The Pac-12 has been a top-heavy conference during the past few seasons, and while that theme should hold true in 2013, the middle-of-the-pack squads have started to close the gap just a bit. Last year\u2019s Pac-12 champs were the Stanford Cardinal from the North Division. <\/p>\n
Despite finishing lower in the Top 25 than conference rival Oregon, they won the Pac-12 championship against the UCLA Bruins and defeated Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl.<\/p>\n
The following is a look at a few of the top contenders to win this season\u2019s conference title, along with their odds.<\/p>\n
The Oregon Ducks finished the 2012 college football season as the No. 2 team in the country.<\/p>\n
Their convincing win over No. 5 Kansas State in the Fiesta Bowl was enough to put them directly behind Alabama in the rankings, and now they enter 2013 with the third best odds to win a BCS National Championship.<\/p>\n
The big question with Oregon is how it can adapt to life without Chip Kelly, who took his coaching talents to the NFL over the offseason. Luckily for new head coach Mark Helfrich, he has weapons like Marcus Mariota and De\u2019Anthony Thomas to all but eliminate the learning curve.<\/p>\n
The team avoided a bowl ban during the summer, and as long as it can avoid a loss to Stanford in the fall, it\u2019s looking at a legitimate chance of taking home a Pac-12 title or better.<\/p>\n
The USC Trojans entered 2012 as the No. 1 team in the country in the eyes of people all over the country\u2014including the polls\u2014but they ultimately flopped and went 7-6 en route to an unranked finish. The team is once again being touted as a contender entering 2013, and if the questions can be answered early, there\u2019s no reason to believe they won\u2019t be near the top at the season\u2019s end.<\/p>\n
The No. 1 question to answer is: How will the team play with Matt Barkley gone to the NFL? A trio of youngsters will compete for that job, but while Cody Kessler is in the lead, whichever one earns the nod will have the luxury of throwing to Marquis Lee. [soliloquy id=”82219″]<\/p>\n
USC also has new coordinators on both sides of the ball. There\u2019s no question that this group has the talent to compete for a Pac-12 title, but like last season, it all comes down to living up to the hype.<\/p>\n
The introduction of Rich Rodriguez as head coach was successful for the Arizona Wildcats.<\/p>\n
They went 8-5 in his debut, and for that reason, there\u2019s plenty of reason to be hopeful for his second year running the show. The problem is that quarterback Matt Scott has left the program for the NFL, and now it\u2019s time to move on without him. Rodriguez has traditionally been known for run-heavy offenses, but last season that wasn\u2019t the case.<\/p>\n
Arizona isn\u2019t the only team in the Pac-12 with a question at quarterback, but a first-year starter could result in Rodriguez reaching back to his running roots.<\/p>\n
The good news is that Arizona has a favorable schedule, and if the QB question is answered early, the team will gather momentum, giving them a chance to win the South Division.<\/p>\n
If it weren\u2019t for the Ducks being in the same division as the Cardinal, Stanford would likely be the odds-on favorite to win a second-straight Pac-12 championship. Head coach David Shaw has done a marvelous job replacing Jim Harbaugh, and he\u2019s coming off of a 12-2 season that saw him go 8-1 in conference. Quarterback Kevin Hogan will look to thrive in his first full year as a starter.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s true that the Cardinal don\u2019t have any returners who caught a touchdown in 2012, but Hogan has weapons in the backfield and in his receiver spots. The offense has potential, but it\u2019s the defense\u2014especially defending the run\u2014that should win games. Most of the starters will return, which is a great sign, seeing as how they collected the most sacks a season ago.<\/p>\n
Stanford will have a strong season in 2013, but the difference between good and great could come down to one game against Oregon on Nov. 30.<\/p>\n
Oregon +150<\/strong> CappersPicks.com brings you the only college football handicapping<\/a> guide you\u2019ll need.<\/p>\n Use the College football previews<\/a> for the 2012 NCAA football season to help you with your college football handicapping at our top sportsbooks online this season.<\/p>\n Plus more articles we know you’ll like<\/strong><\/p>\n Here are the 2013 Odds from BOVADA<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n 2013 Pac 12 Season Football Preview The Pac-12 has been a top-heavy conference during the past few seasons, and while that theme should hold true in 2013, the middle-of-the-pack squads have started to close the gap just a bit. Last year\u2019s Pac-12 champs were the Stanford Cardinal from the North Division.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":64353,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[53103,59524,55507,1565,3007,50095,15290,50839,50430,59525,50431,50220,59526,59527],"class_list":["post-64038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaa-football","tag-53103","tag-2013-pac-12-picks","tag-bovada-futures","tag-college-football-handicapping","tag-college-football-previews","tag-conference-futures","tag-ncaa-football-futures","tag-pac-12","tag-pac-12-football","tag-pac-12-football-betting-odds","tag-pac-12-football-picks","tag-pac-12-odds","tag-pac-twelve-gambling","tag-pac-twelve-gambling-predictions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64038"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65173,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64038\/revisions\/65173"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n Southern Cal +250<\/strong>
\n Arizona +500<\/strong>
\n Stanford +500<\/strong>
\n UCLA +800<\/strong>
\n Oregon State +1200<\/strong>
\n Washington +1200<\/strong>
\n Arizona State +1500<\/strong>
\n California +3000<\/strong>
\n Utah +3000<\/strong>
\n Washington State +5000<\/strong>
\n Colorado +5000<\/strong><\/p>\nConferences Odds & Previews<\/h3>\n
\n
\n
And…as always check out our top cappers COLLEGE FOOTBALL daily plays CLICK HERE!<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n
<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"