Washington

Oregon vs. Washington preview: Predictions, odds, how to watch final Pac-12 title game

Published

1 year ago

December 1, 2023

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Oregon vs. Washington preview: Predictions, odds, how to watch final Pac-12 title game

Winner of the Pac-12 title game likely to cement a spot in the College Football Playoff

The college football regular season is complete. This week, it’s time to decide the FBS conference champions, and college football fans don’t have to wait long for one of the best title matchups of the weekend.

The No. 3 Washington Huskies (12-0) face off against the No. 5 Oregon Ducks (11-1) for their final Pac-12 championship.

Washington won 12 games for just the third time in program history behind a potent offense powered by quarterback Michael Penix Jr. The Heisman hopeful finished the regular season second in the FBS in passing yards (3,899) and threw 32 touchdowns. The Huskies’ talented wide receiver corps stresses out defenses on a weekly basis. Washington’s defense has has come up big in high-pressure moments, like the fourth quarter of the Huskies’ 22-20 win over No. 21 Oregon State.

Since Oregon’s 36-33 loss to the Huskies in Week 7, the Ducks have been on a tear. They’ve won six straight and made it look easy. The offense, led by Oregon’s own Heisman contender in quarterback Bo Nix, has outscored opponents 252-96 during the winning streak. Nix leads the FBS in passing yards (3,906) and completion percentage (78.6) while sitting second in passer rating (189.8). Oregon’s defense is seventh in the country in points allowed per game (15.9).

Both of these teams will leave the Pac-12 conference in 2024 and head to the Big Ten. The winner will not only take home the program’s final Pac-12 title, but will also likely seal a spot in the College Football Playoff. Here’s everything you need to know.

Bowl projections: Michigan back in College Football Playoff field after beating Ohio State

Column: Texas could be a major snub when College Football Playoff field is announced

Pac-12 championship game predictions roundup

ESPN: Oregon has a 75.8% chance to win its final Pac-12 title

ESPN’s Football Power Index (FPI) puts Oregon as the third-best team in the country at a 25.6 rating. Washington, at a 16.8, is 13th in the FBS and second in the Pac-12. That rating difference is bigger than the gap from Washington in second to Utah in sixth when it comes to Pac-12 teams. Unlike their first matchup, the two teams will play at a neutral site, giving Oregon the edge here.

Bleacher Report: Oregon 34, Washington 27

Joe Tansey writes, “Oregon’s defense can be trusted more to get stops against Penix, and this time around, it needs to make sure there is a larger gap in the fourth quarter so that the Huskies can’t produce more fourth-quarter heroics.”

Winners and Whiners: Oregon -9.5

Michael Briggs writes, “Nix will pick apart Washington’s 124th-ranked pass defense, cementing his Heisman legacy. This is Oregon’s game to win, and it will get the job done with a convincing revenge victory.”

Sporting News: Oregon -9.5

Rob Miech says, “since that game in Seattle, the Ducks have been improving, the Huskies have plateaued… In a grand neutral site, this rematch is poetic, the victor likely advancing to the national playoffs.”

Ayrton Ostly, USA TODAY Sports: Oregon 35, Washington 28

The first matchup between these two teams was one of the best games of the 2023 college football season. Oregon’s improved since that close loss while Washington’s eked out multiple close wins. In a game of high-powered offenses, the Ducks’ defense makes the difference at a neutral site.

How to Watch Pac-12 championship game: TV channel and streaming

When: Friday, Dec. 1, 8:00 p.m. ET

Where: Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas, Nevada

Cable TV: ABC

Streaming: ESPN app; FuboTV

How to watch: Catch the latest football action on Fubo

NCAAF odds championship week: Washington Huskies vs. Oregon Ducks

The Ducks are favored to win their final Pac-12 title, according to the BetMGM college football odds. Looking to wager? Check out the best mobile sports betting apps offering betting promos in 2023.

