2023 Season Predictions

Well here we are, the last weekend of 2023 without a single college football game.  Week 0 is just around the corner, and then the season, CCGs, Army-Navy, and finally the bowls!  Even with all the talk of the future conferences and larger Playoff, there's still plenty to look forward to for this year!

Conference Predictions

While next year will bring a lot of membership changes, this year brings at least one change of its own.  The ACC and Mountain West will now use a "Top 2" format instead of Divisions.  This leaves the SEC, Big Ten, MAC, and Sun Belt as the last four conferences to use Divisions. 

To that end, here are my official picks for the different conference races:

ACC: Clemson over Louisville (UL avoiding FSU and Clemson really helps)

Big Ten: Ohio State over Iowa

Big 12: Kansas State over Texas

PAC-12: Washington over USC 

SEC: Alabama over Georgia

American: Tulane over East Carolina

Conference USA: Western Kentucky over Middle Tennessee

MAC: Ohio over Toledo

Mountain West: Boise State over Air Force

Sun Belt: Troy over Appalachian State

CFP/NY6 Picks

The last year of the 4-team CFP (and by extension, the NY6 as a set of "premium" non-playoff bowls) is a Rose/Sugar semifinal year.  That gives us the largest at-large possibilities.

Rose: 1 Ohio State vs 4 Kansas State (a newcomer, and a team looking to bookend the 4-team CFP era with titles)

Sugar: 2 Alabama vs 3 Clemson (might as well send off the 4-team CFP with the rubber match of its most frequent pairing)

Orange: Florida State vs Georgia

Cotton: Texas A&M vs Washington (avoids the Washington-Boise State week 1 rematch)

Peach: Michigan vs LSU

Fiesta: Boise State vs Texas (keeping Texas and TA&M apart allows their SEC matchup to be their grand reunion)

Other/Miscellaneous Predictions

• Despite 2 losses and no conference title, Georgia gets a lot of publicity by media wanting to see them try for the three-peat
• Air Force and Boise State meet as 11-win teams, allowing their CCG to assure the winner the G5 NY6 spot.  Tulane is close, but they suffer a non-conference and conference loss along the way.
• Championship Saturday is one for the ages, as there is a viable path for at least 10 teams to make the CFP depending on their own game and other games.
• JMU and others once again demonstrate why the move-up rule regarding postseason eligibility should be revisited.
• Once again, at least one 5-7 team will be needed for a bowl. 
• Coach Prime will improve Colorado, but not quite enough to get to bowl eligibility.
• Northwestern, despite its turmoil, will NOT go winless against FBS competition. They'll upset someone - and it will not be pretty for that other team!
• Homer pick: Virginia Tech will improve enough in Year 2 under Pry to become bowl-eligible.

As always, it's great to have football back!  Here's to another season full of classics, upsets, speculation, and just plain fun watching teams come up from the depths!