SEATTLE – By mid October the Pac-12 Championship Game could be determined, if the two undefeated teams in the conference take care of business this weekend.
Entering week seven No. 7 Washington (5-1, 3-0) and No. 19 Colorado (5-0, 2-0) lead the North and South Division’s respectively. The two schools will face each other in less than two weeks for Homecoming on October 20 at UW.
But before the Huskies return home one more road game awaits.
Oregon.
UW has outscored Oregon 108-24 in the two previous meetings, both victories for Chris Petersen, and once again is picked as the favorite this weekend. Should the Huskies maintain their unblemished record in conference Saturday, a third visit from College GameDay could follow.
However, to have the best odds, that would likely require the Buffaloes and Mike Macintyre beating Clay Helton and USC in the the Coliseum.
Should that happen the Homecoming game at Husky Stadium would be one of three Top 25 matchup's next weekend; No. 20 North Carolina State at No. 4 Clemson, No. 24 Mississippi State at No. 13 LSU, and No. 17 Colorado at No. 7 Washington.
The UW-CU game is scheduled to kickoff at 12:30 p.m. Pacific and air on Fox.
Another potential destination for GameDay next weekend is Oregon at Washington State, which could open the door for a first-time visit to Pullman for the Saturday pregame show. If the Ducks are able to end the Huskies modest two-game win streak this weekend the odds would improve significantly.
Oregon loosing to UW might not close the door completely, but it would be an uphill battle.
“We will make an announcement regarding the weekend of October 20 when we are ready,” an ESPN spokesperson told TheDawgReport.com this week, when asked specifically about both UW and WSU as possible locations.
The Cougars are one of four teams in conference to have a bye this weekend, joining Arizona State, Oregon State and Stanford. WSU received the highest amount of votes (113) this week in the Coaches Poll for a team outside the Top 25 and third-highest in the AP Top 25 (43), behind Iowa (87) and Stanford (59).