College Football 2012: Predicting Every Non-BCS Conference Champion

The vast majority of college football's attention is constantly fixated on the power conferences. The SEC, Big 10, Big 12 and Pac-12 dominate the headlines and rightfully so—when it comes down to it they are the conferences competing in the biggest games and generating the most money.

In recent years, the little guys have made their presence known on the national landscape as non-BCS schools have crashed the party and gained national notoriety as teams that are capable of playing great football. Teams like TCU, Boise State and Utah have shown that the best Non-Automatic Qualifier teams are worth keeping an eye on.

While the traditional non-BCS powers have either been re-aligned into the big time or are looking to replace quality starters, there are still a few teams to keep an eye on as the 2012 season begins.

Here are early predictions for the winner of each Non-BCS conference.

Conference USA: Tulsa Golden Hurricane

Conference USA hasn't traditionally produced BCS crashing teams, but make no mistake they are one of the deepest non-BCS conferences in all of college football.

Last year Houston made quite the splash by going 12-0 in the regular season before being upset by Southern Miss in the conference championship game. Including Houston, the conference boasted four teams with eight wins or more and the field of teams jockeying for a position in the 2012 conference championship should be just as deep.

SMU, UCF, East Carolina, Houston and Southern Miss will all make a strong push for the championship, but the Tulsa Golden Hurricane will step up to take the title in 2012.

Replacing quarterback G.J. Kinne will be no easy task for the Golden Hurricane, but Nebraska transfer Cody Green will be up to the challenge. At 6'4" 230 pounds, Green is a sturdy athlete with good mobility that makes him a great fit to run Tulsa's versatile offense.

Outside of Kinne, the Golden Hurricane bring plenty of talent back on the offensive side of the football. Two returning runningbacks, Ja'Terian Douglas and Trey Watts, combined for a total of 1,764 rushing yards last season. Throw in the return of H-Back Willie Carter who had over 800 yards receiving and seven touchdowns last season and Tulsa has more than enough offensive firepower to light up Conference USA defenses.

The Golden Hurricane fell just short of the conference championship game last season, going undefeated in conference play until a blowout loss to Houston.

With Tulsa retooling after the loss to Houston the gap between the two teams should be close enough for Tulsa to come out of the West division and win the championship.

MAC: Ohio Bobcats

Coming off a ten-win season and bringing back plenty of talent, the Ohio Bobcats come in as the clear cut favorite to win the MAC this season.

The MAC has produced some great quarterbacks over the years and generally wheels out impressive offenses but the Bobcats defense is what will make the difference in 2012.

In 2011 the Bobcats played solid defense and ranked second in the conference at 22 points per game. The unit should be even better this year as the team brings back seven starters and will have two secondary standouts in Travis Carrie and Xavier Hughes to combat the explosive passing attacks they will certainly see in MAC play.

Offensively, the Bobcats will need to work hard to fill the shoes of graduated playmakers Donte Harden and LaVon Brazill. Haren was the team's leading rusher while Brazill was one of the best receivers in the conference and was selected in the NFL draft.

Filling in for Harden in the backfield will be the running back tandem of Beau Blankenship and Ryan Boykin, while a group effort from returning receivers Donte Foster, Mario Dovell and Bakari Bussey will need to replace Brazill's production.

Fortunately for the Bobcats, they return Tyler Tettleton at quarterback which will make transitions at the skill positions easier. Tetlleton is coming off of a stellar sophomore season, passing for 3,306 yards and 28 touchdowns while adding 621 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns on the ground.

With an experienced defense and Tettleton commanding the offense the Bobcats should be able to improve on their 10 wins from last season and claim a conference championship in the process.

Mountain West: Boise State Broncos

Teams of the Mountain West only have one more season to worry about competing with the perennially great Broncos. Boise State is slated to move to the Big East in 2013.

Unfortunately for the Wyoming's, Fresno State's and Nevada's of the world, the Broncos get to enjoy one more year of playing in the Mountain West Conference.

