Week 9 PAC-12 predictions.

Last week: 5 - 0

Overall: 39 - 20

Good week last week, but then again, there weren't any surprises at all.

This week is a lot tougher.  The middling teams in the PAC-12 are where they are, because they can show up for some games, then disappear in others.  If at home, they tend to do spectacularly better, but on the road they sometimes lose focus.

Middling teams include Cal, Utah, UCLA, Arizona State, Arizona and Washington.  So my theory goes: If a middling team is playing another middling team, the home team gets the nod.  Therefore, Utah beats Cal and ASU beats UCLA.

Against upper tier teams, the middling teams may surprise if they are at home; if they have a bye week, it improves the odds that the middling team does well at home.  An example of this was when I picked Washington to beat Stanford, at home, after a bye week.

So the upsets might be USC losing to Arizona and Oregon State losing to Washington.  With the expected rain in Seattle, OSU-UW could potentially be very close, but the Beaver fan base is probably more excited, and will likely have a large contingent up in Seattle, making Century Link a neutral site.  In Tuscon, Arizona is good, and might pull some surprises, but I think this is where the gap in talent becomes obvious.

Week 9
Visitor		Home
USC	40	Arizona	27
UCLA	17	Arizona St	24
Colorado	13	Oregon	52
Washington St	13	Stanford	35
Oregon St	24	Washington	23
Cal	24	Utah	27