College football bold predictions for Week 12: Texas and Washington ready for fall?

The stakes get higher and higher as the college football season winds down. There's always unanticipated events and surprise performances that shake up the College Football Playoff race or impact conference races or bowl berths.

Week 12 in college football offers opportunities for surprises, especially with significant matchups in the Pac-12 and Big 12. Will the urgency of the playoff and conference chases cause teams to raise their level of play or stumble close to the finish line?

That's why we're here to make sense of things. The USA TODAY Sports college football staff – Scooby Axson, Jace Evans, Paul Myerberg, Erick Smith, Eddie Timanus and Dan Wolken – weigh in with bold predictions for Week 12 of the college football season.

Texas keeps playoff hopes alive at Iowa State

Over the years, Iowa State has been known to ruin many Big 12 title and national championship hopefuls. On Saturday, they get a visit from the Texas Longhorns, who will be missing leading rusher Jonathon Brooks who is out with a torn ACL. Iowa State has the league’s best defense but has struggled at times to put the ball in the end zone. Texas has scored 30 points or more points in 9 of its first 10 games and will need that kind of effort to avoid the upset. The Longhorns keep their title hopes alive with a close victory. -- Scooby Axson

Washington finally falls off tightrope

No. 5 Washington has been walking a tightrope for a month now. The Huskies’ victory over No. 6 Oregon was impressive – the Ducks remain the College Football Playoff selection committee’s highest ranked one-loss team – but Washington has practically been begging for a loss with everything it’s done since. After escaping a series of close calls, I think the bill finally comes due this week; No. 10 Oregon State takes down Washington in Corvallis. -- Jace Evans

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Washington finds a way to stay unbeaten

Oregon State may be a trendy pick to hand Washington its first loss, but have you seen the Huskies’ offense? Outside of a weird Saturday against Arizona State, this has been one of the most prolific groups in the country and easily one of the most explosive. While the Beavers have the playing style and personnel to slow things down, UW can strike quickly and set an up-tempo pace that puts OSU on the defensive. While it won’t be a blowout, look for the Huskies to make a big statement by posting a double-digit win against one of the top teams in the Pac-12 and FBS. -- Paul Myerberg

Georgia to get tussle from Tennessee

It might be hard to believe since we are at Week 12, but the Bulldogs have only played true road games at Auburn and Vanderbilt. This trip to visit the Volunteers will be the third and the previous two showed that maybe Georgia shouldn't be too overconfident for this game. The Bulldogs struggled at Auburn and didn't put away Vanderbilt until the midway through the fourth quarter. Add in that the Georgia could be overconfident after the Tennessee was routed by Missouri last week and the fact that it is the new No. 1 in the College Football Playoff rankings and you have the makings of a potential nail-biter. So don't be surprised if this this one goes right to wire and we maybe see a shocking upset. -- Erick Smith

Oregon State deals blow to Washington's playoff hopes

Without delving too deeply into hard numbers, as a general rule a college football team can compete for championships if one side of the ball is exceptional as long as the other side is at least average. Obviously if both sides are excellent, you have a true powerhouse, but either a high-octane offense or a lockdown defense will produce wins – most of the time.

All of which brings us to Washington, whose Michael Penix led attack generates over 500 yards a game good for sixth in the country. Again, an average defense with that kind of production is usually good enough, but the Huskies are 102^nd nationally surrendering 410 yards a game, well below the mean. So far, that hasn’t gotten the Huskies tagged with an ‘L,’ but that changes this week.

Oregon State ranks well above average on both sides of the ball, 19th in total offense and 33rd on defense. There’s a bit of added motivation in play for the Beavers as well, as one of the programs about to be left behind when the Pac-12 breaks up. It’ll take a big score, but Oregon State will get one, and the Huskies will be asked to leave the unbeaten club. -- Eddie Timanus

Iowa State knocks Texas from College Football playoff

Iowa State has kind of snuck up on us at 6-4. Are they great? No. Are they good enough to beat Texas at home? I think so, and here's why. The Longhorns are struggling right now with teams that are basically at the same level as Iowa State. They barely hung on to beat TCU last week. A few weeks back, they were very fortunate to win at Houston. In between, they survived an overtime game against Kansas State at home. So that's three of the last four that have been way too close for comfort against Texas, and winning all three is a little bit lucky. But luck eventually turns, and Ames has traditionally been a place where the pretenders trip over themselves. Another big issue for Texas right now is that Jonathon Brooks is now out for the season with a torn ACL. He's been a truly elite running back this season, averaging 6.1 yards per carry. Not having him is a significant downgrade to Texas' running game. That's going to catch up to the Longhorns in this spot, and Iowa State will eliminate them from the CFP race.  -- Dan Wolken

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: College football Week 12 bold predictions: Texas, Washington on alert