Since Washington appeared in the College Football Playoff in 2016, 10 teams made the playoff over the next six years. Not one of them was from the Pac-12. Even the Group of Five (Cincinnati in 2021) made the cut during that stretch.

A conference that has origins dating to 1915 with the formation of the Pacific Coast Conference, did a wonderful job of cannibalizing itself time and again when it mattered most. USC’s fourth-quarter implosion against Utah in last year’s conference championship game serves as the most recent example.

With the conference dissolving, the Pac-12 saved its best for last. It went into championship weekend virtually guaranteed a spot in the playoff with No. 3 Washington and No. 5 Oregon meeting in a rematch of an October 14 game the Huskies won, 35-33. (At that time, two weeks before the initial CFP ranking was released, the Ducks were No. 7 in the AP and the Huskies were was No. 8.)

The conference never had two teams in the top eight of a final CFP ranking, let alone two in the top five.

The Huskies’ 34-31 win in the conference championship bumped them up to No. 2 and a date with No. 3 Texas in the Sugar Bowl. They will attempt to do something the Pac-12 has only done once: make it to the CFP championship game.

The Pac-12’s overall strength this season is underscored by the fact seven teams – Washington, Oregon, Arizona, Oregon State, Utah, USC and UCLA – were in the playoff rankings at some point. The No. 14 Wildcats and No. 19 Beavers were in the final ranking along with the Huskies and Ducks, who slipped to No. 8. In addition, UW’s Michael Penix and Oregon’s Bo Nix are among four Heisman finalists.

Here is a look at how the Pac-12 fared in the previous nine years of the playoff format.

2022: USC was No. 4 in the next-to-last ranking. Win the conference championship game against No. 11 Utah and the Trojans make the playoff. Instead, the Utes scored 23 fourth-quarter points in a 47-24 victory. The Utes played spoiler, something they did before, and for the sixth year in a row the Pac-12 was left out of the playoff.

2021: Oregon was No. 3 heading into a clash at No. 23 and three-loss Utah in the next-to-last game of the regular season. The Utes scored a pair of touchdowns in the final 27 seconds of the first half and rolled to a 38-7 win to eliminate any hope of Pac-12 representation in the playoff. For good measure, Utah blew out the Ducks once again in the conference championship game.

2020: When the initial ranking was revealed, undefeated Oregon was No. 15 and looking up at eight teams with at least one loss, including three with a pair of defeats. The difference, of course, was the Ducks played only three games to that point as the Pac-12 did not take the field during the virus-disrupted season until November. As it turned out, the highest a team from the conference got in the CFP rankings was USC at No. 13.

2019: No. 5 Utah went into the Pac-12 title game against Oregon with a shot at making the final four. The Utes fell behind 20-0 at the half before losing, 37-15, to end their playoff hope. Oregon had already blown its chance. Mario Cristobal’s team entered its November 23 game at Arizona State 9-1 and No. 6 in the CFP. The Sun Devils, who were on a four-game losing streak, held off the Ducks’ comeback attempt, 31-28.

2018: It was a long shot, for sure, though No. 8 Washington State nonetheless had a chance at making the playoff when they hosted Apple Cup rival Washington in the regular-season finale with the Pac-12 North title and a spot in the conference championship game on the line. Those slim hopes were dashed in losing to the No. 11 Huskies, who had three losses.

2017: No. 10 USC entered its conference championship matchup against Stanford with a remote shot at making the playoff. In addition to taking care of their own business, the Trojans needed a lot of help to leap into the playoff. Southern Cal did its part in defeating the Cardinal, though did not receive the needed favors and checked in at No. 8 in the final ranking.

2016: Washington slipped from No. 5 to No. 6 after losing to USC the second Saturday in November. With two weeks left in the regular season, Chris Peterson’s Huskies needed help….and got it.

First, the Huskies handily defeated Arizona State while No. 5 Louisville was blown out by Houston. The following week, after having been bumped up to No. 5, UW rolled over rival Washington State, 45-17, while No. 4 Michigan lost in double overtime at No. 2 Ohio State. The result was Washington and Michigan swapped places in the CFP ranking. The No. 4 Huskies then blew out No. 8 Colorado in the Pac-12 championship game, 41-10, to remain at No. 4 in the final ranking and a date with the No. 1 Crimson Tide in a semifinal. Washington lost, 24-7.

2015: At 8-1, No. 7 Stanford had a good shot at making the playoff. However, David Shaw’s team lost by two points at home to unranked Oregon and fell to No. 11. The Cardinal rebounded to defeat unranked Cal, No. 6 Notre Dame and No. 20 USC in the Pac-12 title game. Alas, the Oregon loss left too much ground to make up and Stanford was No. 6 in the final ranking.

2014: One-loss Oregon was No. 2 behind Alabama in the final five rankings – there were seven this first year of the CFP – and beat No. 7 Arizona by 38 points in the conference title game. It was a rematch of an earlier meeting in which the Wildcats were responsible for the Ducks’ lone defeat.

Mark Helfrich’s team defeated Florida State, 59-20, in a semifinal that was a showcase of the top two picks (Jameis Winston, Marcus Mariota) in the NFL draft four months later. The Ducks then lost to Ohio State in the national championship game to finish 13-2. It is the Pac-12’s lone appearance in the CFP championship game, something Washington hopes to change.