As you might recall, Ted and I put together the Ultimate Road Trip series to get you through those difficult summer months and to justify our multi-million-dollar salaries, exotic cars and private jets we take to and from games. Since we're at the midpoint, we figured it might be fun to take a trip in the way-back machine and examine our picks through the first seven weeks and see if we need to alter travel plans for the remainder of the season.
Week 1
Our pick: Washington State at BYU.
End result: The much anticipated Air Raid fell flat and the Cougars failed to score an offensive touchdown.
In retrospect: Nicholls State at Oregon State would have been the better call. At least you would have gotten your money back.
Week 2
Our pick: Washington at LSU.
End result: I just threw up in my mouth a little bit. (Don't laugh, Steve Sarkisian said it made him nauseous, too).
In retrospect: Nebraska at UCLA or Wisconsin at Oregon State were far superior games.
Week 3
Our pick: USC at Stanford.
End result: The Cardinal stunned the No. 2 team in the country.
In retrospect: This was the right call -- though the Holy War proved eventful as well.
Week 4
Our pick: Cal at USC.
End result: Meh, a 27-9 victory for USC.
In retrospect: Oregon State at UCLA proved to be the far more entertaining game.
Week 5
Our pick: Stanford at Washington.
End result: Ugly offense, but one of the most thrilling games of the year.
In retrospect: Arizona State crushed Cal on the road and Oregon State at Arizona was a thriller. But this was the best game given Stanford's top-10 ranking.
Week 6
Our pick: USC at Utah.
End result: A fairly exciting game considering how it started, with a 14-0 Utah lead in the first three minutes.
In retrospect: Arizona and Stanford's overtime shootout was one of the most exciting games in college football this year.
Week 7
Our pick: Stanford at Notre Dame.
End result: Plenty of defense in wet, sloppy conditions, and a controversial finish between two ranked teams.
In retrospect: Oregon State's win was huge at BYU considering the quarterback circumstances, but this was probably still the right call.
Week 8
Our pick: Stanford at Cal.
In retrospect: The Arizona State-Oregon game, which has turned into one of the marquee games of the 2012 schedule -- and it's on Thursday night, so you could still catch a flight from Phoenix to the Bay Area for the Big Game.
Week 9
Our pick: UCLA at Arizona State.
In retrospect: Oregon State at Washington is very intriguing, but we're sticking with this one given the Pac-12 South implications.
Week 10
Our pick: Oregon at USC.
In retrospect: Arizona State at Oregon State looks a lot more interesting than it did, but Oregon-USC is still the most anticipated game in the Pac-12 this year.
Week 11
Our pick: Oregon at Cal.
In retrospect: Swap NorCal for SoCal. Arizona State at USC is Week 11's game of the week. Oregon State at Stanford looks interesting -- especially since Stanford is at home. But we like the Sun Devils and Trojans this week.
Week 12
Our pick: Stanford at Oregon.
In retrospect: Leaning more toward USC at UCLA for this week. Pending the outcome of the ASU-UCLA game in Week 9, and ASU-USC in Week 11, the South division title could be on the line. Stanford has shown nothing to suggest it will beat Oregon -- let alone at Autzen.
Week 13
Our pick: Arizona State at Arizona.
In retrospect: Yikes -- tough choices here. But we're now leaning more toward the Civil War simply because of the national championship implications that could result from the outcome.