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Week 3 update: USC remains the favorite to win, but Washington has leapt over Oregon in the odds to win the championship. Oregon will have a major test in Colorado this upcoming week, the biggest story of the college football season thus far. After narrowly escaping Colorado State in Week 3, the Buffaloes now sit at +2000 to win the conference.
UCLA takes on Utah and Oregon State faces Washington State in Week 4.
Let’s pour out a cold one for the Pac-12. This is going to be the last dance for the conference that has defined west coast athletics for over a century. By now we’ve all read about the destruction of the conference, which started with USC and UCLA deciding to leave for the Big Ten several months ago and ended with Oregon and Washington also heading to the Big Ten at a discount and Utah, Arizona, Arizona State and Colorado heading to the Big XII. That leaves Stanford and California begging to join the ACC and Oregon State and Washington State hoping the Mountain West will have them.
It’s a sad ending to some truly great football memories that usually came after midnight while most fans were either celebrating or crying on Twitter. It would be nice for one of the remaining four to win the conference this year, but that’s probably not happening. While Oregon State seems like a interesting bet at +1100, all the attention is going to be USC (+195), Oregon (+310), Washington (+320) and Utah (+550). The smart money might be on the Utes, who will try to get quarterback Cam Rising back from his ACL injury early in the conference season.
Whoever ends up raising the Pac-12 trophy at Allegiant Stadium in early December it’s going to be a bittersweet day as college football has once again took something from us that we loved because the TV networks needed to pay the rent. If only that Apple+ deal would have went through... if only.
Odds to win the 2023 Pac-12 Championship Game from DraftKings Sportsbook (as of 9/17)
USC +210
Washington +280
Oregon +320
Utah +750
Oregon State +1200
UCLA +1600
Colorado +2000
Washington State +3000
Cal +10000
Arizona +10000
Stanford +50000
Preseason odds to win Pac-12
USC +210
Oregon +310
Washington +330
Utah +450
Oregon State +1100
UCLA +1400
Washington State +4000
California +8000
Arizona +10000
Colorado +12000
Stanford +20000
Arizona State chose to self-impose a postseason ban for 2023 so the Sun Devils aren’t listed.