What's the best way to separate the favorite from the darkhorse? ESPN Insider Will Harris tackled that by looking at the best bets for the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 ACC and Pac-12.

You don't have to be Ace Rothstein to figure out that USC and Oregon are the two heavy favorites in the Pac-12 this year. USC checks in at minus-130 to win the Pac-12 and minus-600 to win the South Division. Oregon is at plus-210 to win the conference and minus-240 to claim the North.

But the article digs into more than just the odds of which team is favored to win -- it also looks at which team can deliver the most bang-for-buck. And at 37:1, Utah is the Pac-12's strongest value pick.

We know that after USC and Oregon, there is a heap of second-tier teams like Washington, Cal, Utah and Stanford all fighting for a piece of the respect pie. Harris takes the position that Utah emerges as the best bet of this group because the Utes have the fewest question marks with regards to schedule, personnel and coaching.

Utah's running game is sound, the defense is outstanding, the quarterback is healthy and the coaching staff is among the best in the conference. The schedule sets up nicely for the Utes to be undefeated heading into their showdown at home with USC on Oct. 4. We'll know a lot more about both of those teams on Oct. 5.

Harris also scrapes the surface of the much anticipated Oregon-USC showdown, noting that while Oregon does have to go on the road to the Coliseum in the regular season, the Ducks also have the best defense of the Chip Kelly era.