Five Crazy Predictions, We Never Learn Edition

Every year before the start of the college football season, my friend Ben and I do Five Crazy Predictions.  Inevitably, one of us predicts great things for Notre Dame.  This probably dates back to e-mail exchanges when we were in law school and Bob Davie was the coach.  Why would a guy from New Orleans and a guy from Macon, neither of whom ever liked the Irish, always predict glory for them?  Southern fatalism?  Jewish fatalism?  Low self esteem?  It’s hard to say.  Anyway, Ben’s #5 pick will shock no one, nor will the fact that I would have made the same pick if he wouldn’t have beaten me to the punch.

Ben’s Five

1. There will be four new coaches in the SEC next season, including both Mississippi schools.

[Ed. – I can buy the two Mississippi schools, but then it’s hard to see from where the other vacancies will come.  Ben doesn’t mention this in his picks, but he’s high on Georgia to have a good season after a slow start, so he’s not thinking that Mark Richt will be one of the four.  The other coaches in the West are all in unassailable positions, although Bobby Petrino’s wanderlust is undeniable.  Kentucky and Vandy have new coaches, so the normal candidates in the East aren’t going to produce new coaches.  Are we thinking of a Spurrier retirement?]

2. USC finishes third in the South division of the Pac 12.

[Ed. – This is bold, but it never hurts to short Lane Kiffin.  By the way, I haven’t spent two seconds of thought on USC this summer.]  

3. 5 out 6 teams in the Legends division of the Big Ten are bowl eligible.

[Ed. – Sounds good.  There are a bunch of decent teams in the Prancers* Division.]

* – In a moment that illustrated the failings of the Big Ten’s marketing wing, Mrs. B&B referred to the Big Ten’s divisions as the “Floaters and Prancers.”  Since I like that description, I’m going with it this season.  Given Michigan’s effete reputation (and the fact that Northwestern is in the same division), they have to play in the Prancers Division.  Ohio State seems a natural anchor for the Floaters.  Penn State also fits.  

4. Missouri finishes second in the Big XII.

[Ed. – Good pick.  People seem to be sleeping on Mizzou.]

5. Notre Dame gets ten regular season wins.

[Ed. – Nunca nada cambia.]

Michael’s Five

1. Dabo Swinney is replaced by Rich Rodriguez by the end of the season.  I just can’t quit you, Rich.  My operative theory for ACC regeneration is that a chastened Rodriguez, now understanding his armada of errors in staffing the defensive side of the ball in Ann Arbor, rides Tahj Boyd to glory.  With Jimbo Fisher pointing Florida State in the right direction, the ACC will have three good programs instead of one.

2. Texas finishes ahead of Texas A&M in the Big XII.  Texas can’t squander its pile of talent in two straight years, right?  And A&M just screams “overrated.”  Fast finish to previous season, suspect coach, non-traditional power in everyone’s top ten, conference refs who will be looking to screw them at every turn (and thus lead to massive guffaws in the State of Nebraska).

3. Jadaveon Clowney is in the top five in the SEC in sacks and South Carolina fans are finally not exaggerating when they describe a player in Corey Jenkins fashion.  I will use any excuse to invoke Gamecock fans’ descriptions of Jenkins before the 2002 season.  He can throw the ball 150 yards!  He’s bigger and faster than Bo, Herschel, or Captain America!  USC agronomists are altering their projections of the state’s cattle based on the use of Jenkins’ seed in cow reproduction!

4. National title game: Alabama versus Nebraska.  If I think that: (a) the Big Ten is terrible; (b) the Pelini brothers can fashion a great defense out of chicken wire and blue putty; and (c) the run-based spread is the bees knees, then this pick is mandatory, isn’t it?  And yes, I am sold on Alabama this year, despite the schedule.  The Tide’s defense should be silly good.  By the way, I keep waiting for a BCS blow-up between a one-loss SEC Champion and an undefeated champion of one of the other BCS conferences.  We almost had one in 2008 with Florida and Penn State, but now after five straight SEC national titles, we’re really primed for a rumble.

