USC Rose Bowl Berth Hinted By College Football Playoff Committee Chair

College Football Playoff committee chairman Kirby Hocutt dropped hints of the increasing possibility of a USC Rose Bowl berth during the reveal of the playoff bracket.

Nothing is official yet, but USC’s hopes of rising in the College Football Playoff rankings securing a place in the Rose Bowl got yet another boost on Sunday morning.

With Washington officially locked in for the playoff as the No. 4 team in the country, their Rose Bowl bid is now up for grabs. The invitation will be handed out to the next highest-ranked Pac-12 team.

The selection committee is responsible for making that decision between USC and Colorado, who entered the weekend separated by two places and who now each have three losses.

The CFP Top 25 won’t be revealed until bowl announcements are made at 11:30 a.m. Pacific, but selection committee chairman Kirby Hocutt may have accidentally revealed how that ranking will look.

While discussing Washington’s playoff resume relative to Penn State, Hocutt made reference to both USC and Colorado’s rankings.

“We looked at one-loss Washington, that loss being against a Top 10 opponent, compared to a two-loss Penn State team,” Hocutt said. “Friday night we saw a very convincing win against a Colorado team that we’ve had in our Top 10.”

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It may be parsing, but Holcutt referred to USC as a “Top 10 opponent” while using the past tense when referring to the Buffalo’s Top 10 status.

Does that mean the Trojans outrank Colorado in the rankings, thus securing a Rose Bowl berth? It would seem that way.

If that is the case, USC will face off with Big Ten Champion and playoff snub Penn State. The match up is intriguing enough with sanctions narratives surrounding both schools, but the Nittany Lions and Trojans also shared a similar path this season — falling into a hole early but finishing the season strong.

Should the Trojans officially nab the Rose Bowl bid, USC will be looking to validate their turnaround while Penn State will be looking to show that they deserved a playoff spot.