The Civil War and Apple Cup, Rivalry Week.
by Henry Li for Wannamakeabet.com
Having picked an SEC game the past two weeks I’d like to venture out west this week as most of the SEC rivalry games involve out of conference matchups. There are two games I’m keeping my eye on are the Civil War featuring Oregon at Oregon State and the Apple Cup with Washington at Washington State.
Oregon’s path to the Pac-12 title game is pretty simple, win and they are in, they can also get in with a loss as long as Washington loses as well. What is fascinating about this handicap is that there are multiple scenarios in which either Oregon, Washington, or Utah can make it to the Conference title game.
The most clear scenario was mentioned above, but I want to focus on Washington’s elimination scenario, which the key point is that they are eliminated if UCLA beats Cal on Friday. I have UCLA winning on Friday so that will eliminate Washington, which in normal circumstances would make me fade Washington because they will have lost motivation.
However, because they lost the Apple cup last year for the first time in a long time last season, I still feel they will want to close the season out strong. Their current 5 game winning streak includes beating both Civil war teams whereas Washington State’s 3 game winning streak has been against the cellar of the Pac-12. When the Cougars have played the upper half of the conference, their offense has struggled and I expect the trend to continue here.
The Pick
My prediction this week is the Huskies to prevail and finish the regular season strong with a 34-22 victory.
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