Pac-12 bowl projections: How USC’s loss impacts the whole CFP process — via Notre Dame

The Pac-12 dissolved 14 months ago, but one vestige of the former conference remains relevant to the college football season unfolding this fall: the bowl lineup. The legacy teams are tied to the same postseason arrangement that existed prior to collapse, albeit with one critical change. Instead of using conference record to establish the pecking order, overall record is the determinant.

Each week, the Hotline will project and assess the postseason status for all 12 teams. Last week’s projections can be found here.

USC has never been viewed as a particularly magnanimous institution across the Pac-12’s former footprint — not before the demise of the century-old conference and certainly not after it, given the Trojans’ role as instigator.

But USC did everyone a favor last week with anothe