Spread: Oregon (-9.5)
Moneyline: Oregon (-375); Washington (+290)
Over/under: 65.5 points

Different path: Rather than play another year, Utah State QB Levi Williams plans for Navy SEAL training

Oregon Ducks football 2023 schedule and results

Week 1: Sat. 09/02: Oregon 81-7 Portland State Final
Week 2: Sat. 09/09: Oregon 38-30 Texas Tech Final
Week 3: Sat 09/16: Oregon 55-10 Hawai’i Final
Week 4: Sat. 09/23: Oregon 42-6 Colorado Final
Week 5: Sat. 09/30: Oregon 42-6 Stanford Final
Week 6: Sat. 10/07: Bye
Week 7: Sat. 10/14: Oregon 33-36 Washington Final
Week 8: Sat. 10/21: Oregon 38-24 Washington State Final
Week 9: Sat. 10/28: Oregon 35-6 Utah Final
Week 10: Sat. 11/04: Oregon 63-19 Cal Final
Week 11: Sat. 11/11: Oregon 36-27 USC Final
Week 12: Sat. 11/18: Oregon 49-13 Arizona State Final
Week 13: Sat. 11/25: Oregon 31-7 Oregon State Final
Week 14: Fri. 12/01: Oregon vs. Washington, 8:00 p.m., ET, ABC

Washington Huskies football schedule and results

Week 1: Sat. 09/02: Washington 56-19 Boise State Final
Week 2: Sat. 09/09: Washington 43-10 Tulsa Final
Week 3: Sat 09/16: Washington 41-7 Michigan State Final
Week 4: Sat. 09/23: Washington 59-32 Cal Final
Week 5: Sat. 09/30: Washington 31-24 Arizona Final
Week 6: Sat. 10/07: Bye
Week 7: Sat. 10/14: Washington 36-33 Oregon Final
Week 8: Sat. 10/21: Washington 15-7 Arizona State Final
Week 9: Sat. 10/28: Washington 42-33 Stanford Final
Week 10: Sat. 11/04: Washington 52-42 USC Final
Week 11: Sat. 11/11: Washington 35-28 Utah Final
Week 12: Sat. 11/18: Washington 22-20 Oregon State Final
Week 13: Sat. 11/25: Washington 24-21 Washington State Final
Week 14: Fri. 12/01: Washington vs. Oregon, 8:00 p.m., ET, ABC

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Washington

Notre Dame football continues transfer portal haul with TE Ty Washington

Published

18 minutes ago

December 25, 2024

Press Room

Notre Dame football continues transfer portal haul with TE Ty Washington

Ty Washington’s 2024 season ended abruptly. The redshirt sophomore tight end was dismissed from Arkansas in late October for what head coach Sam Pittman described as a violation of team rules.

Notre Dame football wants to give Washington a second chance. The 6-foot-4, 247-pound tight end with two seasons of eligibility remaining announced Wednesday his commitment to transfer to Notre Dame.

Maybe Washington can find more success with the Irish after catching 14 passes for 212 yards and four touchdowns in 21 career games with the Razorbacks. Pro Football Focus gave Washington the second-lowest offensive grade on Arkansas’ roster for his play in the 2024 season. He received a 42.3 offensive grade on his 116 offensive snaps. The lowest offensive grade on Notre Dame’s offense so far this season is reserve offensive tackle Ty Chan’s 47.8 on eight snaps.

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Washington will be a depth option for Notre Dame’s tight end room. The Irish will lose starting tight end Mitchell Evans to the NFL this offseason with four seasons of eligibility used. Reserve tight end Davis Sherwood will also have exhausted his eligibility. Seldom-used graduate senior Kevin Bauman still has one season of eligibility remaining, but it’s unclear if he’ll be on Notre Dame’s roster next season.

The obvious options to return to Notre Dame next season are current junior Eli Raridon, sophomore Cooper Flanagan, freshman Jack Larsen and 2025 signee James Flanigan. Raridon has played in all 13 games this season and caught nine passes for 70 yards and two touchdowns so far. Flanagan caught four passes for 55 yards and two touchdowns in 12 games this season.

