Preseason Predictions Topic

American - Louisville
ACC - Clemson
Big Ten - Ohio State
Big 12 - Texas
Pac 12 - Oregon
SEC - Alabama

At Large - Florida, Michigan, Stanford, Oklahoma

National Title - Alabama over Ohio State
Rose - Oregon over Michigan
Orange - Oklahoma over Clemson
Sugar - Stanford over Florida
Fiesta - Louisville over Texas

8/20/2013 4:13 PM
Florida has a good shot at being 3rd in the East.

I'm not sure Clemson's D can stand their up tempo offensive.

There aren't a lot of potential losses on OSU's schedule but even Urban Meyers says they're not ready to compete for the Natty. 

No way Michigan is a top 10 team. 
8/20/2013 4:25 PM
Texas? Ha!

Louisville has a great shot at an undefeated season since they're a good team with a crap schedule.
8/20/2013 8:19 PM
Posted by MikeT23 on 8/20/2013 4:25:00 PM (view original):
Florida has a good shot at being 3rd in the East.

I'm not sure Clemson's D can stand their up tempo offensive.

There aren't a lot of potential losses on OSU's schedule but even Urban Meyers says they're not ready to compete for the Natty. 

No way Michigan is a top 10 team. 
I think Florida will surprise this year obviously.  Not sure they will win the East, but I think a 10-2 season is quite possible. 

I'm not entirely sold on Clemson either, but I think they have the best team in the ACC and there are no great teams in the conference.

I don't think Ohio State loses and an unbeaten Ohio State will more than likely play for the national title even if they don't have the horses to be a real threat.  Of course I don't really think anyone is a real threat to Alabama this year.  They are significantly better than everyone else at this point.

Michigan doesn't have to be a top ten team to make the Rose Bowl, they just need to be in the top 14 and that they will likely be with a 9/10 win season which is certainly quite possible for them (if Ohio State isn't in the national title then Michigan is a less likely pick especially if ND is also eligible, the Rose Bowl loves to replace lost teams with teams from the same conference and does so whenever possible).
8/21/2013 8:28 AM
I see a lot of potential losses on Michigan's schedule.   ND/OSU at home, MState/Northwestern on the road.   I don't really know about Nebraska or Iowa but, historically, they aren't pushovers either. 

Clemson's defense just isn't very good.   They might lead the nation in scoring but they wear their suspect defense down by running so up tempo.    Like FSU, they always lose to someone they should stomp.   But, like you said, there's no one outstanding in the ACC.   The winner of the Clemson/FSU game should go to the Orange.

I like Oregon/Alabama.   Of course, Oregon has a few land mines along the way that could screw up their unbeaten season.

I think SC is much better than Florida and, if GA can replace all the players they lost on D, they're much better also.   GA should score a ton of points.
8/21/2013 8:41 AM
Clemson/Georgia this weekend should be a pretty darn good gauge for those two teams.  Should be interesting.
8/30/2013 11:58 AM
I'll throw some picks out there.

I think it'll be one of Oregon or Stanford (I'll pick Stanford since they are at home) vs Louisville for the NC.

Oklahoma wins the Big 12, and their BCS bowl game.
8/30/2013 12:31 PM

Voters dying to move someone from another conference ahead of SEC schools.  Clemson's offense looked good(38 pts, 467 yds) against a D with 9 new starters.  However, they gave up 545 yards and, if not for a botch 20 yd FG attempt, still gave up 35.    Jumping on that bandwagon and moving them to #4, jumping Stanford, SC and TAMU seems awful premature.

9/4/2013 4:05 PM
I'm of the mindset of having more flow within the rankings. I'd have Clemson #1 right now, because they are a very good team with the best resume of anyone. They'll fall down quick as other teams play harder schedules while Clemson (likely) beats up on turds in the ACC.
9/5/2013 12:19 AM
#8 beat #5 so they moved up to #4.  This early in the season, I don't think there's much more analysis being done than that.   I think if the voters had been dying to put Clemson in front of some other SEC teams, they could have done so in the preseason poll.  And they only moved past Stanford in the AP poll, which counts for nothing anyhow.
9/5/2013 7:07 AM
I'm not a big fan of pre-season rankings but, IMO, Clemson proved what most people thought.   Great offense, suspect defense.   That deserves a 4 spot jump over a team that didn't play(fair enough), the team they beat(sure), a team that ran roughshod over another ACC team and a team that smoked a cupcake?   I can accept moving them ahead of Stanford and Georgia.  

But, the way their schedule is, they'll likely stay there until their games against FSU and/or SC.    Based on what I saw, they're not a top 5 team.
9/5/2013 7:54 AM
I'm not saying it was deserved, I'm just saying based on the pre-season rankings (also not a fan) I don't think there has to be some agenda in play to move Clemson up given where they were ranked.  

Speaking of defenses, A+M gave up over 500 yards and 31 points to Rice, and it wasn't like that was all garbage time.  Obviously that whole game has an asterisk on it because of the Manziel suspension, but I really don't see an issue moving Clemson over A+M (who was only 1 ahead of them to begin with) based on those results.  Moving them over South Carolina is the toughest to justify IMO.
9/5/2013 8:23 AM
I think TAMU is overranked and, eventually, it will show.    Giving up a bunch to Rice isn't a good thing but, as you said, that was a circus game.
9/5/2013 8:43 AM
I have no problem with moving Clemson up, the surprise was just how damn far Georgia fell.  I mean they lost to a top ten team on the road in a very close game that could have gone either way.  Seems harsh that they fell that damn much.

And I wouldn't necessarily call Clemson's defense terrible.  Sure they gave up a lot of points and a lot of yards, but they were also playing one of the better offenses in the country.  They weren't playing some crap school with a horrid offense.  I mean a lesser Georgia offense put up 28 points and 400 yards against Alabama last year and Bama had perhaps the best overall defense in the country.

9/5/2013 9:11 AM (edited)
If I was a voter I would go through every single game at the beginning of the year and project what I believed the final record of every team would be and then use that final record and their schedules to come up with a ranking.  I would then make adjustments based on only actual results and change my rankings based on only those.  So if I had Clemson beating Georgia, I wouldn't have changed the rankings of either of those teams unless a team ahead of them lost a game I didn't project.
9/5/2013 9:14 AM
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