Boise State is losing a ton of talent on both sides of the ball after last season's graduating class set the record as the most winning class in Bronco history. Don't expect the Broncos to finish the season in the top 10 as they have the last three years, but they should have more than enough talent to come out on top in their final Mountain West season.

Boise has developed a reputation as a potent offensive team, and despite losing players to the NFL and the departure of long-time quarterback Kellen Moore, 2012 should be no different.

The greatest strength of this year's Bronco offense will be the offensive line. With Moore gone, the Broncos will be able to rely on the running game behind a line that returns nine lineman with starting experience led by Charles Leno Jr. at right tackle.

Running back shouldn't be an issue either. After losing stud workhorse Doug Martin to the NFL, sixth-year senior D.J. Harper has the ability to make fans forget about Martin rather quickly. Harper should know the offense well—he was running the ball for the Broncos back when Ian Johnson was scoring touchdowns and proposing to a cheerleader.

Replacing a quarterback like Moore will be a difficult task but Boise State has traditionally done just fine with first-year signal callers—they are a combined 33-2 the last three seasons they had a new starting quarterback.

The real challenge for the Broncos will be the defense. The Broncos only bring back two legitimate starters in J.C. Percy and Jamar Taylor, but many of the reserves have experience in mop-up duty as the Broncos are customarily involved in routs throughout the season.

Defensive tackle Ricky Tjong A Tjoe should anchor a defensive line that will try to replace NFL-caliber talent throughout.

Don't expect the Broncos to run through the schedule with their usual ease, but without TCU to challenge them and a deceptively experienced squad, Boise should still be the favorite in the Mountain West and one of the best mid-majors in the country.

Sun Belt: Arkansas State Red Wolves

Out with Hugh Freeze and in with Gus Malzahn.

After losing head coach Hugh Freeze to Ole Miss, the Arkansas State Red Wolves went out and brought in Gus Malzahn to lead the program. Malzahn has been one of college football's best offensive minds for years and played a big role in Auburn's run to the national championship in 2010.

Malzahn had originally brought former Auburn running back Michael Dyer with him, but due to a ruling by the NCAA, he will be ineligible to play in 2012.

With Dyer the Red Wolves would have run away with the Sun Belt easily, without him they still have more than enough firepower to win the conference.

Leading Malzahn's spread attack will be quarterback Ryan Aplin. Aplin is the type of versatile and athletic quarterback to run Malzahn's option-oriented version of the spread. He ran for 588 yards and 10 scores on the ground but was just as threatening through the air, throwing for over 3,500 yards and 19 touchdowns.

Aplin will need to reduce his interceptions—he threw 16 last season—but Malzahn has a history of getting the most out of his quarterbacks.

To win the conference the Red Wolves will have two obstacles to overcome. They must find a way to fill multiple holes along the defense as they only bring back four starters from a great unit last season. If the Red Wolves' offense can score enough to give the defense time to gel, they'll need to beat the rising Florida Internaional Golden Panthers.

Mario Cristobal's squad is bringing back most of a team that went 8-5 last season and their October 4 matchup could very well determine the conference.

WAC: Louisiana Tech

These days it's hard to call the WAC an actual conference.

The ultimate victim of conference realignment, the WAC is now down to a membership of seven schools—two of which are playing their first year in the FBS and aren't eligible for post season play.

Of the seven teams, this conference comes down to two teams—Utah State and Louisiana Tech.

The Bulldogs of Louisiana Tech have a great chance of repeating as champions as quarterback Colby Cameron return as the trigger man for Sonny Dykes' powerful offense. Cameron took over as the team's starter in the latter half of 2011 and went 5-1 and led the team to a conference title and a Poinsettia Bowl berth.

While the Bulldogs ultimately lost the Poinsettia bowl, their ability to hang with a heavily favored TCU team in a 31-24 loss was an encouraging sign of things to come.

With 14 starters returning between both sides of the ball, the Bulldogs have the edge in terms of experience on claiming back-to-back WAC titles—whatever that's worth these days.