Oregon is in the mix for betting community - both schools

Beavers are favorites on the road as well

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When the DraftKings odds for the University of Oregon football game at Southern Cal were first issued this weekend, it put the Ducks as 5.5 point favorites to beat the Trojans on the road.

That seemed like good work from the people behind the scenes seeing as the Ducks started the season at No. 2, and the Trojans showed off a pretty shaky version of themselves in a 42-35 win at Rutgers.

But, then the betting community got into those odds, and they went toward USC, so much so that the Ducks were only favored by 1.5 points Sunday afternoon before settling at 2.5 in the evening. A four-point swing is actually pretty significant in betting terms. I actually would have swung it in the other direction so that Oregon would be a 7.5 favorite. This is one of the instances where I'm considering getting involved in the DraftKings action because what I've seen of the two teams makes me feel strongly in favor of the numbers - at least that was when it was 1.5.

Oregon State opened as a 12.5-point favorite for its game at Texas El-Paso, which is a pretty amazing feat for OSU's rookie head coach JaMarcus Shephard - winning over the betting community in just three games in spite of having only one win (and that over an FCS team).

It didn't take an optimist much time to spin the Beavers' impressive 52-17 win over Montana into a look forward at their schedule to see where the three top opponents were - Colorado State, Washington State and Boise State. OSU plays at CSU, Oct. 3, plays host to WSU on Oct. 17, and is at BSU, Nov. 14. Think crazy for a second, but if the Beavers were to continue on their upward climb of playing well, and won the Pac-12, what's the chances they could wind up in the College Football Playoffs? They's have to be unbeaten from here on, but ... dream while you can.

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Ducks

Beavers

Cliff Pfenning

Cliff is a lifelong resident of Oregon and has four decades of experience as a writer, photographer, videographer, broadcaster and now producer. He's a grad of Benson High in Portland and the University of Oregon. His writing background includes stints at The Oregonian, The Register-Guard, The News-Review in Roseburg, The Portland Tribune, The Portland Observer as well as regular contributions to The Medford Mail-Tribune and Willamette Week. He was set to be a content provider for Action Sports Cable Network if it had began operations in 2000. He also has taught sports broadcasting through the high school program at KBPS in Portland.

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