College Football Predictions

With less than three hours before Michigan kicks off its 2008 season, I need something to do to settle my nerves a bit. I figured that making my predictions for the rest of the college football season would be a great way to get my mind off of Michigan for a second and guess at what will happen with the other 118 teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I). So, without any further ado, I give you my conference selections followed by some other random predictions for the season:

Conference Champions:

• ACC: Wake Forest over Virginia Tech. I think Jim Grobe is an incredible coach and that Wake Forest will pull a surprise upset on Clemson in the middle of the season. Everyone is so excited about Clemson but ever since I began watching college football, the Tigers have never lived up to any of their preseason hype. I like Tommy Bowden, the Clemson coach, and I hope he can finally get over the hump this year, but I just don't see it happening.

• Big 12: Oklahoma over Missouri. Everyone is talking about Missouri and how good Chase Daniel is and it's hard to argue with them. I think Missouri will stay in the top ten all year and might be undefeated before facing Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship game but after watching Oklahoma pick Missouri apart twice last year, I don't see a different result happening this year.

• Big East: West Virginia. This is a complete pick of instinct. I think Pat White is going to have another great season and West Virginia will be very good. South Florida is the other team to watch in the Big East and I think the final game of the regular season between West Virginia and South Florida will ultimately decide who wins the Big East and right now, I have West Virginia coming out on top.

• Big Ten: Michigan. What kind of fan would I be if I didn't pick my team to win their conference? This pick is biased in every way and has little or no argument to back it up, but did you really think I was going to pick the Hairless Nuts to win the Big Ten, despite the unfortunate reality of the possibility? Not in this lifetime, pal.

• Conference USA: What, you thought I'd skip this conference just because they're irrelevant? Remember, I have nothing to do before this afternoon's opener so I'm going to preview allllll of the conferences, no matter how useless or terrible they may be. So, I'm gonna pick Luke Skywalker over Count Chocula for the Conference USA championship. (If you can actually name the twelve teams in Conference USA without looking them up, you deserve a freakin' medal).

• Mid-American Conference (MAC): Bowling Green over Ball State. Why? I don't know. I just assume that after a full season of football, someone has to win this conference. It's not like anyone really cares about who wins the MAC; they are only a small step above fantasy USA up there.

• Mountain West Conference (MWC): BYU. The Cougars schedule is pretty light and with a bunch of veterans returning from a good team last year, I think that BYU will crack the top 15 and might be undefeated at season's end.

• Pac-10: USC. Southern Cal. The Trojans. They've won six Pac-10 titles in a row and they will probably win six more as long as Pete Carroll is there. The only other concern is Oregon and they have an injured starting quarterback. Even then, the Trojans should have no problem winning another conference championship outright.

• SEC: Florida over Alabama. In my upset special of the day, I think Alabama will surprise some people and win the SEC West over LSU and Florida will win the SEC East over Georgia. Neither will be undefeated because the SEC is just too hard but Tim Tebow and Florida will take the cake and move on to a BCS bowl.

• Sun Belt Conference: The Ragin' Cajuns over the Mean Green. And yes, I simply picked this conference by mascot names. In all seriousness though, can you name even one team in the Sun Belt conference? I didn't even know it existed until I looked it up on ESPN.

• WAC: Fresno State. They're pretty good and the only other team that could compete for the WACkiest conference in the country would be Boise State. And Boise State plays on blue turf, which is just preposterous.

Now, despite the amazing color graphic logos of the teams that will win their respective conferences, I want you to pay attention to this portion of the post. This is the meaty, important stuff that will grow hair on your chest.

• Notre Dame will be almost as bad as last year and will miss a bowl game for the second straight season. Why? Because when your coach likes donuts more than he likes winning, your team is usually going to suck.
• Missouri will get some redemption from last year's BCS snub. They will lose to Oklahoma in the Big 12 title game but still get a spot in a BCS bowl after finishing the season with only 1 loss.
• The Big Ten will gain some validation and send at least eight teams to bowl games. The conference is better than people say and often gets a bad reputation only because the Sweater Vests choke every year on the national stage.
• Georgia will stay at #1 until they lose to Alabama at home on September 27th. For some reason, I just feel like the Crimson Tide will be better than expected this year. (The reason: Nick Saban).
• USC will crush Ohio State in the third week of the season. The most hyped up non-conference game of the year will be a two-touchdown victory for Southern Cal.
• USC will run the table and win the BCS National Championship over Florida. The Trojans are absolutely stacked this year and, if they can fight the injury bug, they should cruise.

Alright, I'm done. I need to go watch more football. Michigan starts their season in two hours now. I'll be back tomorrow with a recap of the game against Utah once I get settled in to my apartment at school. Adios amigos...and GO BLUE!