So Washington’s impact at Notre Dame seems far from guaranteed, but that’s much better than the situation he was in at Arkansas. Washington shared his side of the story about his dismissal on the “4th and 5 Podcast.” Washington refused to enter a 58-25 victory over Mississippi State in the fourth quarter when the coaching staff wanted to put him in the game. Prior to the game, Washington said, he learned that his grandmother was in poor health and that put him in a bad place mentally.

“Our team was kicking butt,” Washington said on the podcast. “Our tight ends were doing their thing. Shout-out to Luke [Hasz] and shout-out to Andreas [Paaske] because they were playing a hell of a ballgame. To be honest, I didn’t think that I needed to go in to just try to fight through something and look bad or mess up the team in general when I’m already going through something mentally.

“To be honest, that messed me up and I should’ve taken accountability for that because that was the reason why I was thrown off the team — for not going into the game. I know I could’ve handled it differently, but at the time I let that shut me down. And it shut me down because mentally I’ve been going through a lot of stuff and physically I’ve been going through a lot of stuff. It broke me down a little bit. I’m only human.”

Pittman declined to expand on Washington’s dismissal after reporters heard Washington’s retelling of it. Hasz, Arkansas’ starting tight end this season, has already committed to transfer to Ole Miss.

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Washington signed with Arkansas as a three-star recruit out of Leesburg (Ga.) Lee County. Rivals ranked him as the No. 31 tight end in the 2022 class.

Washington redshirted his true freshman season by playing in four regular season games and a bowl game. His only catch of the season was a 17-yard touchdown in the first quarter of a 55-53 win over Kansas in the Liberty Bowl.

Washington’s playing time increased in 2023 with three starts in nine games, but his season ended with a shoulder injury. He recorded 11 receptions for 170 yards and two touchdowns in the four-game stretch before his injury. The 2023 season was Washington’s best, according to PFF. He received a 77.3 offensive grade with an 86.6 in the passing game.

Washington started just one game this past season and caught two passes for 25 yards and one touchdown in seven games played. His dismissal came after the eighth game of the season for Arkansas.

Notre Dame’s incoming transfer portal class is currently bigger than its outgoing transfer class. The Irish added Alabama defensive back DeVonta Smith, Virginia wide receiver Malachi Fields and Wisconsin wide receiver Will Pauling prior to Washington. Fields and Pauling announced their commitments on Monday and Tuesday, respectively, making Washington the third commitment in three days.

Notre Dame’s three outgoing transfer portal players were no longer with the team for most of the season. Defensive tackle Tyson Ford and defensive end Aiden Gobaira weren’t on the roster this season. Cornerback Jaden Mickey opted to seek a transfer after playing in the first four games of 2024, which allowed him to preserve a season of eligibility. Both Ford and Mickey have already committed to Cal.

Notre Dame has yet to address arguably its biggest transfer portal need this offseason: defensive tackle. At least in terms of public commitments. But at the rate this week has gone, who knows how quickly that could change.

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I'm an entrepreneur who has lived in Washington, Texas, Ireland, and North Dakota. My favorite place has incredible community support for small businesses.

Published

9 hours ago

December 25, 2024

Press Room

I'm an entrepreneur who has lived in Washington, Texas, Ireland, and North Dakota. My favorite place has incredible community support for small businesses.

Jaymes O’Pheron is an entrepreneur who has lived all over the world.
He and his wife moved from Washington state to Fargo, North Dakota, in 2021.
O’Pheron said the Midwest locale is his favorite because of its strong community.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jaymes O’Pheron, a 34-year-old entrepreneur who moved from Aberdeen, Washington, to Fargo, North Dakota, in 2021.

The Fargo-Moorhead area, home to about 261,000 people, has seen a significant population uptick in recent years and is expected to reach almost 340,000 people by 2045, a 35% growth rate, according to the Fargo-Moorhead Economic Development Corp.

My family is a bit odd. I’m the oldest of eight and grew up in a very sheltered, religiously-minded family. I spent most of my childhood in Washington state, outside Vancouver and across the river from Portland. When I was 17, my dad got a job in Texas, so we moved South.

