Expert Picks: College football world split on decision between No. 3 Oregon and No. 23 Utah

With a big game on tap, we always want to try and crowdsource a little bit in order to get the temperature of the room.

Here at Ducks Wire, we feel that we have a pretty good grasp on exactly who this Oregon team really is, and what they’re capable of. However, this late in the season, it is easy to get tunnel vision and start to only see things from your perspective. Are we missing anything major because we are too close to the Ducks? What does the college football world think about Oregon at large? How worried should we be about Utah on Saturday?

To get a better sense of things, we went to the expert pickers at College Football News to see who everyone is rolling with. Here are the results:

11 Expert Picks
Oregon Ducks: 7 Picks
Utah Utes: 4 Picks
Consensus: Oregon

It’s not shocking to see the crowd leaning towards the Ducks, since they are the higher-ranked team with a more talented roster. However, the point spread for this game favors Utah, and ESPN’s FPI predictor gives Oregon just a 38% chance to win this game.

Should the Ducks come out on top, they will clinch a return trip to the Pac-12 Championship Game, and have a solid shot to make it back to the College Football Playoffs for the first time since 2014. If they lose, their CFP chances are shot, and they will have to play Oregon State next week with the winner likely going on to the Pac-12 title game.

Pretty significant stakes, if you ask me.

So will the experts turn out to be right in the end? Only time will tell. Kick-off is set for Saturday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. PT, airing on ABC.