Heading into conference championship week at the beginning of December, Utah sat at No. 5 in the College Football Playoff rankings. Oklahoma followed right behind, at No. 6. Conventional wisdom was that all that needed to happen for the Utes to claim the fourth Playoff spot was a win over Oregon for the Pac-12 championship and a loss by Georgia to LSU in the SEC championship game.
That was one popular scenario. But what about Oklahoma? Should the Sooners defeat Baylor, a higher-ranked team than Oregon, for a second time in the Big 12 championship game, an argument could be made that OU was the more deserving Playoff team over the Utes.