College football kicks off tomorrow evening and it should be another fantastic year. Here are my predicitions for conference champions and the national champion.
ACC
Florida State, Miami and North Carolina are all veteran teams. If UNC has player suspension issues that linger for too long look for Florida State to win the Atlantic and Miami to win the Coastal.
Prediction: Miami beats Florida State in the ACC Championship
Big East
Cincinnati lost their QB and head coach while UConn, Pitt and Rutgers have gained another year of seasoning and are ready to win this wide open conference. While some may say that West Virginia is always in contention the Rich Rodriguez days are long gone. Upstarts UConn and Rutgers have skill players back and great coaching in order to win tight games. Pitt may has a Heisman hopeful, but they still have a coach who chokes in more big games than Marty Shottenheimer. South Florida has a nice offense coming back but the defense is the weakest in quite some time for the Bulls.
Prediction: Rutgers to win the Big East
Big 10
It is almost unanimous that Ohio State, Iowa and Wisconsin have some of the best teams in all of football this year. OSU plays at Iowa and Wisconsin and at home to Miami, Penn St and Michigan. Iowa has most of their tough games at home, but the Arizona game on the road in Week 3 could be a pitfall. Wisconsin has to go to Iowa which will more than likely be their demise.
Prediction: Ohio State wins
Big 12
This year is the last hurrah for Colorado and Nebraska. Unfortunately it doesn’t matter because Nebraska will win the North Division in a landslide. Texas and Oklahoma will once again play the Red River Shootout for conference supremacy. Oklahoma may have a Heisman hopeful at RB in DeMarco Murray and Texas could be good, but they lost a lot.
Prediction: Oklahoma wins the Big 12 Championship
Pac 10
Lots of good QBs, a death penalty and many other young talented players are heading up this conference. Arizona gets Iowa, USC, Washington and Oregon State at home. Oregon State has to open up at TCU and then 2 weeks later goes to Boise State besides back-to-back road games at Arizona and Washington. USC can’t win anything tangible, but have the talent to make a huge statement. Washington Heisman hopeful Jake Locker is a true playmaker and should keep the Huskies in most games. Stanford has the offense, but will need a defense to make anyone look at them as contenders.
Prediction: Arizona wins the Pac 10
SEC
Tim Tebow is gone, but Florida continues to reload as usual. Alabama is coming off a dream season, but have issues with the Heisman winner Mark Ingram getting banged up plus they have a lot of new faces on defense. Auburn has a pretty easy path to their tango against Alabama in the season finale while Arkansas and South Carolina should have explosive offenses. You can’t count out LSU, but in the end Florida wins SEC East and Auburn in a stunner wins the SEC West.
Prediction: Auburn wins the SEC
Sleeper Teams:
Middle Tennessee State, NC State, UCLA, and South Florida
BCS Championship
The BCS Championship game will not have a WAC or Mountain West team in it even though there is a lot of preseason hype that Boise or TCU will make the big game. The usual suspects Ohio State and Oklahoma will battle for the title with Terrelle Pryor and Ohio State gutting through a great game for the win.