This week in Pac-12 football

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•College Football Awards Finalists include ASU’s Zane Gonzalez (Groza), UTAH’s Mitch Wishnowsky (Guy), USC’s Adoree’ Jackson (Thorpe) and WSU’s Cody O’Connell (Outland).

DECIDING THE NORTH
Washington and Washington State each control their own destiny. The winner of Friday’s Apple Cup will claim the Pac-12 North Division and a spot in the Pac-12 Championship Game.

DECIDING THE SOUTH
Colorado controls its own destiny. Should it defeat Utah Saturday, it will capture the South Division crown outright and head to the Pac-12 Football Championship Game. Should Colorado fall to Utah, it would drop into a tie with USC for the South Division crown. Based on the Pac-12 tie-breaker, USC won the head-to-head competition with Colorado (21-17 at USC on Oct. 8) and will represent the South at the Pac-12 Football Championship Game.

DIVISION CHAMPIONS: It’s worth noting that no team has come through Conference play unscathed since the league expanded to 12 teams. In four of the previous five seasons of Pac-12 play, the North Division champion finished Conference play with one loss. Only the 2013 season produced a North Division champion with more than one loss when Oregon and Stanford each finished tied at 7-2. While in the South Division, only once did the South Division produce a champion with less than two losses when ARIZONA STATE finished 8-1 in 2013.

CFP RANKINGS: WASHINGTON entered the first CFP ranking of the season at No. 5, then rose to No. 4 in week two, then dropped to No. 6 last week after its loss to USC. The top four teams won the past weekend, but No. 5 Louisville lost at Houston, which gives the Huskies an opportunity to move up one spot heading into the Apple Cup ... Week three’s rankings listed six Pac-12 teams, it’s the 10th time in 15 CFP rankings that the Pac-12 was representing by five or more teams ... UTAH is one of five schools (also Alabama, Clemson, Florida State and Ohio State) that has appeared in all 16 CFP rankings (7 in 2014, 6 in 2015, 3 in 2016).

POLL NOTES: COLORADO jumps into the Top 10 this week, coming in at No. 9. The Buffaloes join WASHINGTON in the Top 10. That’s nine different Pac-12 teams that have now appeared in the AP Top 10 over the last three seasons ... Washington has been in the AP Top 10 for 12 consecutive weeks, the longest stretch in the Top 10 since it appeared in the Top 10 12 straight weeks in 1997 ... On Oct. 2, COLORADO (No. 21) made its first appearance in the AP poll since 2005. The Buffs are No. 9 in this week’s poll, the highest placing since it was slotted at No. 7 the week of Aug. 26, 2002.

PILING UP THE POINTS: WASHINGTON STATE has scored 50 or more points a record four times this season. It’s 125 combined points in back-to-back games (69 vs. Arizona, 56 vs. California) are the most ever for the Cougars over two games ... Seventeen times a Pac-12 team has topped 50 points in a game this season ... Washington State is averaging 42.5 points per game, ahead of the pace for its single-season school record (40.3 ppg set in 2007) ... WASHINGTON, which leads the Pac-12 with 44.7 points per game, is on pace to pass its single-season school record of 41.9 ppg set in 1991 ... At 37.2 points per game, CALIFORNIA is just 1.0 point behind its modern-era mark of 38.2 ppg established in 2014.

REVOLVING QUARTERBACKS: A total of 22 different quarterbacks have started this season, led by ARIZONA and ARIZONA STATE with three each. Only CALIFORNIA, UTAH, WASHINGTON and WASHINGTON STATE has started the same signal-caller for each of their games this season.

    3 - Arizona, Arizona State (combined record: 7-15)
    2 - Colorado, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA, USC (combined record: 35-29)
    1 - California, Utah, Washington, Washington State (combined record: 30-14)

35 TD PASSES: Washington’s Jake Browning, Washington State’s Luke Falk and California’s Davis Webb have each thrown 35 or more TD passes this season. Nine times over the last three seasons a Pac-12 quarterback has thrown 35 or more TD passes in a season. Prior to the 2014 season, a Pac-12 quarterback tossed 35 or more TD passes just four times. Here’s a list of the Pac-12 single-season leaders for TD passes:

    43..........Jared Goff, California, 2015
    42..........Marcus Mariota, Oregon, 2014
    39..........Cody Kessler, USC, 2014
    39..........Matt Barkley, USC, 2014
    38..........Luke Falk, Washington State, 2015
    38..........Matt Leinart, USC, 2003
    37..........Jake Browning, Washington, 2016
    37..........Sean Mannion, Oregon State, 2013
    37..........Andrew Luck, Stanford, 2011
    36..........Luke Falk, Washington State, 2016
    36..........Matt Barkley, USC, 2012
    35..........Davis Webb, California, 2016
    35..........Jared Goff, California, 2014

UPCOMING SCHEDULE

Rankings listed (AP/Coaches poll)
* Not included one win vacated due to NCAA penalty