Pacific-12 Football Championship Game

The Pacific-12 Championship Game is a college football game that will be held by the Pacific-12 Conference each year to determine the Pacific-12 Conference's season champion. The inaugural game was held December 2, 2011, at 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT. The championship game will pit the champions of the North (California, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, Washington, Washington State) and South (Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, UCLA, USC, and Utah) Divisions against each other, with the team with the best overall conference record as host to the event.

History
In 2011, the Pacific-12 Conference added Colorado and Utah, bringing the membership total to 12 teams. At the time, the conference split into two six-team divisions and created a conference championship game. That year USC (7-2) was ineligible to play in post season games due to NCAA sanctions. The conference named UCLA (5-4) the South Division Champions.

The first Pac-12 Championship Game was broadcast on FOX, the same network as the Big Ten Championship Game. Beginning with the 2012 game, TV rights will alternate between FOX and the ESPN networks with FOX televising the 2012 game. The FOX/ESPN deal is for 12 years.

ESPN Radio carried the inaugural game nationally.

Team selection criteria
Division standings are based on each team's overall conference record. In the event that two teams are tied, the following tiebreakers are used to determine the divisional champion:


 * Two teams:
 * Head-to-head competition between the two tied teams. If no game is played between the two tied teams or that game ends in a tie, the following tie-breaking procedures would be applied:
 * Record in games played within the division.
 * Record against the next highest placed team in the division (based on record in all Conference games, both divisional and cross-divisional) proceeding through the division.
 * Record in common Conference games.
 * Highest BCS Ranking following the last weekend of regular-season games.
 * Total number of wins in a 12-game season. The following conditions will apply to the calculation of the total number of wins:
 * Only one win against a team from the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision or lower division will be counted annually.
 * Any games that are exempted from counting against the annual maximum number of football contests per NCAA rules (current Bylaw 17.9.5.2) shall not be included. (This bylaw exempts one game played outside the contiguous United States, usually a game at Hawaii.)
 * 6. Coin toss.


 * Three or more teams:
 * The following procedures will only be used to eliminate all but two teams, at which point the two-team tie-breaking procedure will be applied.
 * Head-to-head (best record in games among the tied teams).
 * Record in games played within the division.
 * Record against the next highest placed team in the division (based on record in all Conference games, both divisional and cross-divisional), proceeding through the division.
 * Record in common Conference games.
 * Highest BCS ranking following the last weekend of regular-season games.

Site selection criteria
The site of the Pac-12 Championship Game will be the home stadium of the division champion with the best overall conference record. In the event that the two division champions are tied, then the head-to-head record shall be used as the tiebreaker. Should they remain tied after that tiebreaker, then a BCS component will be used.