5. Virginia finishes second in the ACC Coastal.  18 returning starters, a promising new coach, massive instability at Miami and UNC, and a home game against Georgia Tech in a series in which homefield matters a great deal.  A homer pick, but why the hell not? 

Five Outlandish Predictions, the Wee Joey Getherall Edition

It's time for the sixth installment of Five Crazy Predictions, the annual feature in which my friend Ben and I offer up picks for the year that are almost invariably wrong. Let the massive shifts in betting lines commence as the market tries to price these nuggets:

Ben's Five

1. Auburn plays Alabama on November 26,2010 with the SEC West title on the line.

[Ed. - We're both on the Auburn bandwagon. Gus Malzahn plus Cameron Newton equals fun! It's interesting to me that the consensus in the South has shifted away from Arkansas being the challenger to Alabama. I can't speak for others, but my thought is that Auburn is more likely to improve its defense from crap to mediocre because Gene Chizik must know something about defense and also because Auburn's freshmen will give them the depth that they lacked last year.]

2. Michigan opens the season 0-2, then rallies to win 8 of the next ten and finishes above Iowa in the Big Ten.

[Ed. - Michigan pulled this off in 2007 and the season was a disappointment. If they do this in 2010, then I'll be in insufferable "I told you Rich could coach!" mode. Yay for diminished expectations!]

3. Boise State has two loses by season's end and TCU is once again undefeated and makes a BCS bowl.

[Ed. - This pick isn't rational because of Boise's track record and their returning starters, but I can see a scenario where the Broncos spend the entire offseason getting amped for playing Virginia Tech, lose, and then have a hard time picking themselves up off the canvas.]

4. Notre Dame beats USC in Los Angeles

[Ed. - I'm high on both of these teams.]

5. Texas A&M gets at least nine wins this season.

[Ed. - Mike Sherman. Res ipse loquitur.]

Michael's Five

1. Arizona beats Iowa. Iowa is overrated. (Anyone else notice that Vegas has the Hawkeyes' over/under at 8.5 wins. Seems a little low for a top ten team, no? Maybe the people with actual dollars riding on their evaluations disagree with the notion that Ricky Stanzi is college football's David Eckstein.) Big Ten teams don't do well when they go west. Arizona is a little undervalued because of their faceplant in the bowl game. Tuscon is hot.

2. Notre Dame goes to a BCS bowl. Weis's recruiting plus Kelly's coaching. Seems simple, no?

3. USC wins the Pac Ten. This is not an endorsement of Lane Kiffin by any stretch of the imagination. This is an endorsement of Monte Kiffin and Ed Orgeron coaching a bunch of five-star players. USC's defense should rock the Pac Ten.

4. Baylor goes to a bowl game and escapes the basement of the Big XII South. If I keep picking it, then it has to happen sometime, right?

5. The ACC finally gets a sold-out title game with Virginia Tech and Clemson. This may be my most ludicrous prediction yet.

Five Outlandish Predictions, Take Five

As per tradition, my friend Ben, the irrationally optimistic Georgia/Saints fan, and I will make five loopy predictions for the upcoming college football season. Thanks to the incredibly convenient label that I created for the posts, you can revisit our previous hits and (mostly) misses. In 2008, Ben took the 0-fer and yours truly got two out of five, hitting on Ole Miss's big season and East Carolina beating West Virginia.

Ben's Five

1. Charlie Weis keeps his job this year, but loses it the following year. I think his entire offensive line is composed of seniors. [Three seniors and two juniors, but who's counting? -Ed.] You are looking at a huge drop off the next year. Also, they will have the sexy players back, Tate, Floyd and Clausen, meaning they will be overrated in the pre-season. I don’t think much of that win at Hawaii last year, and remember the total domination by USC as a greater indicator of their progress under “Schemer.” As a side note, what if they lose to Nevada in the opener? Remember, the Wolfpack are coached by a Hall of Famer and have fielded some decent teams recently. Plus ND did lose to the ‘Cuse last year, at home no less. If that happens and he loses to your beloved Wolverines the next week, does Tenuta become the interim coach by week 3?

