Finally...college football season kicks off this weekend.
Predictions: 1) The Gators will be awesome (more like a fact than a prediction...I'm not biased or anything!) 2) Terrelle Pryor will not win the Heisman. 3) Ohio State will not win the National Championship.
Anyone who disagrees with me....find me at the end of the season and I would love to hit you with a very loud, "TOLD YA SO."
Let's recap last season...
Big East: Not impressive. The best team in the conference was absolutely destroyed in the Sugar Bowl.
ACC: Also not impressive. Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech weren't terrible, but I wouldn't call this a power conference.
Pac-10: Terrible. USC is typically the star of this conference. The trojans were so bad their coach abandoned them. The conference didn't have one team finish in the top ten! Good luck to the Pac-10 (especially USC) this year after inheriting the worst possible coach.
Big 12: Overrated. Texas was lucky to escape Nebraska, and Colt McCoy knew he couldn't handle an SEC team - so he faked an injury to avoid being blamed for the national championship loss. The NFL saw right through his act...and he barely got drafted. Good luck in the pros, Colt.
SEC: Totally dominant. Now, you may say I'm biased because I'm a UF alumna, but I will state a fact for you: The SEC has won the last four national championships. Alabama rightfully finished number 1. For the life of me, I cannot figure out how voters put Texas ahead of Florida. It was pretty clear to me that Texas would not have been able to handle any of the top 5 teams in the SEC, but such is voter bias. Boise State, perhaps, could have argued for a spot at #2. Unfortunately for the Broncos, playing an overrated (but still decent) TCU team didn't quite qualify them for a second place finish.
Last...(and probably least...)
Big Ten: What a joke of a conference. Granted, they were better than the Pac-10 and Big East, maybe even the ACC....but I still can't figure out why this conference gets so much hype. Everyone wanted to talk about Iowa all season. Was I the only person watching their first game of the season last year? They just BARELY beat Northern Iowa. This isn't basketball, so I just can't respect that. Did anyone see their fifth game last year? With their narrow victory over Arkansas State? Absolutely pathetic. And they went to a BCS game. Had they played anyone in the SEC or even Big 12, they would have been destroyed. They were lucky Georgia Tech was as overrated as they were. Unfortunately for college football fans, the voters continued to have a significant bias toward the big ten. After a win over Western Michigan and a tight victory over also-overrated Notre Dame, Michigan broke into the top 25 in week 2. Seriously, voters, what potential did you see there?? My guess: NONE. Voters just love to put big names in the top 25 to excite fans. Especially at the start of season when rankings mean absolutely nothing. The Big Ten has a lot of fans, so I guess they're looking for viewership. But these so-called "experts" ranked Michigan in multiple weeks. What was their final record - 5 and 7? Penn State had a decent season, but I'm not sure how they were considered a top ten team with such a weak schedule. I won't bash them too much because I do love Peachy Paterno ice cream. And then of course, there is the biggest offender of them all. The devil of all college sports. The ALWAYS OVERRATED Ohio State Buckeyes. Seriously. I've had enough with the Buckeyes. We get the point: They spend a lot of money on athletic programs, recruit a FEW good athletes, and have a very good public relations team. Please, stop giving them so much credit for their ancient history. They played no one last year. The whole conference has been down for a few years now, so I can't call them a good team based on shutting out Illinois or barely beating Iowa (and wasn't Stanzi out that game?). But in their non-conference schedule...should I really be impressed with a 45-0 victory over New Mexico State? I'm pretty sure New Mexico State only won 3 games last year - and I think they were all by a margin of 3 points. Navy almost beat Ohio State in the opening game. USC, who was terrible, DID beat Ohio State in a game that almost put me to sleep. And they had a not-so-impressive win over Oregon, another team from last year's worst conference. Congratulations Ohio State on being repeatedly rewarded for doing absolutely nothing besides having a huge fan base. And to rank them a preseason #2 this year? Were they just distracted by Terrelle Pryor's jersey when they did the rankings? I will say this: Terrelle Pryor is a great athlete. But he's not a quarterback. He is a glorified running back, and I'm not sure he could throw a ball well if his life depended on it. For his sake, I hope he learns to throw before entering the NFL draft because he could be a great player. Sidenote: I also hope he learns what school he goes to. I will never forget that he announced he'd be attending "The University of Ohio State."
Can you tell I hate Ohio State? They are good at nothing, overrated at everything. Quite frankly, I'm sick of hearing it. I don't want to hear all the "experts" predicting Ohio State will beat Alabama in the national championship. These are the same experts who predicted the Buckeyes would beat my Gators in the national championship a few short years ago. You would think the 41-14 BLOWOUT followed by a pounding from the LSU Tigers the following year would shut up these "experts," but apparently they won't stop saying Ohio State will win the championship until they're right. Looks like we'll be listening to this nonsense for a while!
Wow, felt good to get all that Ohio State hate off my chest! I won't sit here and tell you who I think will win each conference, each bowl game, or even each game. My only 3 predictions thus far are listed at the top of this blog post. The season has not started yet, so every "expect prediction" is simply speculation.
With all that said....Go Gators!! (Go Scarlet Knights & Go Huskers!)
