Despite carrying a 19-game winning streak and beating Oregon earlier this year, the Huskies came into the championship game as near 10-point underdogs.
The Huskies responded by creating an almost-exact replica of their 3-point victory of the Ducks earlier this season by defeating No. 5 Oregon 34-31 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on Friday.
Washington recorded a 20-10 lead in the first half, and Oregon countered by taking a 24-20 lead with just over a minute remaining in the third quarter.
Washington retaliated with back-to-back touchdown drives to take a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter. Oregon found the endzone with two minutes on the clock to cut the deficit to a field goal, but the Huskies held true as the clock wound down and secured the championship victory.
The Washington Huskies are possibly the last-ever Pac-12 Champions. The next time these two go head-to-head will be as Big 10 rivals.
The third-ranked Huskies became the first Pac-12 team to reach 13-0 before bowl season, punching a ticket to the College Football Playoff in the process. Now they need to wait for the selection committee as a formality into either the Rose Bowl or the Sugar Bowl.
On this day, Dec. 2,1915, the Pacific Coast Conference formed with a membership consisting of four schools: The University of California, Berkeley, the University of Washington, the University of Oregon, and Oregon Agricultural University, now known as Oregon State University.
Now the Pac-12 becomes the Pac-2 with only Oregon State and Washington State still left in the conference, awaiting a six-game scheduling alliance with the Mountain West next year. What becomes of what's left of the Pac-12 is still up in the air, but to have at one point eight teams nationally ranked earlier this football season, it's safe to say the conference ended on a high note.