[I'm not sure what to think about Notre Dame. On the one hand, Weis strikes me as a bully whose teams get punked every time they pick on someone their own size. Notre Dame fans are generally a clever bunch and will figure or have figured this out. On the other hand, so much talent!]

2. BC crashes very very hard. They lost a lot when Jags left and I think the bottom out this year. The ACC is slowly getting better, in large part to Butch Davis getting things going in Chapel Hill, Tom O’Brien implementing his program at State, and Bowden pursing the Paterno model and letting Jimbo run things in Tallahassee. (I do have an issue with the Swinney hiring, but I really like his hiring of Steele to coach the D, so I will give him two years). Firing a dynamic coach who was making chicken soup with… is a huge mistake. Matt Ryan was a talent, but he blossomed under Jags and what BC did last year with all the injuries was very impressive. BC has killed all of that with their principled stance.

[Way to go out on a limb by predicting bad things for BC, a team picked to finish fifth in a six-team division. After last year, this is Ben picking out a streak-breaker at closing time. Let's hope she doesn't order the double pork chop platter at the Waffle House.]

3. UGA far exceeds Vegas’s expectations, which are 8 wins, by winning 10 games. They win at Stillwater and at Knoxville. They also beat LSU at home, South Carolina at home and on the road in Fayetteville. They lose to Florida and possibly Tech. People seem to forget that Richt keeps pumping in these top ten classes while Tennessee has been down and SC has been average. Talent will win out and UGA has it.

[This is not unreasonable. I'm on record as thinking that Georgia will do well in the opener. Hell, with Georgia's record against defending national champions, I'm surprised that Ben doesn't foresee glory in Jacksonville.]

4. Pete Carroll’s tree will not take root yet. (Ask Nick Holt and Ed Orgeron.) Kiffin in Tennessee and Sarkisian in Washington will do horribly this year. Washington may have the hardest schedule in the country and will struggle to win 3 games. Kiffin has no QB in Tennessee and even though he recruited well, those guys are way too green to play in the SEC. They will not win 10 games between the two programs.

[I agree with this, as well. USC's regression on offense after Norm Chow left does not speak well of Kiffin or Sarkisian. Vegas has these two combining for 11 wins, so going nine or fewer is a smidge of a risk.]

5. Michigan will far exceed expectations and will win 9 games. Their schedule is a joke, and they should be 3-1 OOC, at least. If they beat ND in Ann Arbor, than 10 wins is clearly attainable. That means that they only have to go 6-2 in the Big Ten to hit the number. Outside of PSU and Ohio State, who scares you as a Michigan fan? Iowa is in Iowa City and they play Sparty at East Lansing. Color me unafraid. Maybe Illinois, but just look at the coach on the other side. It is cliché by now, but Rich Rod turns things around in year two. He has the schedule to do it.

[From your lips to G-d's ears. As will be clear from my first prediction, I'm high on at least one team on Michigan's schedule...]

Michael's Five

1. Iowa finishes ahead of Penn State and in the top two in the Big Ten. I don't quite understand why Iowa isn't getting more love this preseason. Did they win nine games last year solely because of Shonn Greene? The line in front of him, which returns three starters and plugs two seniors into the open spots, had nothing to do with it? The defense that allowed 16 points per game and 97 yards rushing per game in Big Ten play and returns eight starters had nothing to do with it? Iowa wins in State College and the game of the year in the Big Ten is November 14 when the Hawkeyes travel to Columbus.

2. Arkansas finishes ahead of at least one of Alabama, Ole Miss, and LSU. They have 18 starters back, one of the best coaches in college football on the sideline, two legitimate SEC running backs, and an enormous upgrade at quarterback from Casey Dick to Ryan Mallett.

3. Georgia Tech loses four games and is out of the race in the ACC Coastal by November. I'm banking on Negative Grohmentum here, along with ACC defenses being a little more savvy to Tech's offense. The games against Virginia and Virginia Tech in the second half of October will be the Jackets' Waterloo (or Kursk, if you're Eastern Front inclined like I am). Tech has a dreadful record in Charlottesville and if there's one team you'd trust to slow down the Tech running game, it's the Hokies.

