Golden Blogs Pick-Em Finale: Who wins the Pac-12?

Welcome to the final week of the regular season of college football! It has been a long long season with several torturous games by the California Golden Bears. Well, they don’t play today. Unfortunately that means they didn’t win the Pac-12 North. But we do have the Pac-12 Championship game to watch tonight at 6PM. There are also 7 other Championship games of varying degrees of interest for us college football fans.

For the last time in 2016, we have our experts pick the games! First, here’s last week’s results.

We had success picking the Apple Cup and the USC blowout win... but not many of us predicted the Oregon State upset and nobody saw the Arizona win. At least most of us called the Cal upset! (Or maybe our homerism simply paid off... Let’s go with the former. Yeah) Like every week, there’s been some upsets. Congrats to Nam picking N.C. State and Kevin picking Kentucky.

On to the feature game of the night.

PAC-12 CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

#4 WASHINGTON VS. #8 COLORADO

FRIDAY 6PM on FOX

Washington is a 7.5 point favorite. Over/Under is 58

It’s a clean sweep for Washington! This was the case last week and the Huskies blew out the Cougars on the road. A two+ possession win over Colorado is expected in Santa Clara.

Nik Jam: I think this is Washington's year. I don't think a two possession win is out of the question. They should have the most fans in the Bay Area too.

boomtho: Both of these defenses are REALLY FREAKING GOOD... and i just don't think Colorado has the horses.

Ruey Yen: Washington in the CFP = more money for the Pac!!!

Piotr T Le: I think Washington has the better D and Ross is a tremendous mismatch

KWBears: U-Dub dominates as they've done all season. I'm still not bought into Colorado even though they've got a great record.

Berkelium97: I will be shocked if Colorado wins this, especially on the road. The Buffs are good, but UW is better in every phase of the game. UW will put this away in the 4th with a soul-crushing punt return for TD.

SEC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

#1 ALABAMA VS. #15 FLORIDA

SATURDAY 1PM on CBS

Alabama is a 24 point favorite. Over/Under is 40.5

While based on the feedback I got there is a full consensus of an Alabama win, two of us think Florida should cover the huge spread.

Nik Jam: Don't see this one being close without Luke Del Rio, but who knows? I hope he plays!

boomtho: I mean... 24 points in a championship game... that's just too many damn points. Also, I think Bama's offense is explosive enough to get 35 themselves.

Ruey Yen: Bama takes this one, but I am not sure that they will cover by 3 scores.

Piotr T Le: RAWL TIDE

Berkelium97: A 24-point spread and an o/u of 40.5? That's as strange of a line as you'll see in college football. Florida has too many injuries to keep this from being a blowout win for the Tide.

DR. PEPPER ACC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

#3 CLEMSON VS. #23 VIRGINIA TECH

SATURDAY 5PM on ABC

Clemson is a 9.5 point favorite. Over/Under is 9.5

I stand alone in picking a Virginia Tech upset. Seven of eight think the Tigers get the double digit win.

Nik Jam: This one will be close... I don't think the Hokies will roll over. This one has upset written on it.

boomtho: Fuente has done a great job but Clemson is the way better team.

Ruey Yen: I can see this being a very close game, but Clemson got too much to lose to not show up here.

Berkelium97: Two teams with remarkably similar stats, but Clemson's running game is slightly better and VT's run defense is slightly worse. Advantage: Clemson.

BIG TEN CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

#6 WISCONSIN VS. #7 PENN STATE

SATURDAY 5PM on FOX

Wisconsin is a 2.5 point favorite. Over/Under is 48

Six of eight pick the favored Wisconsin Badgers while Penn State picks up two picks.

Nik Jam: So weird not seeing Michigan nor Ohio State here... but with what we have, I think Wisconsin is better.

boomtho: I've been super impressed by Wisconsin all year.

Ruey Yen: I wonder if most Cal fans would be willing to credit Penn State's football turnaround to former Cal AD Sandy Barbour.

Piotr T Le: It will be a cold day in hell before I root for Penn State

Berkelium97: Why can't I pick Ohio State?

BIG 12: LOCK OF THE WEEK

No Big 12 Championship until next season, so we will pick one winner from the games being played tomorrow.

Kansas State +4 @ TCU (SATURDAY 9AM on Fox Sports 1)

#10 Oklahoma State +12 @ #8 Oklahoma (SATURDAY 9:30AM on FOX)

Baylor +17.5 @ West Virginia (SATURDAY 12:30PM on Fox Sports 1)

West Virginia is the popular pick with five, Oklahoma gets two while TCU gets one. So that means I get to follow all three to see who to give points to!

Nik Jam: (West Virginia) With the situation at Baylor, I don't think they show up Saturday.

Ruey Yen: (West Virginia) Baylor is on a 5 game losing streak.

Berkelium97: (West Virginia) Injured QB. 5-game losing streak. Sonny Dykes rumors. It's not looking good for Baylor.

GROUP OF 5 CHAMPIONSHIP GAMES

MAC: #17 Western Michigan -18.5 vs. Ohio (FRIDAY 4PM on ESPN2)

AAC: Temple +2.5 @ #19 Navy (SATURDAY 9AM on ABC)

CONFERENCE USA: Louisiana Tech +9.5 @ Western Kentucky (SATURDAY 9AM on ESPN)

MWC: San Diego State -6.5 @ Wyoming (SATURDAY 4:45PM on ESPN)

I didn’t do an over/under because I’m certain none of us really know much about these games and just wanted to give the staff a chance to pick up points from other members. Not sure that will happen since the MAC and AAC picks are unanimous and the other two are pretty close themselves. Western Michigan, Navy, Western Kentucky and San Diego State get most of the picks. It should be noted that while the MAC game is on a neutral site, the other three are at the site of one of the teams.

Our only comment comes from Ruey on the Navy game.

Ruey Yen: I am shocked that Navy is only favored by that little. Navy winning this game can really play havoc on the bowl scheduling (since they don't play Army until after when most bowls already want to lock up the matchups). I'm rooting for maximum chaos.

WILD CARD: UPSET OF THE WEEK

#10 Oklahoma State (12 point underdogs @ #8 Oklahoma) [3]

New Mexico State (12 point underdogs @ South Alabama) [3]

Baylor (17.5 point underdogs @ #18 West Virginia) [3]

Ohio (18.5 underdogs vs. #21 Western Michigan) [3]

Texas State (23 point underdogs vs. Arkansas State) [3]

#15 Florida (24 point underdogs vs. #1 Alabama) [3]

All six of the above teams lose. [2]

Half of the crew pick no upset. New Mexico State (who would help out Cal with a win) is up next with three picks. Oklahoma State also got some love.

Nik Jam: (No upsets) Not much reason to think any of these teams will win and there aren't a lot of them!

Ruey Yen: (New Mexico State) A South Alabama upset loss would give Cal's slim bowl bid chance a decent boost.

CLOSING

Thank you so much for following our picks. I know our insight is second to none! I hope to be able to do this next year as well, but it is no guarantee as I’ll be abroad in the summer and might miss the first month of the season.

I hope to add some new features like using logos to identify which teams the staff predict, so you don’t have to look at a lot of text. I will appreciate feedback at my Twitter feed.

Until next season (or you know, winter/spring sports) Go Bears!