History up for grabs by USC, TCU and Tulane as Georgia, Michigan aim to finish strong on championship weekend - CBS Sports

11 Utah in Friday's Pac-12 Championship Game, USC will be conference champs for only the second time since 2008.

It will also get a chance to contend for the national title for the first time since 2004.

Across a championship weekend that appears to lack drama, the Pac-12 title game assumes the most of it.

5 Ohio State new life in the College Football Playoff conversation. .

This year's roster has 42 players from out of state with only 62% from California.

Yes, in the future, the championship games will essentially exist for seeding purposes.

If the expanded playoff reduces the impact of the league title games, well, that's just how it shakes.

Conference championship games aren't going way.

22 UCF in the AAC Championship Game, though they would also need to win their bowl game to set a new mark.

The Horned Frogs (12-0) can improve by 8.5 games from last year's 5-7 record should they win out.

The Trojans (11-1) can similarly improve by 8.5 games from last year's 4-8 record should they win out.

It's Revenge of Nerds in the Power Five title games.

The 19 combined losses in the Power Five title games are second-most of the CFP era?

The ACC Championship Game is the most irrelevant among the Power Five.

It took 71 years to go from the first game that decided the a recognized national champion (Princeton vs. Rutgers, 1869) to the creation of the AP Top 25 in 1936.

From there, it took 62 years to decide a champion on the field with the Bowl Championship Series beginning in 1998

That lasted 16 years until the College Football Playoff debuted in 2014

The four-team playoff will have lasted 10 years by the time the 12-team playoff debuts in 2024

From a June 2021 formal announcement of the expanded playoff through two earth-shaking conference raids (by the SEC and Big Ten), through three new Power Five commissioners, through an obstinate Rose Bowl, we are finally here

College football is essentially the last major sport to adopt a legitimate, progressive multi-elimination playoff

One huge reason for the SEC's dominance: The favorite has won 27 of the 30 prior championship games … remember Clay Helton

His Georgia Southern offense was the most improved in the nation, scoring an average of 13.4 more points per game than a year ago … Boise State is meeting Fresno State for the fourth time in the last 10 years in the Mountain West Championship Game … the winner of the SEC Championship Game has won at least one CFP game since 2015 … at 25 years, 1 month and 6 days, Stetson Bennett would be the oldest quarterback to win an SEC title … the Pac-12 was the only conference with six teams in the top 20 of the CFP

Seven of 12 Pac-12 teams are bowl eligible