It’s Game Week, finally, and that means projections for the division races.

(No offense to Stanford and Oregon State, which experienced Game Week last week, although the Beavers probably would have preferred more practice to their experience at Colorado State, which coach Gary Andersen deemed embarrassing.)

Anyhow, the North and South have clear favorites and obvious cellar dwellers, but the circumstances aren’t identical.

I’d be less surprised if Washington gets overtaken in the North than if USC gets bypassed in the South. No way USC doesn’t win the South.

The Trojans simply have too much margin for error: They don’t have as many threats in the South as UW does in the North, and the threats that exist are, well, less threatening. Get Pac-12 Conference news in your inbox. Sign up for the Pac-12 Hotline newsletter.

If you tracked the Hotline’s 12-part series, in which I picked the outcome of every game for every team, the projections below will look familiar. (Here’s the final installment, which includes links to the picks for all the teams.)

I haven’t change the outlooks, even with the somewhat surprising quarterback news out of Utah (Tyler Huntley to start) and the late roster addition for Oregon (DT Malik Young) and the season-ending injury to UCLA lineman Kenny Lacy and the abysmal performance by Oregon State. I picked the Beavers to win four games and am not quite prepared to drop that total to three.

Consider this the one-stop shopping version of that series.

*** North

1. Washington (projected record: 11-1/8-1): Best combination of quarterback, line play, skill talent, coaching and schedule — just about everything, really. Wake me in November.

2. Stanford (9-3/7-2): Pieces in place to challenge Washington so long as QB Keller Chryst doesn’t lose games and the defensive line is sturdy. Should know by the close of Week Four whether the Cardinal is a true contender.

3. Washington State (9-3/6-3): Cannot afford another slow start with so many road games in the second half. Could be WSU’s best team since the late-Price/early-Doba years.

4. Oregon (6-6/4-5): Veteran offensive line gives Ducks a chance to make the leap to the North’s top tier, but the defense is years away from being the backbone of a division winner. Expectations a bit ahead of reality.

5. Oregon State (4-8/2-7): Ominous start at Colorado State, and I expect more losses — many more losses — in coming months. After the progress in 2016 comes a season of stagnation.

6. Cal (4-8/2-7): Anything better than 3-9 would be a nice first step for Justin Wilcox, whose rebuild will take years. Bad as the Bears have been defensively, that might be their best unit this fall. Related Articles Pac-12 Networks: Media analysts grade the networks (part four of the Pac-12 Hotline series)

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*** South

1. USC (10-2/7-2): Loads of talent and quarterback Sam Darnold give the Trojans plenty of cushion. September is rugged, but if the offensive line coalesces quickly, then a playoff berth comes into focus.

2. UCLA (9-3/6-3): Expecting a bounce-back season with Josh Rosen healthy, the running game revived and enough returning defensive talent to counteract the attrition on the front seven.

3. Colorado (7-5/4-5): Everything broke right for the Buffs last year, and they were very good. (Both were true.) This fall, not as much goes right, and they’re not quite as good.

4. Arizona State (6-6/4-5): One of the Arizona schools will jump back into the middle of the South, and I’m leaning to the Sun Devils. Better defense, better options at quarterback.

5. Utah (5-7/3-6): The move to Tyler Huntley will benefit the program over the long haul, but now there’s a rookie QB playing behind a rebuilt line. Tough to see the Utes contending for the division’s upper half.

6. Arizona (4-8/1-8): Not sure the issues that surfaced last season are solvable in one recruiting cycle … and yes, that assumes the quarterback play is better. Better, but not good enough. For more Pac-12 coverage

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