4. Baylor makes a bowl game. If Indiana, Vandy, and Arizona have all made it in recent years, it's time for the Bears to break their duck. After watching their performance in Lubbock at the end of last season, I'm fully on the Robert Griffin bandwagon. How about a trip to El Paso to play Stanford?

5. Steve Spurrier retires at the end of the year and is replaced by Charlie Strong.

The Fourth Annual Installment of "FIVE OUTLANDISH PREDICTIONS!!!"

LOUD NOISES!!! My friend Ben and I have an annual tradition of making five off-kilter predictions before the start of the season. In the interests of preserving a historical record, here are our efforts from 2007, 2006, and 2005. There have been some gems - Ben picking Arizona State's ascent last year, me picking Notre Dame to be good in 2005 - and some duds - Ben picking Tommy Bowden to win a conference title, me picking Notre Dame to be good last year. With that in mind, read on with caution:

Ben's HOT SPORTS OPINIONS!!!

1. The SEC retains 11 of their coaches after the season. All are safe, but lo and behold, the Ol' Ball Coach steps aside. He has a good year by SC standards, but still finishes fourth in the East. He is fed up with the inability to win there and steps down at year's end coming off an 8-win season.

[Ed. - This seems plausible. I don't see Spurrier having the frustration tolerance to be the South Carolina head coach. I'd bet that deep down, in places he doesn't talk about at parties, Spurrier was shaken by the impact of the injuries to Jasper Brinkley and Captain Munnerlyn last season. This didn't happen at Florida.]

2. West Virginia loses 6 games this year and Bill Stewart gets replaced as coach by...the man who should have got the job in the first place: Butch Jones from Central Michigan.

[Ed. - I'm not so high on West Virginia, but six losses seems strong. The effect of losing an alpha male head coach isn't usually that severe in year one, although there are a number of Louisville fans who are anxious to chime in with their disagreement.]

3. Colorado is back as a player on the Big XII scene. They win 8 games and finish second in the Big XII North as they miss Oklahoma and get Texas at home. They begin to contend for the Big XII and BCS bid starting in 2009.

[Ed. - This is an annual prediction for Ben, most likely because Colorado was good when we started watching college football. You know what they say about always loving the music you were listening to when you first got laid... I'm excited to see what Dan Hawkins can do with Darrell Scott and I also gave some thought to Colorado over Texas as my upset of the year.]

4. Clemson rolls through the ACC and regular season undefeated only to lose in the ACC Championship game. Because "Tommy can't win the big one." Mind you, the other 12 were all big.

[Ed. - This won't look so good, come Saturday night at 11:30.]

5. This is not so outlandish, as I think others are saying this, but the biggest game in the country on November 22, 2008 will be undefeated BYU at one loss Utah. BYU has two Pac-10 teams on the schedule, and they should be able to handle both. If they win, they crash the BCS, and not just as an after thought. There will be folks who scream that they should be in BCS NC game because I don't think two other teams get through unscathed. Gameday will go there, and Utah will beat them because that is what happens in rivalry games when one team, here BYU, looks past the rival and onto the big stage.

[Ed. - I doubt that BYU is going to look past Utah any time soon. I don't doubt that we could have a 1984 redux, although there is such confidence in the consensus top five this year that it will be hard for BYU to convince voters that they are on the level of Florida, Georgia, Ohio State, Oklahoma, and USC. BYU is going to give up too many points for that to happen.]

Michael's EDGY COLLEGE FOOTBALL COMMENTARY!!!

1. Ole Miss wins eight games and finishes third in the West.

2. North Carolina wins the ACC...whatever their division is called. (I know the other five teams in the division, but I can't keep the names straight.) Sean Glennon surrounded by suspect skill position players is not a recipe for success and the rest of the division is not good. Great coaches tend to break out in year two at a school. Butch Davis might not be a great coach, but he's close and he has a ton of players coming back. The ACC is generally the place to make crazy picks because the elite of the conference is so non-elite.

