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SALT LAKE CITY — My, how things can change in a week.
Ahead of Week 11, Utah found itself as the fourth-highest team in the College Football Playoff rankings from the Pac-12, with a de facto semifinal matchup against Oregon that loomed.
Utah did its job on Saturday night and beat Stanford at home 42-7 to mark its second consecutive undefeated season at Rice-Eccles Stadium. USC did its job on Friday night, as well, against a one-win Colorado team. But Oregon and UCLA faltered and dropped games against Washington and Arizona, respectively.
Suddenly, the dynamics of the Pac-12 changed.
Oregon went from the top team in the conference and an outside shot in the playoff to being the third-highest ranked team in the Pac-12.
On Tuesday, Utah moved up to No. 10 in the latest College Football Playoff rankings that were released Tuesday night on ESPN sandwiched between a double-header basketball matchup on the network.
The Utes are now the second-highest ranked team from the Pac-12 and are second only to USC, which moved up to No. 7 this week and remains the final team from the Pac-12 with a potential playoff bid.
Utah is now followed by Oregon at No. 12 and UCLA at No. 16; Washington has moved up to No. 17 to make it five-team race for the Pac-12 title game, and Oregon State checks back into the rankings at No. 23 to make it six teams from the Pac-12 ranked this week.
At the top of the rankings it remains unchanged with Georgia at No. 1, followed by No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 Michigan and No. 4 TCU. The three teams with an outside shot including No. 5 Tennessee, No. 6 LSU and No. 7 USC.
