College Football Preview

With the college football season less than a week away, I realized that I needed to write down my thoughts on the upcoming season.  Fall is absolutely my favorite time of the year, with the MLB playoffs starting, the NFL picking up, hockey starting again, and yes, college football will be in full force.  I recently told my wife (also a big college football fan) that this past Saturday is the last free Saturday I have for 13 weeks or so and she agreed.  With that being said, I thought it was a good idea to write a projection article on the college football season.  I am most familiar with the Big 10 conference, considering where I live and where I am from.  When I came across areas of the sport where I felt less confident then I turned to various websites (247sports, cbssports, athlonsports) to help me with the process.

American Athletic Conference (AAC)

2015 Results		2016 Projections
East Division	West Division	East Division	West Division
Temple	Houston	Temple	Houston
South Florida	Navy	South Florida	Navy
Cincinnati	Memphis	Cincinnati	Memphis
Connecticut	Tulsa	Connecticut	Tulsa
East Carolina	Tulane	East Carolina	SMU
Central Florida	SMU	Central Florida	Tulane

Conference Champion: Houston over Temple

Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC)

2015 Results		2016 Projections
Atlantic Division	Coastal Division	Atlantic Division	Coastal Division
Clemson	UNC	Clemson	Miami
Florida State	Pittsburgh	Florida State	UNC
Louisville	Miami	NC State	Pittsburgh
NC State	Duke	Louisville	Virginia Teach
Syracuse	Virginia Tech	Boston College	Duke
Wake Forest	Virginia	Wake Forest	Georgia Tech
Boston College	Georgia Tech	Syracuse	Virginia

Conference Champion: Clemson over Miami

BIG 10 Conference

2015 Results		2016 Projections
East Division	West Division	East Division	West Division
Michigan State	Iowa	Michigan	Iowa
Ohio State	Northwestern	Ohio State	Nebraska
Michigan	Wisconsin	Michigan State	Wisconsin
Penn State	Nebraska	Penn State	Northwestern
Indiana	Minnesota	Indiana	Minnesota
Rutgers	Illinois	Maryland	Illinois
Maryland	Purdue	Rutgers	Purdue

Conference Champion: Michigan over Iowa

Big 12 Conference

2015 Results	2016 Projections
Oklahoma	Oklahoma
Oklahoma State	TCU
TCU	Texas
Baylor	Oklahoma State
West Virginia	West Virginia
Texas Tech	Baylor
Texas	Kansas State
Kansas State	Texas Tech
Iowa State	Iowa State
Kansas	Kansas

Conference Champion: Oklahoma

Pacific Athletic Conference (PAC-12)

2015 Results		2016 Projections
North Division	South Division	North Division	South Division
Stanford	USC	Stanford	USC
Oregon	Utah	Washington	UCLA
Washington State	UCLA	Oregon	Utah
California	Arizona State	California	Arizona State
Washington	Arizona	Washington State	Arizona
Oregon State	Colorado	Oregon State	Colorado

Conference Champion: Stanford over USC

Southeastern Conference (SEC)

2015 Results		2016 Projections
East Division	West Division	East Division	West Division
Florida	Alabama	Tennessee	LSU
Tennessee	Ole Miss	Georgia	Ole Miss
Georgia	Arkansas	Florida	Alabama
Vanderbilt	LSU	Missouri	Arkansas
Kentucky	Texas A&M	South Carolina	Texas A&M
Missouri	Mississippi State	Kentucky	Auburn
South Carolina	Auburn	Vanderbilt	Mississippi State

Conference Champion: LSU over Tennessee

College Football Playoff Projections

#1 Clemson	#2 LSU
#3 Stanford	#4 Michigan

Semifinals:

• Clemson vs. Michigan - Clemson win
• LSU vs. Stanford - Stanford win

Championship Game:

• Clemson vs. Stanford - Clemson win