3. Cal has a resurgence and finishes second in the Pac Ten. They will be 7-1 or 8-0 when they play USC. A pro-Tedford pick is also an annual occurrence.

4. Upset of the year: East Carolina over West Virginia. I was tempted by the idea of Arkansas over Florida because of Petrino's passing game against that secondary, but the game is in early October. If Arkansas is going to pull a big upset, then it will be later in the year.

5. The major coaching casualty this year: Ralph Friedgen. It pains me to say this because I really like Friedgen, but he made the mistake of winning too much too soon and Maryland fans are not accepting of 6-6 anymore. Ferentz would be my guy for this spot if not for a massive buyout that will scare frugal Iowans. I'm tired of picking Phil Fulmer for this spot every year, only to be let down when he saves his job with convenient false starts from his offensive linemen and opponent's field goals bouncing off the iron.

The 2007 Version of Five Outlandish Predictions

My friend Ben and I have an annual tradition of coming up with five ludicrous predictions at the start of every college football season. As you can tell from last year's picks, I'm not always very good at this whole "predicting the future" thing. Undeterred by a track record of failure, we trudge on with 2007:

Ben's Picks:

1. Purdue will finish second in the Big Ten. They have two big road games, at Michigan and at Penn State. If they lose both, I still think they can finish second in a tie with Penn State, as Penn State is at Michigan and has to play Ohio State and Wisconsin. On the other hand, Michigan may lose to Ohio State and Penn State and Purdue ties for second again.

[Ed. - I am not at all high on this pick. I much prefer Iowa as a Big Ten darkhorse.]

2. Nebraska finishes third in the Big Twelve North and Callahan gets the boot. They lose at Wake and USC at home to start the season 1-2. They lose at Columbia, at Texas and at home to A&M. Now they play CU the last game of the year in Boulder, I think CU trips them there and they end the year 6-6. This is the year Callahan's dismantling of the past 40 plus years starts to regress after incremental progress last year. Too tough a schedule for them.

[Ed. - Ben and I are both still offended by the concept of Nebraska running the West Coast Offense. And the irony of the move is that Nebraska abandoned the option because they thought that modern defenses are too fast, but subsequently, the spread option has taken the nation by storm.]

3. Kentucky will finish last in the SEC East. I know this in accordance with Phil Steele, but he is spot on with this one and they are very hyped right now. They are the Charles Rogers Theorem in action.

[Ed. - The CRT is not alarmed because the Cats return a lot on the lines, but we aren't high on a team with a wretched defense that was outgained by 75 yards per game last year.]

4. Arizona State opens 7-0 and gets a ton of media hype, and then proceeds to lose 4 in a row before rebounding to beat Arizona in their finale.

5. Three black head coaches lose their jobs - Croom, Dorrell, and Ty.

[Ed. - Ty is safe for at least this year at Yoo-Dub. Croom is a possibility, especially if Ole Miss looks like they have moved ahead of Miss. State, and Dorrell is an outside possibility although I think that UCLA looks like a good bet for eight to nine wins.]

My Picks:

1. South Carolina wins the East. They take two of three from Georgia, Tennessee, and Florida, they split with LSU and Arkansas, and they finish 6-2 in the league, which is enough to make the title game in am Eastern Division that shows a lot of parity this year. They then lose to Clemson.

[Ed. - I should have put in a caveat to the effect that South Carolina has an unfavorable schedule. Oh, and that they're South Carolina.]

2. Notre Dame wins at least eight games and Evan Sharpley starts every one of them. (If this sounds suspiciously like my "Tereshinski will start every game and Georgia will win the SEC" pick from last year, then you're right.)

[Ed. - It really takes some ineptitude to be wrong before the season even starts, as it appears that Demetrius Jones will be the starter. Let Charlie's Rich Rodriguez impersonation commence!]

3. Vandy goes to a bowl. My concern is that they'll pull one or two upsets and then blow a bowl bid with a loss to a minnow, like they did in 2005.

4. The million dollar donation aside, Philip Fulmer will be fired at the end of the year and replaced by Rich Rodriguez. Bonus: Dennis Franchione will also be looking for employment at the end of the year and Nick Saban will offer him a position as a grad assistant in charge of team laundry.

