Pigskin Punditry #1: Introduction To The 2008 College Football Season

I tried to think of any number of gimmicks I could use to write this column.

I thought about trying to sum up all 120 Division 1 Football Bowl Subdivision teams in ten words or less.

I thought about going through each of the eleven conferences (and the independent schools, too), and coming up with at least one question that each of them needs to address.

I thought about a lot of different things, and then I realized something.

It’s college football. No gimmicks necessary.

I grew up in New York City watching the NFL. My parents didn’t go to college, and my older sister only went away to school for one year. So college football really was not a part of my world until I found myself over 1,000 miles away from home about a dozen years ago.

Yes, my introduction to college football was through watching some particularly bad football played by the Missouri Tigers during my freshman year at Mizzou. But it wasn’t about the game on the field for me; it was the pageantry that went along with the entire experience.

And my life was forever changed. College football became king to me.

With each passing year, I find myself learning more and more about the history of the game, and my appreciation and love for the game grows and grows.

Last season was something special, not only because my school had its greatest season in about 40 years, but because of all of the other drama and upsets that occurred.

But I do wonder if all of the insanity that occurred would have happened if Appalachian State hadn’t pulled off their stunner in Week One.

It might seem like a crazy idea, but I think that that victory set the tone for everyone else the rest of the season. It gave teams a reason to think “Why not us?”

Appalachian State has another opportunity August 30, as the Division 1 Football Championship Subdivision champions will take on the FBS champions at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rogue.

But I have a feeling that Les Miles (a Michigan man) will have the LSU Tigers ready to “geaux” that night, and won’t let the Mountaineers pull off another stunner.

Speaking of LSU, we’ll wrap up this column with my BCS conference predictions. I’ll come back in a couple of days to go through the Independents and the Non-BCS conferences.

As always, these are simply projections by a fan. I do my best to look at returning rosters, incoming freshmen and their potential impact, how the schedules set up, road games, neutral site games, offseason injuries, etc. Then, more often than not, I take that information, digest it, and then simply go with whatever my gut tells me. If I’m right, I look like a genius and brag about it.

If I am wrong, I simply admit I made an error and allow myself to be mercilessly mocked for the length of the offseason.

After all, when dealing with the passion that comes along with college football, I know well enough to remember that we are not always rational as fans. No matter how hard some of us try to be.

ACC:

 Atlantic Division:

1)      Wake Forest

2)      Clemson

3)      Florida State

4)      Boston College

5)      Maryland

6)      NC State

Coastal Division:

1)      Virginia Tech

2)      Miami (FL)

3)      North Carolina

4)      Virginia

5)      Georgia Tech

6)      Duke

ACC Title Game Winner: Wake Forest

 

Big 12:

 North Division:

1)      Missouri

2)      Colorado

3)      Kansas

4)      Nebraska

5)      Kansas State

6)      Iowa State

South Division:

1)      Oklahoma

2)      Texas Tech

3)      Texas

4)      Oklahoma State

5)      Texas A&M

6)      Baylor

Big 12 Title Game Winner: Missouri

 

Big East:

1)      South Florida

2)      West Virginia

3)      Pittsburgh

4)      Cincinnati

5)      Rutgers

6)      Connecticut

7)      Louisville

8)      Syracuse

 

Big Ten:

1)      Ohio State

2)      Wisconsin

3)      Illinois

4)      Penn State

5)      Michigan State

6)      Michigan

7)      Purdue

8)      Northwestern

9)      Iowa

10)  Indiana

11)  Minnesota

 

Pac-10:

1)      USC

2)      Arizona State

3)      Oregon

4)      Oregon State

5)      California

6)      Arizona

7)      Stanford

8)      UCLA

9)      Washington

10)  Washington State

 

SEC:

 East Division:

1)      Georgia

2)      Florida

3)      Tennessee

4)      South Carolina

5)      Kentucky

6)      Vanderbilt

West Division:

1)      Auburn

2)      LSU

3)      Alabama

4)      Mississippi State

5)      Arkansas

6)      Ole Miss

SEC Title Game Winner: Georgia