Finally Here: Prediction Time

It's back and not a moment too soon.  Thursday night marks the start of college football season with only one ranked team playing, however all college football fans breathing a collective sigh of relief that the season is finally.  The main course will come on Saturday when the vast majority of teams will do battle for the first time this season.

With the season finally here its time to make a few predictions so here we go...

Ohio State will play in a third straight national title game.

The Bucks are flat out solid this year, not that they have not been in years past.  However, the defense is even that much more experienced while the offense will be improved.  After winning in the Coliseum the Bucks will escape a couple of close calls in route to an undefeated season in the Big Ten.

Arizona State will disappoint.

Tempe seems to want to make people think their college football team is for real and officially back in 2008.  Well, the team is as good as they've been in recent memory but are not good enough to scratch the surface atop the Pac-10 just yet.  USC is still light years ahead of them which was shown last Thanksgiving.  Anything better than an 8-4 record screams success to me with this team.

Illinois will be kept out of the BCS in 2008.

4 losses, go ahead and write it down.  The Illini running game has a major loss in Rashard Mendenhall that many like to suddenly forget about.  I'm not going to call out the Illini and say they are the less talented team on the field in half the losses they will encounter, but trips to St. Louis to play Mizzou, Happy Valley, The Big House, and Wisconsin will haunt any team, no matter the talent level.  Then throw in a home bout with Ohio State and the Illini are headed for an 8-4 regular season.

Alabama will improve their record in 2008, but not by much.

Everyone wants to talk about how much improved Alabama is going to be in 2008.  Sure they will be better but this team is still not ready to compete for an SEC crown.  After falling out of the top 25 this weekend after a loss to Clemson, Alabama will have trouble sniffing a ranking again as they will drop contests at Georgia, Tennessee, and LSU while losing yet again on their homefield to Auburn.  Sure they will escape the Independence Bowl but aren't ready to seriously compete for a BCS game, pencil them in at 7-5.

Auburn will win the SEC West.

Auburn enters 2008 flying under many teams radars but with a new spread offense look for them to turn lots of heads.  Projected by most to play second fiddle to LSU in the division, Auburn gets the Tigers as well as Tennessee and Georgia all at home.  Plenty of tough teams for sure but Jordan-Hare Stadium has turned into a very underappreciated place to play a college football game.  Led by this new offense and a standout D, these Tigers will be playing in Atlanta on the first Saturday in December.

Missouri and Oklahoma will match up in the Big XII Title Game with National Championship Implications on the Line.

Mizzou gets the benefit of an easier regular season, only having Texas and Kansas on their schedule of the big guns of the Big XII.  Get by the Longhorns on October 18th in Austin and the National Championship trophy gets to look that much brighter for the Tigers.

Oklahoma faces a tougher schedule but also offers a more talented team than that of Missouri.  Led by Sam Bradford and company the Sooners will roll by the Longhorns this year while just narrowly escaping the Red Raiders in Norman on November 22nd.  All signs point to a match up of teams with at a max, one combined loss in the title game of the Big XII.

Tim Tebow will not win a second Heisman Trophy...this year.

Not because he will take a step back as a player but because of the makeup of the Florida Gators, do not expect to see Tim Tebow accepting a second Heisman Trophy this year.  Florida has a couple of legit running backs in their backfield this year, something that was not there a year ago.  Expect to see Tebow's production carrying the ball fall off drastically this year and expect to see someone else walk out of New York with the hardware.

West Virginia will see their title hopes fall on September 18th.

Ranked eighth to start the year West Virginia is going to need a little bit of help if they are to play for the national championship in January.  Unfortunately for the Mountaineers they will lose in Boulder in the battle of Mountain Ranges to the Colorado Buffaloes and because of that loss not play for the championship, even after winning the Big East.

Notre Dame will return to a New Year's Day Bowl.

Yes the Irish flat out sucked a year ago but this year they bring a more experienced team to games on Saturday's.  The schedule is also easier for the Fighting Irish, having only USC and Michigan as ranked opponents on this years schedule.  Expect to see the Irish O-Line improve and in turn the skill position players offensively will be better as well.  Perhaps because they are Notre Dame they can get into the Gator Bowl with even an 8-4 record but a year from now this will be a team that nearly nobody wants to see on their schedule.

2008 will be nowhere near as insane as 2007.

Appalachian State won't beat LSU and USC won't lose at home despite being a 40+ point favorite this year.  And we also won't see nearly every #2 ranked team in the nation fall, nor will a two loss team win a national title.  As fun as 2007 was for all college football fans, 2008 will get back to normality.

National Title Pick (To Laugh at by Week 4):

Ohio State over Auburn

Chris Wells takes home the Heisman