Even when I am as burdened as I am, y'all are gonna make me create the most second important thread on the forum (after PAPOY), ain't ya?! My knowledge is severely down from
last year, so here goes nothing:
American: Another year, another shake-up with the American coaches, but Charlie Strong Quinton Flowers joining forces should be very lethal to any of the cupcakes they'll face! I am fully on the bandwagon - two years in the making, a big name coach brings consistency and actually shows up to the NY6 with a competitive team. Scott Frost and UCF join in on a major resurgence and allows the south to usurp the focus of the league away from the northeast. Temple fresh off losing its best ever coach, QB, LB and possibly HB collapses behind the pack. East Carolina showed bursts last year, but I'm afraid if they don't fix the inconsistencies, they will find themselves just short of getting back to bowl eligibility. ECU and Temple both start early against top 10 FCS opponents, so they better not sleep through the payout games (- ECU should be an underdog)!
1.
USF 2.
UCF 3.
Cincinnati 4. East Carolina 5. Temple 6. Connecticut
The West is a completely different story as it remains tough from top-to-bottom with even more parity than last year. Look out for a 6-2 tiebreaker to win this one. On gut feeling, I was rushing to pick Navy as the best team, but with road trips to Memphis, Houston and Tulsa, that is enough to scare me away. The Tigers have a tough enough front to hold them off at home, and while they can be beat by the long ball, there are less teams in the league that can do that this year (with Ward gone and Tulsa likely to be a lot more balanced running given the make-up of their roster). Don't sleep on Tulane who awoke from their long slumber to have a few thrilling victories finally, but the OOC is likely too tough to seek more than five wins.
1.
Memphis 2.
Navy 3.
Tulsa 4.
Houston 5.
SMU 6. Tulane
USF defeats Memphis
ACC: Ahh, the pre-anointed four team race to a playoff spot. No, I doubt NC State is a serious threat too, very much so, and I also think can't begin to understand the Florida State lovefest when Dalvin Cook was the sole driving force for this team last season. They'll be strong in the backfield again, but Clemson's line on both sides remains a terrifying strength. Against my better judgement of talent, I am going to go with a 2-loss FSU taking the title and even better yet, drop a terrific Clemson behind everybody's pick to flail in Louisville because they will suffer an incomprehensible loss or two! Out of conference cupcakes carry in Cuse and Wake to bowls - if they can avoid faltering against BC, never an easy task!
1.
Florida State 2.
Louisville 3.
Clemson 4.
NC State 5.
Syracuse 6.
Wake Forest 7. Boston College
The Who Care division is as who care as ever! Here's my analysis...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzz. For real though - Georgia Tech is everyone's sleeper even though they have perennial FCS power Jacksonville State on the schedule. JSU is slightly down, but if you are looking for a big upset... You have to have more guts to pick the Jackets than it looks on paper. Brutal non-conference! Pitt's in a similar pickle. I'll stay safe with the super talented 'Canes but not-so-secretly hope that their size lets them down just enough for even Va Tech to chase them down.
1.
Miami 2.
Virginia Tech 3.
UNC 4.
Pitt 5. Georgia Tech 6. Duke 7. Virginia
FSU over Miami BIG LEAGUE
Big 12 - Hard not to go with OU, but down a coach and road games to K-State and the Cowboys. A top 10 OK State team has to beat them someday. Right?! Let's go with chaos. I won't call who beats who, but it's [still] funny when the Big XII suffers.
1a.
Oklahoma 1b.
Oklahoma State 1c.
Kansas State 4.
TCU 5.
Texas 6.
West Virginia 7. Iowa State 8. Baylor 9. Kansas 10. Texas Tech
Oklahoma over Oklahoma State
Big Ten - hahahaha, people still buy the Penn State fluke FG against a mediocre OSU team? That is all. Fine, they are good, but OSU will still breeze to the title. I'm not entirely sure where Maryland will get its sixth win from this year (or frankly, fifth), but let's call it a Penn State upset!
1.
Ohio State 2.
Penn State 3.
Michigan 4.
Michigan State 5.
Indiana 6.
Maryland 7. Rutgers
Sconnie will likewise lock up a Division title in the much improved west and is the biggest sleeper for an undefeated regular season if they can squeeze by the UM and the three finishers right behind them. Only Nebraska is on the road and the next toughest road game is for Paul Bunyan's axe which has been safe since '03. (I know, I know, beware BYU!) Northwestern is also back with a much easier non-conference schedule and could breeze through the late season games (though if they fall to Nebraska, second place could be a tie). And poor Lovie Smith gets Purdue on the road and an ugly non-conference
Fleck starts off with Minnesota in a Georgia Tech like position as one of the best teams out, but they could just as easily take a Big Ten bowl spot over Maryland - I just think the losses will spiral at the end.
1.
Wisconsin 2.
Northwestern 3.
Nebraska 4.
Iowa 5. Minnesota 6. Purdue 7. Illinois
Wisconsin over Ohio State in the upset despite being undefeated going in.
