2022 champs

That’s a wrap. USC has done it in convincing fashion. They played the most games and won them all. Congrats Trojans:

USC 41 at Stanford 28 on Sep 10, 2022
Fresno State 17 at USC 45 on Sep 17, 2022
San José State 10 at Fresno State 17 on Oct 15, 2022
San Diego State 28 at Fresno State 32 on Oct 29, 2022
Stanford 13 at UCLA 38 on Oct 29, 2022
California 35 at USC 41 on Nov 05, 2022
San José State 27 at San Diego State 43 on Nov 12, 2022
Stanford 20 at California 27 on Nov 19, 2022
USC 48 at UCLA 45 on Nov 19, 2022
UCLA 35 at California 28 on Nov 25, 2022

2022 final standings

USC                     4-0
UCLA                    2-1
Fresno State            2-1
San Diego State         1-1
California              1-2
San José State          0-2
Stanford                0-3

2022, 10, USC, 4-0

The standings nicely reflect the actual relative ranking of these teams. Good luck trying to make it to the CFP, USC, but take heart that you’re already resting easy with the trophy that matters most.

Trojan warrior at rest holding a large golden cup, by MidJourney

I had a hard time getting the MJ image I wanted for this. I kept trying different prompts to give the warrior USC colors and make the cup gold. Trying to get multiple “nouns” into the picture with different descriptions is hard for me and the AI to agree on. Here’s a try at making a standalone golden trophy:

trophy cup made of gold, 3D render, decorative acorns, beautiful object, engraved letters MCC

No good reason for acorns but that’s this year’s cup. MidJourney’s attempt at writing is always adorable. It’s like writing you’re trying to read in a dream. Still, these are not great. I upgraded my MJ settings to their latest engine “v4” and went rummaging through the 19th century bin of unfashionable artists:

Trojan warrior sits near a golden cup, red helmet, victorious in battle, painting by John Frederick Lewis by MidJourney v4

Now we’re getting somewhere! All these are pretty good. John Frederick Lewis fits our bill here. On the top right the AI even threw in the horse free of charge so let’s upscale that one:

2022: USC Trojans take home the cup.

But wait, why is our mythical Trojan necessarily white? Unfortunately MJ doesn’t recognize Caleb Williams as a known face yet, but here’s a Black warrior version:

Black man with a beard as a Trojan warrior, sits near a golden cup, red helmet, victorious in battle, painting by John Frederick Lewis

These are all great too… Just for symmetry I’ll upscale the top right one where the AI gave us the USC horse in the background:

Ok now that I’ve made this page way too hard to load let’s leave it at that. Good job MidJourney.


One interesting outcome of this year’s real Pac-12 race has been all the discourse on resolving tiebreakers. Many people are saying… that it’s not easy once you get beyond head-to-head. The Pac-12 standings page has a truly delicious slice of fine print at the bottom:

Two-Team Tie 

1. If two teams are tied for first place both teams will participate in the championship game and the winner of the head-to-head will be the #1 seed.  If there is not a tie for first place, but two teams are tied for second place, the two-team tiebreaker policy will apply and the winner will be the #2 seed and visiting team.
(a) If no game is played between the two tied teams or that game ends in a tie, the following tie-breaking procedures shall be applied. 
2. Win percentage against the next highest placed common opponent in the standings (based on record in all games played within the Conference), proceeding through the standings. 
(a) When arriving at another group of tied teams while comparing records, use each team’s win percentage against the collective tied teams as a group (prior to that group’s own tie-breaking procedure) rather than the performance against individual tied teams. 
3. Win percentage against all common conference opponents.
4. Combined win percentage in conference games of conference opponents (ie, strength of conference schedule). 
5. Total number of wins in a 12-game season. The following conditions will apply to the calculation of the total number of wins: 
(a) Only one win against a team from the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision or lower division will be counted annually. 
(b) Any games that are exempted from counting against the annual maximum number of football contests per NCAA rules. (current Bylaw 17.10.5.2.1) shall not be included. 
6. Highest ranking by SportSource Analytics (team Rating Score metric) following the last weekend of regular-season games. 
7. Coin toss

Multiple-Team Ties 

In the event of a tie between more than two teams, the following procedures will be used. After one team has an advantage and is “seeded”, all remaining teams in the multiple-team tie-breaker will repeat the multiple-team tie-breaking procedure. If at any point the multiple-team tie is reduced to two teams, the two-team tie-breaking procedure will be applied. 

1. Head-to-head (best cumulative win percentage in games among the tied teams). If not every tied team has played each other, go to step 2. 
2. Win percentage against all common conference opponents (must be common among all teams involved in the tie) 
3. Record against the next highest placed common opponent in the standings (based on record in all games played within the conference), proceeding through the standings. 
(a) When arriving at another group of tied teams while comparing records, use each team’s win percentage against the collective tied teams as a group (prior to that group’s own tie-breaking procedure) rather than the performance against individual tied teams. 
4. Combined win percentage in conference games of conference opponents (ie, strength of conference schedule) 
5. Highest ranking by SportSource Analytics (team Rating Score metric) following the last weekend of regular-season games. 
6. Coin toss

The sicko in me wonders if they bothered to try to capture this algorithmically or if they just work it out by hand every time. If I go back and revisit my existing three-way-tie bug(s) I will try to use this real world source as guidance.

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Categorized as results