Pac-12 picks: Week 1 was easy to choose … if you went with the Pac-12 team
Wed., Sept. 6, 2017
A little “Conference of Champions” bias wouldn’t have been a bad thing to have while picking last week’s games. By not choosing 11 Pac-12 winners – 11 played last weekend and 11 won – my perfect season went down the drain. I’m fairly confident Larry Scott would be proud of this week’s picks, though.
Let’s try this again…
Texas State at Colorado
Colorado by 35.5 – With Texas State in town this week and Northern Colorado visiting the next, the Buffaloes should be halfway to the postseason by the time UW travels to Boulder on Sept. 23. The pick: Colorado 46, Texas State 16.
Nebraska at Oregon
Oregon by 13 – Mike Riley returns to his personal house of horrors for this one. The pick: Oregon 48, Nebraska 34.
Hawaii at UCLA
UCLA by 23.5 – Josh Rosen won’t need his magic tricks this time. The Bruins hand the Rainbow Warriors their first loss and improve to 2-0. The pick: UCLA 41, Hawaii 25.
Weber State at Cal
No line – Weber comes off a 76-0 win against Montana Western, which probably isn’t significant here but still worth mentioning. The pick: Cal 33, Weber State 14.
Montana at Washington
No line – It would serve the Huskies well to win this game by about 40. So let’s go with that. The pick: UW 50, Montana 10.
No. 14 Stanford at No. 6 USC
USC by 6.5 – There won’t be a better game in the Pac-12 until the Trojans visit the Cougars during week five. The pick: Stanford 32, USC 30.
Minnesota at Oregon State
Oregon State by 2 – It’s only the second week of the year and it feels like this game could very much determine whether the Beavers are bowl prepping in December or sitting at home. The pick: Oregon State 28, Minnesota 24.
Utah at BYU
Utah by 1.5 – Just a guess the Cougars will need to improve slightly from the 97 yards of offense they managed against LSU to make this Holy War competitive. The pick: Utah 27, BYU 21.
Boise State at Washington State
WSU by 10 – No matter who wins, one Rypien will be excited about the final result. The pick: will be in Saturday’s paper.
Houston at Arizona
Houston by 1 – The first of two games in the desert that could go badly for the Pac-12 representative. The pick: Houston 34, Arizona 26.
San Diego State at Arizona State
ASU by 3.5 – This is the other one. The pick: San Diego State 24, Arizona State 23.
Theo Lawson’s records
Last week and overall: 8-2 overall, 1-5 against the spread.
Local journalism is essential.
Give directly to The Spokesman-Review's Northwest Passages community forums series -- which helps to offset the costs of several reporter and editor positions at the newspaper -- by using the easy options below. Gifts processed in this system are not tax deductible, but are predominately used to help meet the local financial requirements needed to receive national matching-grant funds.
Subscribe to the sports newsletter
Get the day’s top sports headlines and breaking news delivered to your inbox by subscribing here.