College football lookahead is the essential grab bag of numbers, trends, reads and concepts each Monday throughout the season.
In Week 15, we examine the history, matchup and betting outlook for each of the 10 conference championship games.
All lines and totals from Circa Sportsbook as of Sunday.
Pac-12 championship
Utah Utes (11-1, 9-3 ATS) vs. Oregon Ducks (10-2, 6-6 ATS)
Line: Utah -6.5; Over/Under: 50
Ninth game; favorites 7-1, 4-4 ATS, O/U 4-4
Santa Clara, California, 8 p.m. ET Friday (ABC)
Oregon is 4-2 (3-3 against the spread) versus Utah since the Utes joined an expanded Pac-12 in 2011, which includes a 32-25 Utes victory last season.
One of the common pitfalls of first-time conference championship contestants is feeling too much fait accompli in winning the division, leading to a "just happy to be there" mentality. The teams most susceptible are those who make winning the division a key team goal and speak with the rhetoric of "reaching the conference championship game." A prime example in the Pac-12 was Todd Graham's Arizona State program. Graham repeatedly spoke in terms of winning the South division, and sure enough, when his team finally reached the league title game, it lost straight up as a favorite after the goal he had emphasized all season had already been achieved.
