College Football Preview

As I have already stated, I hate pre-season rankings. I think in a sport with such high turnover, it is dumb to try and predict who is going to be good the coming year. The worst part about this, is pre-season rankings can have an impact on the National Title game. I personally don’t think any rankings should be produced until at least week 6. Will this happen? No, because pre-season rankings sell magazines and produce hits on websites. So instead of ranking teams, I am going to discuss teams and players who you should keep an eye on for next season as well as pick my conference champions.



ACC

I think the ACC, along with the Pac-10, will be the most competitive Automatic Qualifier (AQ, AKA the improper term BCS) conference this season. I could see any team winning the conference and see any number of teams winning either division. Georgia Tech is the defending champion and my pick to win the conference. Paul Johnson has gotten better each season in Atlanta and has one of the toughest offense to prepare for. UNC is a popular pick to win it as Butch Davis has settled in with some great recruiting classes. Miami, Clemson, Va Tech and FSU (needs a D though) should all be better this year. I could see any of these teams winning it. The one thing I expect from the ACC this year is a lot of close entertaining games, so the real winner (get ready for the lameness) will be the fans.

Champ: Georgia Tech

Big XII

The last year of the Big XII before it loses two members should be a good one. Nebraska, on its way out to join the Big Ten, is predicted to win the Big XII north based on the strength of the blackshirts even with the loss of Suh. Bo Pelini needs to find more ways to score then last season as the offense was the reason they didn’t win more. Phil Steele (One of College Football’s best prognosticators) has Oklahoma as his #1 team in the year. Who am I to disagree with him. The biggest weakness from last year’s team was O-Line is now one year better. Landry Jones (hopefully he will still be rocking his awesome mustache) also has a year of experience under him in a Bob Stoops offense that has never struggled to score points. Texas should be good again, but will suffer a drop off after losing the QB with the most wins in NCAA history in Colt McCoy. The team is stacked with Texas talent (all but 3 of the top 2 lines on the depth chart are from Texas) but will have to win the Red River Rivalry game if they want to win the South. Baylor will not be competing for the Big XII title but will be a team to watch because they have my personal favorite player in NCAA this year Robert Griffin.

Champs: Oklahoma

Bring the Big Ten/ACC Challenge to Football

Noffke got me thinking recently about how messed up major college football scheduling has become. The Big Five conference teams try to schedule mostly puff cakes who will come play in their stadiums without requiring a home-and-home series.

It's a shame, because I think that as a college football fan the best games to watch are those random major conference matchups early in the season. I have to give a lot of credit to Indiana University here for agreeing to a H-n-H with Virginia of the Atlantic Coast Conference, which starts this season. Hoosiers-Cavaliers isn't exactly a glorious matchup, but it should at least be more interesting than other early season games against the likes of Western Kentucky (ranked last by Athlon among FBS teams) or William and Mary for UVA (didn't my high school play them?).

So here's my solution. In college basketball, which already has a much better end of season setup than football, one popular scheduling idea over the last decade or so has been the conference 'Challenges,' most notably the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. Granted, this series has not gone very well for the Midwesterners–only Michigan State has a winning record.

But take a look at the matchups we'd get if we brought the inter-conference challenge to football! Hey. It works for Major League Baseball and gets butts in seats. Cubs-Sox are six of the best (and most watched!) games of the season in Chicago. Why wouldn't interleague work just as well for college football?

Here's how the matchups would shake out for this coming year, roughly based on last year's records. Best plays best, Duke is out because they finished last in the ACC.

1. Virginia Tech vs. Penn State: A great matchup of perennial contenders and great coaches in Joe Paterno and Frank Beamer.

2. Ohio State vs. Georgia Tech: Up and coming program in GT gets the Big Ten's best team, according to preseason rankings.

3. Florida State vs. Michigan State: Both teams are expected to be good this year.

4. Northwestern vs. Boston College: Excellent academics, solid football teams. BC lost a lot (coach, star defensive tackle) in the offseason. NU looks much improved on defense since changing coordinators, but lost most of its veteran offensive skill position players.

5. North Carolina vs. Iowa: Another great coaching matchup featuring Kirk Ferentz of Iowa against Butch Davis of UNC.

6. Wisconsin vs. Clemson: It's like a late-December bowl, only you can afford the tickets and tailgate at a great stadium, whoever the home team happens to be. Death Valley and Camp Randall are both awesome facilities.

7. Maryland vs. Minnesota: See above.

8. Illinois vs. Wake Forest: Wake is a much better opponent than either Illinois State or Fresno State, both of whom are on the Illini's schedule this season. Not that that's saying much.

9. Purdue vs. Miami (FL): Randy Shannon is on the hot seat, while Purdue is starting their first season without Joe "Orville Redenbacher" Tiller on the sidelines.

10. Michigan vs. NC State: Wolfpack was decent last season, and Michigan has to be better in Rich Rodriguez's second season.

11. Indiana vs. Virginia: This matchup is actually happening, as they start a home and home this year.