Pac-10 – 2009 Football Betting Preview

The country’s most underrated league finally got the national respect it has deserved. Last year the Pac-10 finished the season with a 5-0 bowl record, including some impressive wins over top conference’s like the Big 10, Big 12, ACC and and Big East opponents. As the conference plays a 9 game round robin schedule, there are less bowl eligible squads than the other BCS conferences, which is the main reason why only 5 Pac Ten teams played in bowl games. While the Pac-10 has a major geographical disadvantage against them because they are only major conference located in the Western Time Zone. But with that said, there is not a disadvantage on the playing field. The Pac-10 is the only league in the nation that has winning record against every other BCS conference the last 10 seasons.

The 2009-2010 season looks to have more depth throughout the PAC Ten, top to bottom. Traditionally rich USC is reloaded and will be looking to win their eighth straight conference championship. Because Southern Cal has been so dominant it has made spectator believe that the rest of the Pac-10 is weak but that simply is not the case. Cal, Oregon State and Oregon are all likely to start off the year ranked and Stanford and Arizona are not far behind and can cause some damage. Moreover, the Trojan’s record during their championship run, including bowl games, is 82-9 and 7 of those losses have come at the hands of conference opponents. Which means that Southern Cal’s toughest opponents been teams from the Pac-10.

The big problem with the Pac-10 is that their programs are rarely seen on tv unless viewer are night owls unless it is a major national match up while the other major conferences dominate television broadcasts every Saturday afternoon. Most east coast fans do not get to view the high quality of play that takes place in the league we ranked tied for third in the country at the end of last year.

OUR 2009 PAC 10 STANDINGS PREDICTIONS

1. California Golden Bears
2. Southern California Trojans
3. Oregon State Beavers
4. Stanford Cardinal
5. Oregon Ducks
6. Arizona Wildcats
7. UCLA Bruins
8. Washington Huskies
9. Arizona State Sun Devils
10. Washington State Cougars

Cal Golden Bears

The Heisman buzz in Berkeley has already begun. RB Jahvid Best as a sophomore rushed for 1,580 yards and averaged an impressive 8.1 yards per carry. Best reached the end zone 16 times and at times returned kick-offs. He is a dynamic player and the Cal offense will revolve around him while the nation takes notice.

(Our Predicted 2009 Conference Record: 8-1)

Cal 2009 Season Preview – Cal 2009 Season Schedule

USC Trojans

Is it just us or does it seem like every year the Trojans lose 1 game in the PAC-10 and ruins their perfect season and national championship shot. In ’08 is was an early loss at Oregon State that turned the Trojans upside down. USC Coach Pete Carroll should take Southern Cal back to a conference title, but that might not be enough anymore. If they can get by a road trip to Ohio State, it will take another in-conference upset to ruin the Trojan’s shot at a BCS championship.

(Our Predicted 2009 Conference Record: 8-1)

USC 2009 Season Preview – USC 2009 Season Schedule

Oregon State Beavers

The Beavers had one of the more surprising years in the nation last season. Oregon State off the year by losing to Stanford and got demolished by Penn State, but after that beating Coach Mike Riley turned his squad around. The Beavers ended up knocking off USC, Arizona State and California, turned a seemly once doomed season into an extremely successful 9-4 year.

(Our Predicted 2009 Conference Record: 6-3)

Oregon State 2009 Season Preview – Oregon State 2009 Season Schedule

Stanford Cardinal

Since Coach Jim Harbaugh took over the Cardinal program, Standford has been moving in the right direction. In ’07 the record was brutal, but they did pull off an upset over the Trojans. And last season the team took big leap forward and ended up with a 4-5 conference record. Unfortunately for Standford, the team struggled during their last 3 games when they needed a W to become bowl eligible. In Harbaugh’s third year the goal is certainly a bowl, and very much in reach.

(Our Predicted 2009 Conference Record: 5-4)

Stanford 2009 Season Preview – Stanford 2009 Season Schedule

Oregon Ducks

Last season Oregon’s Chip Kelly was the offensive coordinator under former head coach Mike Bellotti. Under Kelly’s tutelage, the Ducks led the Pac-10 with 484.85 yards of total offense and an impressive 41.92 points per game. Bellotti then moved to the front office to become the schools athletic director and Oregon quickly secured Kelly as their new head man. With defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti returning, the coaching transition should be extremely seem less for the Ducks.