5. Virginia goes into the rivalry game with Virginia Tech with a chance to win their division. You may have missed it in the avalanche of mediocrity that was the ACC generally and Virginia specifically last year, but the Cavs had an excellent defense. They return almost the entire team from last year, so with any degree of improvement from Jameel Sewell, the team should be good. The schedule is ludicrously easy (7-0 headed to College Park is quite possible) and Al Groh knows that the pressure is on to win. The major factor that concerns me about the Hoos is the fact that, with Jeff Bowden gone, Mike Groh has taken the mantle of "offensive coordinator through nepotism rather than merit" for the conference.

Five Outlandish Predictions, the Sequel

Last summer, my friend Ben and I shared "BOLD PREDICTIONS" before the season, some of which turned out to be quite solid (Louisville will lose two games, Notre Dame finishes in the Top 25, etc.) and some of which were "Dewey Defeats Truman"-esque (USC's defense will be better than their offense by midseason, Texas A&M will win the Big XII South, etc.) Anyway, we exchanged lists again this weekend and I'm starting to worry that Ben and I think too much alike now. We used to have some heated e-mail debates to take the edge off of another day of billing hours. Some of the better topics included:

1. Do pitchers take steroids? I vehemently disagreed with this notion, which Ben used to defend Barry Bonds, and as it turns out, I was wrong.

2. Which is a better head coaching job: Florida or Pitt? I'll stand by my pick of the Florida job. (Now you see why, when I wanted an outlandish pick, I went to Ben.)

3. Could Georgia win the national title in 2003? I never drop this memory, and it also taught me that it never hurts to argue that a team isn't going to win the national title because the odds are always in your favor.

4. Is the spread offense dead? We probably both claim victory on this one. I take the position that the spread is alive and well, especially the run-based version used by Texas and West Virginia last year, but Texas Tech is doing well with the passing version. Ben narrowly defines the spread as the short passing system used by Purdue in the late 90s and also claims victory because Purdue's offense is in the toilet and every fanbase now hates the bubble screen.

5. Is Larry Coker one of the top coaches in college football? I'll stand by the tape of the Miami-Georgia Tech game from last year.

Anyway, when I saw Ben's picks, I was equal-parts mortified and amused, because I agreed with all of them and strongly considered making a couple of them myself, such as Kentucky going bowling. We're also in agreement on the merits of the Climpsun Tigers this year, which ought to set off riots of joy on Lake Hartwell.

Anyway, here are Ben's picks:

1. Last year I said that Butch Davis would be coaching Texas this year if Mack did not beat OU. Fell on my face on that one, but I think he is the top coaching prospect out there and will end up at either Miami or Arizona St. Miami if they do not win their division at the very least and Arizona St. is clearly in disarray right now.

2. Kentucky, yes Kentucky, will come perilously close to making a bowl and saving Brooks' job, at least for one year. I think they beat Ole Miss at home and the way their schedule breaks, 4 wins should be against crap foes, including Vandy. That means their game vs. Miss. St. will really mean a lot.

3. 4 coaches in the Pac-10 will be out of a job at year's end (40% of the league), or almost half of the league and Oregon, Cal and USC will be light years ahead of everybody else. Wash St., Arizona St., Stanford and UCLA - they will be atrocious.

[Ed. - I actually think that Stanford will be pretty decent this year, at least by scoring a lot of points.]

4. Colorado will win the Big 12 North. Nebraska will be humiliated in their opener vs. SC and it will spiral downhill from there (delusionary momentum from beating a crap Michigan team).

[Ed. - I can't disagree with this, with the only caveat being that I'm not sure that CU will pick up Dan Hawkins' offense fully in year one. Their defense should be very good...or at least it's very good on the Playstation.]

5. Clemson will win the ACC. In what will be a down year for the league, Clemson will have no chance of playing for a National title, but will win the ACC and placate the fans who want Bowden's head.

