UCLA vs. Utah: How Utes' Win Reshapes Playoff Picture

With a 30-28 home defeat to the Utah Utes on Saturday night, the No. 8 UCLA Bruins didn't necessarily shut the door on their hopes of making the four-team playoff at the end of the year, but the door is barely ajar.

Bruins kicker Ka'imi Fairbairn had a chance to win the game with a 50-yard field-goal attempt, but his kick sailed wide right, bringing a close to what was one of the craziest college football Saturday's you're ever going to see.

Following such a frenzied day of action, Grantland's Matt Hinton believes any sort of playoff discussion is ultimately futile:

Of course, a ton can change between now and the end of the season, but it's still kinda fun to at least get a general idea of the playoff picture to this point in the year.

Had UCLA won, then it almost certainly would've climbed into the Top Four in the polls. Going by The Associated Press rankings, No. 2 Oregon, No. 3 Alabama, No. 4 Oklahoma and No. 6 Texas A&M all lost this week, paving the way for the eighth-ranked Bruins to see a healthy rise up the standings.

Since that didn't happen, the biggest winners after the Bruins' defeat are Ole Miss and Mississippi State. The Rebels beat the Crimson Tide, while the Bulldogs toppled the Aggies. Both teams are already building strong playoff cases.

Ole Miss will likely vault into the top four, and the Bulldogs might, too, with so few teams standing out from the pack. Bulldogs quarterback Dak Prescott called the win over A&M a "Mississippi State-ment," per The Associated Press, via ESPN.com.

Before the UCLA game, ESPN's Anish Shroff left out the Bruins altogether in his projected playoff in favor of Notre Dame, which beat No. 14 Stanford earlier in the day:

The Fighting Irish and Michigan State will also get a nice boost up the standings after Saturday night. They were No. 9 and No. 10 in the AP Poll, respectively.

With that said, those two will more than likely still be on the outside looking in on the playoff for now. It's hard seeing either vaulting that high up the standings, especially with Ole Miss' win.

When looking only at the Pac-12, the picture is getting fairly bleak already. USA Today's Dan Wolken doesn't see a team elevating itself into the Top Four after everything that's happened so far:

The Bruins' chances of making the four-team playoff aren't completely extinguished. Considering how many Top 25 teams lost on Saturday alone, it would be foolish to write any top team off.

The Pac-12 is even more of a grab bag after USC's loss to Arizona State earlier in the day. The only team in the entire conference that remains unbeaten is Arizona, and the Wildcats still have USC, UCLA, Utah and Arizona State to play, not to mention the Pac-12 Championship Game, should they get that far.

With the way the 2014 season has unfolded, would anybody be that surprised if Arizona ran the table and won the national championship?

Nothing is sacred anymore.