Week 6 College Football Picks Against The Spread: Pac-12 Edition

Week six of the 2011 college football season gets underway on Thursday with the California Golden Bears traveling to Autzen Stadium to face the Oregon Ducks. Last week we began providing college football picks against the spread. While it was not a spectacular performance, given the lack of any financial obligations with the picks, we're going to continue on with it.

Initially the picks were Pac-12 and a few big ranked matchups. This week we'll focus in on the Pac-12 which actually manages to feature some fairly close spreads. Of course, Oregon and Stanford happen to be sizable favorites, but that's not the end of the world.

Cal (+24) over Oregon - Consider this a somewhat irrational pick. The Bears are not on the same level as Oregon, but Zach Maynard could be developing into a nice little wild card thanks in large part to Keenan Allen and Marvin Jones. Maynard's 52.2% completion percentage shows just how 50-50 he can be, so why not take the positive side of the 50-50?

Oregon State (+2) over Arizona - The Beavers are in a must-win situation and they just haven't been able to put it together yet. OSU's offense should be functional enough to keep up and play with Arizona's defense, and they'll be playing with an extra edge to avoid falling into a pretty deep 0-5 hole to start the season (and some really tough games ahead).

Utah (+4) over Arizona State - Things sort of went downhill for Utah last week when they made mistake after mistake, but they should rebound with a better effort against ASU. The difference between the Pac-12 South and the Pac-12 North seems pretty vast this year, so the Utes should be able to go back and forth with the Sun Devils and use their defense to give ASU enough trouble to keep it close and competitive. 

Colorado (+29.5) over Stanford - The Buffs have the vertical passing offense that can get punish the vulnerable Stanford defense. They probably don't have the defense to pull out the victory, but considering how much Stanford struggled to keep UCLA off the field, Colorado should be able to cover.

UCLA (-4) over Washington State - The Bruins should have enough talent to beat Washington State on their home turf. The Bruins front seven should manhandle the Cougars offensive line and get the pressure going. Then UCLA's offense (which has become somewhat functional) should be able to move on the WSU defense for the important victory.