6. WVU will lose two games this year. Two out of the following three will be losses - Maryland, Louisville, Rutgers.

7. Finally, Miss. State beats So. Carolina on Thursday, Spurier has never won in Starkville and that tradition will continue. Georgia wins the East and will have a chance to play for the National Title if they win the SEC Championship game.

Here are mine:

1. Baylor goes to a bowl game. Guy Morriss is doing a good job there. (I was shocked to find out when reading the Steele Testament that they took Oklahoma to overtime in Norman.) I'm interested to see how their Texas Tech imitation looks on offense. The one problem is that they play Wazzu on the road and TCU at home in the non-conference schedule, so they won't get four free wins. Incidentally, Indiana is also going bowling this year. Look at their schedule; 6-0 is a strong possibility (before they finish 7-5).

2. Matthew Stafford redshirts this year. Take it from the guy who thought that Blake Barnes would be starting midway through last season. (Incidentally, from what I'm hearing about Eric Ainge, Jonathan Crompton might be taking snaps for the Vols by October.)

3. LSU wins at Auburn. Everyone is picking Auburn to win the West and my inherent skepticism is high. Both teams lose a lot on their lines, but I have a good feeling about Jamarcus this year. I think he takes a big step. The pressure of Matt Flynn's Peach Bowl performance will be good for him.

4. Iowa beats Ohio State and Michigan and goes to the Rose Bowl. I like their lines better than Michigan or Ohio State's, plus they have the senior quarterback.

5. Neither Florida team in the ACC wins their division. Say hi to a Virginia Tech-Clemson ACC Championship game that is ABC's worst nightmare and thousands of Toby Keith fans' wet dream.

Outlandish Predictions 'R Us

Not wanting the ESPN Gameday crew to be the only ones putting their reputations on the line, my friend Ben and I exchanged "BOLD PREDICTIONS" last week. Here are his, along with my comments:

1. Iowa loses 4 conference games - Michigan, Ohio State, Purdue and either Wisconsin or Minnesota. I think the Hawkeyes are overrated (my overrated column will either run this week on CFN or I'll post it online before the season starter; it has Iowa on top of the list,) but four losses goes too far, given how good Kirk Ferentz is. I could possibly buy three. I also view the Iowa game as Michigan's most certain loss this year.

2. Texas A&M wins/ties the Big 12 South title - a nice pick in light of the Texas overhype, but I have concerns about their defense.

3. USC loses two games this year - interesting in light of Chow's departure, but the effects of that won't be fully felt for a year or two.

4. Wyoming plays UF close, and that is their only loss of the year - I have no reason to doubt that Florida will have some kinks to work out on offense and that Urban Meyer might sandbag a little in advance of the Tennessee game, but is Wyoming really that good? 7-5 in the MWC last year?

5. Alabama wins/ties for the SEC West - insert obligatory reference to Brodie Croyle's health.

My outlandish predictions:

1. By mid-season, USC's defense is better than their offense, despite the fact that almost all of their off-season losses were on the defensive side of the ball. This one is based on the idea that they'll miss Norm Chow more as the season goes on and they don't have his brain to make adjustments to the way that defenses attack USC, and that Pete Carroll will do a great job with the SC defense, but he'll need a little time to get them up to speed.

2. Notre Dame finishes in the top 25. I may be overrating Charlie Weis, but they have a very experienced offense and should score a lot of points. 8-3 doesn't seem improbable to me and that will create excessive expectations for Weis that will be hard to match, given what their depth chart on the offensive line looks like for 2006 and 2007. Thanks, Ty!

3. Maryland wins their division; I can't remember if it's Atlantic or Coastal. I'm predicting bad things for Florida State this year and one of the teams in their division is going to take advantage. One good review of Sam Hollenbach is enough for me to make this pick, although I'm also tempted by Clemson, which seems to be lying in the weeds and which improved their coordinators significantly in the off-season.

4. Louisville loses at least two games. I just don't believe that mid-majors can be great two years in a row, especially with an upgraded schedule. This is the pick about which I feel the least confident.

5. Cal wins the Pac Ten. Just chalk this one up to an abiding confidence in Jeff Tedford.