first vice president of the Football Writers Association of America.