C-USA: How much will great coaching inject into last season's snoozefest? Not all that much this year is my guess though the Lane Kiffin ESPN time should help the league sooner or later. You can feel UTSA is right on the edge of a complete breakthrough as all the ESPN money games they took start to pay dividends.
1.
Old Dominion 2.
Western Kentucky 3.
Middle Tennessee 4.
FAU 5. FIU 6. Marshall 7. Charlotte
1.
UTSA 2.
Southern Miss 3.
Louisiana Tech 4. North Texas 5. Rice 6. UAB (Charlotte +UTEP at home
) 7. UTEP
UTSA over ODU
MACtion looks to take a backseat again this year with the loss of PJ Fleck after all of last season's epic hype. The sole question appears to be how many of Akron, EMU, NIU, and CMU can squeak out that 6th win? Lot of interesting games early in the years against the Powerhouse bottomfeeders, but I'm not sure many upsets will happen vs. the likes of Kansas, BC, Cuse, or Kentucky.
1.
Miami (OH) 2.
Ohio 3.
Akron 4. Kent State 5. Bowling Green 6. Buffalo
1.
Toledo 2.
Western Michigan 3.
Eastern Michigan 4.
Northern Illinois 5. Central Michigan 6. Ball State
Toledo over Miami (OH)
Mountain West: I have taken a stance of complete neutrality in the Mountain Division as all of the top three are very capable of winning it. Wyoming legitimately has a potential pro at QB and a coach who knows how to win. I think the Boise win was a fluke last year, but what the heck - even without Hill - the real focal point of last year's dominance - I'll give it to them. Only Boise has to beat SDSU for this to be a three way tie among one loss teams. The winner of that tiebreaker takes the title.
1a.
Wyoming 1b.
Boise State 1c.
Colorado State 4. Air Force 5. Utah State 6. New Mexico
1.
San Diego State 2.
Hawaii 3.
UNLV 4. Nevada 5. Fresno State 6. San Jose State
Wyoming over San Diego State in the rematch.
Pac-12: The spot of my biggest mistakes last year, and I fully expect it to be so again this year. So rather than any #analysis to taint my inevitably wrong picks, I will just say Wazzu gets its revenge on big brother, and I am excited to see what Kalen Ballage can do in the first four and last four - the middle four scare me. 2-4 spots up for grabs there, and I didn't like Montez at QB for the Buffaloes. All distant behind USC regardless though several opportunities to make USC a multi-loss team will liven up the playoff race.
1.
Washington State 2.
Washington 3.
Stanford 4.
Oregon 5. Oregon State 6. Cal
1.
USC 2.
Utah 3.
Arizona State 4.
Colorado 5. UCLA 6. Arizona
USC over Wazzu
SEC: It's basically Alabama and then everybody else, and it's not even particularly intriguing at this point. Mississippi State is a fun sleeper now that Armstrong has a year under his belt, and Ed Orgeron brings a lot of class (not grass!) to LSU and perhaps Auburn may even fight Clemson tougher, but the east is weaker than ever setting up for another title game snoozer. No, Jacob Eason won't be hypnotizing me this year! 3-6 are clearly tightly bunched with a lot of jobs on the line - UK and Vandy get Ole Miss and the 'Cocks are close enough to the top to steal a win in the east while avoiding the West's best. All in all, that spells trouble for UT, especially when they close the year failing to stop the Commodores from entering a bowl game again. A lot of out of conference challenges for this group including Western Kentucky, Louisiana Tech, Middle Tennessee, Southern Miss, NC State, Wofford, and Georgia Tech - it remains very unclear who might come out of those victorious.
1.
Florida 2.
Georgia 3.
South Carolina 4.
Vanderbilt 5.
Kentucky 6.
Tennessee 7. Mizz-eww
1.
Alabama 2.
LSU 3.
Mississippi State 4.
Auburn 5.
Arkansas 6.
Texas A&M 7. Ole Miss
Alabama over Florida BIG LEAGUE
Sun Belt: After what unexpectedly happened with Troy and USA last year, I may be sufficiently insulated with no clue of what is going on at the lower rungs of this region, so perhaps let's call this my one pick worse than the Pac-12. The bowl eligibilities are all so close, this is just a stab in the dark.
1.
Troy 2.
Appalachian State 3.
Arkansas State 4. Georgia Southern 5. Coastal Carolina 6.
Idaho 7. Georgia State 8. USA 9. ULL 10. ULM 11. New Mexico State 12. Texas State
BYU,
Notre Dame,
Army, UMass
Sugar Bowl: Alabama vs. Florida State
Rose Bowl: Wisconsin vs. USC
Championship: Alabama over USC
Orange Bowl: Louisville vs. Ohio State
Fiesta Bowl: Oklahoma vs. Northwestern
Peach Bowl: USF vs. Washington State
Cotton Bowl: LSU vs. Oklahoma State
Kansas State (SoS vs. Ok St) / Washington (H2H WSU) / Penn State (H2H NU) / Clemson (H2H Louisville) / Florida (general weakness) outside looking in.