(Our Predicted 2009 Conference Record: 5-4)

Oregon 2009 Season Preview – Oregon 2009 Season Schedule

Arizona Wildcats

The ’08 Wildcats exceeded most fan’s expectations by having a winning conference record and knocking off a good BYU team in the Las Vegas Bowl. That gives Arizona Coach Mike Stoops some more time to build off of last season’s success and continue to steer down the right path with the Wildcats football program.

(Our Predicted 2009 Conference Record: 4-5)

Arizona 2009 Season Preview – Arizona 2009 Season Schedule

UCLA Bruins

Coach Rick Neuheisel is slowly trying to turn the Bruins back into a winning program. UCLA only won 4 games in his first season and none of those victories turned out to be very impressive since they were against down programs like Tennessee, Washington State, Stanford and Washington. The rest of the games were not even close. Those blowouts should come to an end this year as UCLA returns 9 starters on offense and 7 on defense.

(Our Predicted 2009 Conference Record: 4-5)

UCLA 2009 Season Preview – UCLA 2009 Season Schedule

Washington Huskies

In Washington there is not much to get excited about after the Huskies suffered a dismal 0-12 season. Coach Tyrone Willingham is gone replaced by Coach Steve Sarkisian. Coach Sarkisian spent ’07 and ’08 as the assistant coach and offensive coordinator at USC and that experience should return Washington into a solid program once again, but don’t look for any miracles this season.

(Our Predicted 2009 Conference Record: 3-6)

Washington 2009 Season Preview – Washington 2009 Season Schedule

Arizona State Sun Devils

The Sun Devils had on of the more disappointing seasons in ’08. Arizona State was expected to be the top contender to de thrown USC from the top of the Pac-10 and instead Coach Dennis Erickson’s team failed to reach a bowl game and had a losing record in PAC-10 play.

(Our Predicted 2009 Conference Record: 2-7)

Arizona State 2009 Season Preview – Arizona State 2009 Season Schedule

Washington State Cougars

The Cougars certainly hoped for better things during Coach Paul Wulff’s initial season at Washington State, but the year ended on a high note with a victory over Washington in the Apple Cup. On a team that lacked talent, winning two games was a successful season for the Cougars. Now it is up to Coach Wulff to continue the long rebuilding process, and we mean long.

(Our Predicted 2009 Conference Record: 0-9)

Washington State 2009 Season Preview – Washington State 2009 Season Schedule

PAC 10 – 2009 Football Season Overview

The Pac-10 appears to be an improved conference as all 10 teams will be better then they were in ’08. Last season, every team had to reshuffle and replace major starting players and the conference struggled early. In 2009-2010, the teams are loaded with depth and experience. We had trouble predicting teams 3 through 8 and we would not be surprised if those teams finished with better records. However, Cal and USC stood head and shoulders above the rest of the league.

We have good reason for predicting Cal over USC in their match up this fall. Since ’02, the Trojans have lost exactly 7 conference games. Of those 7, 5 have come on the road during the first half of league play and only 1 game overall has occurred during the season’s final month. This proves why critics proclaim USC is unbeatable down the stretch. But, if USC loses a Pac-10 contest, it will be on the road and in the 1st half of the Pac-10 season. With a freshman QB and a rebuilt defense, we do not think that USC will go undefeated in the Pac-10. And that leaves us with 3 teams that could overwhelming spoil a USC perfect season.

The first team is the Huskies at Washington and we don’t think they have enough talent on hand this season to knock off USC. Even with the presence of some former USC coaches on the other sideline that will have Washington fired up, we think USC end up pulling off a win. The 2nd team Oregon which is a tough place to win at and USC lost the last time they visited Eugene. But we do not think Oregon will have the beef up front to upset USC this time around.

That leaves us with USC on the road once again at Cal on October 3rd. T his is their homecoming game and California is an excellent team. Moreover, it fits perfectly into the Trojan’s trend of losing an early conference road game. This game is almost a lock to be an upset. We are predicting Cal to slip past USC in match up and that will give Cal a possible two game advantage over the Trojans in Pac-10 play.

With California beating USC in the early season, it will be a mind set to take one game at a time. We saw this scenario last year with Oregon State, who had not played in the Rose Bowl in 4 decades and the constant pressure might have got the best of them towards the end of the season. But, California will have an bye week after USC to focus and regroup and they will gotten their trip to Autzen out of the way. We think Cal will have the talent and mental focus to take advantage of a big early season victory and earn their programs’s 1st Rose Bowl berth in 50 years.