Pac-12 Football Championship Game

"Pac-12 Championship Game" redirects here. For basketball, see Pac-12 Conference basketball championship game (disambiguation).

Pac-12 Conference Football Championship Game
Conference Football Championship
Sport	Football
Conference	Pac-12 Conference
Played	2011–present
Last contest	2015
Current champion	Stanford
Most championships	Stanford (3)
TV partner(s)	FOX (2011, even years) ESPN (odd years)
Sponsors
Dr Pepper
Host stadiums
Best conference team's home field (2011–2013) Levi's Stadium (2014–2016)

Arizona

Arizona State

California

UCLA

Colorado

Oregon

Oregon State

USC

Stanford

Utah

Washington

Washington State

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– Northern division
– Southern division
– Championship Game site

The Pac-12 Football Championship Game is a college football game currently held by the Pac-12 Conference each year to determine the conference's season champion. The inaugural game was held December 2, 2011.

The game pits the champion of the Pac-12 North (California, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, Washington, Washington State) against the champion of the Pac-12 South (Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, UCLA, USC, and Utah). As of 2014, the game is played at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California. Prior to that the game was played at the home stadium of the division winner with the better conference record, with Autzen Stadium, Stanford Stadium, and Sun Devil Stadium each hosting one of the three games.

Television broadcast rights to the game are shared by Fox Sports and ESPN.

History

See also: 2010–14 NCAA conference realignment: Pac-10

In 2011, the Pacific-10 Conference added Colorado and Utah, bringing the membership total to 12 teams and causing the conference to change its name. At the time, the conference split into two six-team divisions and created a conference championship game. That year, USC (7-2) finished first but was ineligible to play in postseason games due to NCAA sanctions. The conference named UCLA (5-4) the South Division Champions and UCLA to represent the South.

Broadcast rights to the game are held by Fox and ESPN under a 12-year deal, with the rights alternating yearly on a one-year cycle since 2012. Fox also broadcast the inaugural game.

ESPN Radio carried the inaugural game nationally.

Results

Rankings are from the BCS poll from 2011 to 2013. Starting with 2014, the new College Football Playoff poll is used.

Year	North Division		South Division		Site	Date	Attendance	MVP
2011	#9 Oregon	49	UCLA	31	Autzen Stadium • Eugene, OR	December 2, 2011	59,376	RB LaMichael James, Oregon
2012	#8 Stanford	27	#16 UCLA	24	Stanford Stadium • Stanford, CA	November 30, 2012	31,622	QB Kevin Hogan, Stanford
2013	#7 Stanford	38	#11 Arizona State	14	Sun Devil Stadium • Tempe, AZ	December 7, 2013	69,535	RB Tyler Gaffney, Stanford
2014	#2 Oregon	51	#7 Arizona	13	Levi's Stadium • Santa Clara, CA	December 5, 2014	45,618	QB Marcus Mariota, Oregon
2015	#7 Stanford	41	#20 USC	22		December 5, 2015	58,476	RB Christian McCaffrey, Stanford
2016						December 2, 2016

Results by team

Appearances	School	Wins	Losses	Pct.	Year(s) Won
3	Stanford	3	0	1.000	2012, 2013, 2015
2	Oregon	2	0	1.000	2011, 2014
2	UCLA	0	2	.000
1	Arizona	0	1	.000
1	Arizona State	0	1	.000
1	USC	0	1	.000

• California, Colorado, Oregon State, Utah, Washington, and Washington State have yet to make an appearance in a Pac-12 Championship Game.

Team selection criteria

Division standings are based on each team's overall conference record. In the event that two teams are tied, head-to head competition would break the tie. If three or more teams are tied, the following tiebreakers are used to determine the divisional champion:

• The following procedures will only be used to eliminate all but two teams, at which point the two-team tie-breaking procedure (head-to-head result) will be applied.

1. Head-to-head (best record in games among the tied teams).
2. Record in games played within the division.
3. Record against the next highest placed team in the division (based on record in all Conference games, both divisional and cross-divisional), proceeding through the division.
4. Record in common Conference games.
5. Highest CFP ranking following the last weekend of regular-season games.

Site selection criteria

During its first three years, the site of the Pac-12 Championship Game was the home stadium of the division champion with the best overall conference record. In the event that the two division champions are tied, then the head-to-head record shall be used as the tiebreaker. Previously, when they remain tied after that tiebreaker, then a BCS component would be used.

It was announced on May 15, 2014 that Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. will play host to the game for the next three seasons.

See also

List of NCAA Division I FBS Conference Championship games

Notes

• November 30, 2012 – Only 31,622 fans attended the 2012 Championship game, which started at 5:20 p.m. on a weeknight. It was also raining that day at the site of the game in Stanford, California.