The spreads may not be that close, but the Pac-12 has an important weekend this week.
To stay alive in the College Football Playoff, the Pac-12 needs Stanford and Utah to keep winning. And although the spreads aren’t small, the Cardinal and Utes have competitive matchups.
The Cardinal are 10-point favorites at home against Oregon, which is becoming more dangerous with every passing week. Utah is on the road again this week, squaring off against an Arizona squad that competed well last week against USC.
Here are two games we’ll keep an eye on this weekend. Last week’s betting guide for each major conference went 6-4 and was 1-1 in the Pac-12. Overall for the season, the betting guides have been 13-7 in the Pac-12 and 53-43 overall in the power-five conferences.
Washington State at UCLA (-10)
Normally we have a tough time getting off the bandwagon. We’ve been trying to ride the California bandwagon for awhile, but that hasn’t worked out well lately. The same goes with Kentucky.
One bandwagon that has kept us afloat is the Washington State bandwagon. We’ve been all over the Cougars this season and they’ve responded in a big way, going 6-0 ATS in the last six games.
We appreciate what the Cougars have done for us recently, but we’re jumping off the Cougars cover train before it’s too late. Washington State has been one of the most surprising teams this season, especially after losing to a FCS team in the opening week.
But this game just feels like a UCLA win by double digits. The Bruins can control the ball for long stretches of time and we don’t anticipate the Cougars to make enough stops to keep this close. UCLA has looked impressive for the most part since losing two games in early October.
The Bruins will keep that streak alive this week. — Go chalk with UCLA
Washington at Arizona State (-3)
After going through a gauntlet of tough losses, Arizona State is ready to square off against an equal.
The Sun Devils have lost three straight, losing to Washington State, Oregon and Utah. Despite the losses, Arizona State has remained competitive in all those games and actually held leads in all three contests, only to finish poorly.
Washington has looked good, too, but hasn’t been as competitive recently. The Huskies thrashed Arizona, but wasn’t really a factor against Stanford, Oregon and Utah. Sure, the games were fairly close against the Ducks and Utes, but those games were controlled by the opposition for the most part.
The Sun Devils should finish better this week and we like Arizona State as the better team. — Go chalk with Arizona State
Other Pac-12 games
USC (-16.5) at Colorado
Oregon at Stanford (-10)
Utah (-6) at Arizona
Oregon State at California (-21.5)
