College Football 2010: So it begins

[Guynemer]

We're one week away from the start of the college football season. Time for us to make some predictions and whatnot.


My Wolverines... yikes. I think the offense will be more consistent, and turn the ball over less. They'll score often. However, the defense will remain completely atrocious, especially in the secondary. At my most optimistic, I see 8-4 with them pulling off an upset or two against the big boys in the conference. Realistically, I see 5-7 and the blessed end of the RichRod era.

OSU will win the Big Ten, but won't go undefeated. In fact, I have a hard time seeing any team go undefeated this year, with the possible exceptions of Alabama (biggest hurdle: at LSU) and TCU (Utah). I don't think Boise State will be able to win their season opener on the East Coast against the Hokies, but if they do, they'll cruise to 12-0.

[SlowwHand]

USC! Oh wait, that's right. They're hosed.

[Guynemer]

Yeah, ain't that a *****?

[Al B. Sure!]

Temple will win the MAC by running it down everybody's throats Navy-style.

Hey, the MAC matters! There's good teams in the MAC!

So what if Temple couldn't hang with the big boys in the Big East and had to go to the MAC! Temple will kick ass in the MAC this year.

[Guynemer]

So we have the Big Ten divisions, and it is not at all what I expected:

#1
Iowa
Michigan
Michigan State
Minnesota
Nebraska
Northwestern

#2
Illinois
Indiana
Ohio State
Penn State
Purdue
Wisconsin



In the short term, division #1 appears to be significantly stronger, especially on the "back end" (both in the past ~20 seasons and the more immediate past), with MSU and NW being fairly regular spoilers and bowl game participants, and Michigan expected to turn things around this season or (more likely, in my opinion) next. But, time will tell.


Paging Drake. Paging Drake. Looks like you and I will now have a yearly date of trash-talking to look forward to.

[MRT144]

Northwest and Southeast divisions? I like the Bo and Woody divisions personally.

[Imran Siddiqui]

The other interesting news is BYU is independant:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=5520453

Signs an 8 year deal with ESPN. Possible 6 deal to play Notre Dame every year. BYU will be joining the West Coast Conference (home to Gonzaga and St. Mary's) for everything other than football.

Definitely weakens the WAC's bid to be a BCS conference (even after adding Fresno and Nevada).

[Guynemer]

You mean the MWC, not the WAC.

I too prefer the Bo and Woody divisions, especially since they split up UM and OSU.

[Guynemer]

Hawai'i stalls out inside the 10, trail USC 6-3.

Piit down 3 at Utah, has the ball with 2 minutes left.

Chalk held across the country, as no I-A team lost to a I-AA team. (Or FBS to FCS, if you insist.)

[Guynemer]

I'm still trying to parse the BYU move. They'll have games against ND and Utah, but who else are they going to be able to schedule? I'm doubtful.

[Boris Godunov]

Uh... wow, Arizona looks... incredible--they just demolished Toledo 41-2. Foles seems to have matured mightily. Depending on how things shake out tomorrow, they may be the early favorite to win the Pac-10.

[Guynemer]

Dude.


It's Toledo. They had a losing record last season--in the MAC.

[SlowwHand]

Demolished Toledo. Happy times are here again.

[Boris Godunov]

Dude.


It's Toledo. They had a losing record last season--in the MAC.

Did you see the game? AZ was on fire, offensively and defensively. Sure it was against a weaker opponent, but that's the kind of score you'd expect a top 5 team might run up on them, not Arizona.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Let's put this even more in context, Northern Illinois, who was 7-5 in the MAC last season (before getting demolished by South Florida in the International Bowl), got themselves beat down 27-10 to Iowa State (Iowa State was up 17-0 at the half and cruised in the 2nd - Arizona was up 17-2 against Toledo at the half).