After that, we deliberately decided as a family to leave America. We picked Ireland because, at the time, it was the last English-speaking nation that did not allow abortion. We wanted to support that.

I absolutely loved Ireland. The weather, the people, the history, the language, the food, the music, the pace of life, the cities, the way it’s designed — it’s very communal.

After four years in Ireland, though, some personal issues led me to move back to Washington in 2012. I met my wife in Aberdeen, and we got married in 2018.

But we knew we weren’t going to stick around Washington forever. We had been experiencing some health issues that we eventually traced back to mold allergies. We realized we were biologically incompatible with mold and how damp and moldy the Northwest is. We couldn’t live there.

We wanted to find a permanent home, so we started researching potential places to move in 2019.

We tried to be intentional about where we ended up. We narrowed it down to a few places with favorable economic and regulatory aspects and a positive culture.

Then, we visited Fargo, and we knew this was the place. We officially moved in May 2021.

O’Pheron said he loves Fargo’s small-town heart and big-city energy.

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Fargo is very friendly to startups

I’m a serial entrepreneur. I can’t stop starting things, both nonprofit and for-profit. Right now, I’m primarily focusing on my nonprofit, which is focused on empowering people to be change-makers in their communities.

I’m also a freelance coach for career performance, communication, networking, and burnout prevention.

The community support here in Fargo is incredible. That was hugely important as I was trying to build up my coaching business. I needed a larger metro center to network, but I also needed a regulatory environment conducive to small business startups.

Fargo is a great place for small business startups, a huge part of which is due to the community. The people recognize that we need to support one another. Being an entrepreneur is emotionally difficult and risky. Having people around you cheering you on and having your back is incredibly valuable.

That community support is unique from all the other places I’ve lived. You can walk out onto the street and make friends with anyone.

We are definitely putting down roots here. We want our great-grandchildren to live here, so we started looking for a place to buy.

We found a beautiful home. I’m on the HOA board. There are a lot of benefits and assistance in North Dakota for people who are first-time home buyers.

In Washington, I was living in a studio apartment. We paid about the same rate here in Fargo for our two-bedroom apartment, which was twice the square footage, just outside downtown.

It’s one of the best places in the country as far as the ratio between low cost of living and high-paying jobs goes. The quality of living is high. There are a lot of job opportunities here.

Fargo’s winters are notoriously harsh.

Daniel Barry/Getty Images

Fargo is my favorite place I’ve lived

I just love Fargo. It’s my favorite of all the places I’ve lived because I have all my favorite people here. I have better friends here than I’ve had in my entire life. My favorite part is the community.

When we first drove to Fargo, it felt like we were driving home. There’s something about the scale of the city that is very approachable. It is a downtown area with robust activity, but it also has that small-town feel. It feels very safe and welcoming.

We had new friends from church help us move into an apartment immediately. We had met the pastor when we first got to Fargo, and he put out a call to the parish, and they all showed up to help us.

Because it’s a college town, there’s a lot of youthful energy and idealism. It’s also on the border of Minnesota, a blue state. So, Fargo is a true purple city. There’s a lot of diversity of thought and opinions. People actually have conversations, which is cool.

The one thing we were anticipating having to adjust to was the weather. We made sure we did all the preparation. We changed our car battery and got the right kinds of tires.

We had a really hard winter our first year there. But it was fun. I shoveled snow from our patio into the bathtub and took an ice bath. The cold weather actually leads to the quality of the community here. People help one another because we’re all in it together.

Fargo is growing quickly. One of the issues we’re dealing with is where to put all the people. We don’t want to create sky-high prices or spread out too far so people can’t commute. The city is trying to strike that balance of small-town heart and big-town body that we love so much.

As a burnout coach, I know that the silver bullet is community. We need to be able to connect with people around us authentically. Loneliness is killing us. So, it’s a luxury to have people here at Fargo whom I can rely on.

I think others who value community should look at Fargo. It’s an amazing place to be.

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