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August 23, 2007

College Football Preseason Fun

Another season of college football is almost upon us, and in my mind it can't come soon enough (sorry Dad, but this might be another post that makes you shake your head and say to yourself, "he's such a sports fanatic, where did I go wrong?" haha). The excitement is really starting to build here in State College for the upcoming Penn State season, there's really a lot of optimism that the Nittany Lions will be able to do quite well and challenge for the Big Ten Conference title this year. That, and the home schedule is amazing this year, as I've mentioned in other posts previously, with Notre Dame, Wisconsin and Ohio State as the headline trifecta, with Iowa and Purdue being a pretty decent secondary slate, and then of course the two creampuffs/sacrifical lambs, Florida International and SUNY-Buffalo.

So with the 2007 college football season commencing next week, Robert sent out some surveys to a few of us, and then I passed them along to a few other people. Chris Allen has already posted his answers on his blog, but I thought I'd post my answers as well as those of a couple other people who've responded so far (Jon Lee, Mike Mathison, Robert Long), whether they're partisan or unbiased (ha!). And then after the regular season is done, we can review everyone's answers to see how prescient (or not) they were! So let's dig in, shall we? First off, here's the USA Today/Coaches preseason Top 25, for reference:

1. Southern California Trojans
2. Louisiana State Tigers
3. Florida Gators
4. Texas Longhorns
5. Michigan Wolverines
6. West Virginia Mountaineers
7. Wisconsin Badgers
8. Oklahoma Sooners
9. Virginia Tech Hokies
10. Ohio State Buckeyes
11. Louisville Cardinals
12. California Golden Bears
13. Georgia Bulldogs
14. Auburn Tigers
15. Tennessee Volunteers
16. Rutgers Scarlet Knights
17. California-Los Angeles Bruins
18. Pennsylvania State Nittany Lions
19. Nebraska Cornhuskers
20. Arkansas Razorbacks
21. Florida State Seminoles
22. Texas Christian Horned Frogs
23. Boise State Broncos
24. Hawai'i Rainbow Warriors
25. Texas A&M Aggies

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Name (location): Jared Lee (State College, PA)

1. Pick a team in the preseason top 10 who will NOT be in the top 10 when the regular season ends.
The Ohio $tate University. They'll still be good, but won't be in the top 10 after losing to Penn State, Wisconsin and Michigan, all late in the year.

2. Pick a team not in the preseason top 10 who WILL finish in the top 10 at the end of the regular season.
The Pennsylvania State University

3. Predict the regular season record of your favorite team.
Penn State: 11-1 (only loss: at Michigan)

4. Predict the order of finish (top four teams) in your favorite conference -- if you pick SEC, Big 12 or ACC, pick the top 2 in each division.
Big Ten: 1. Penn State (11-1); 2. Wisconsin (11-1); 3. Michigan (10-2); 4. Ohio State (9-3)

5. Predict the biggest upset in your conference (must be a conference game).
Big Ten: Illinois def. Michigan

6a. How many undefeated teams will there be at season's end (NOT including bowl games)?
Two

6b. Which teams will be going undefeated?
Louisiana State, Hawai'i

7a. Predict the BCS teams -- in other words, pick the following ten teams: ACC champ, Big East champ, Big Ten champ, Big 12 champ, Pac-10 champ, SEC champ, and then the four next best teams. Remember, only two teams from the same conference can be in the BCS.
ACC: Virginia Tech; Big East: West Virginia; Big Ten: Penn State; Big 12: Oklahoma; Pac-10: Southern California; SEC: Louisiana State; At-large: Wisconsin, Texas, Florida, Hawai'i

And for the heck of it, here are my BCS bowl matchup predictions, too:
Orange Bowl: Virginia Tech vs Florida
Sugar Bowl: West Virginia vs Wisconsin
Fiesta Bowl: Oklahoma vs Hawai'i
Rose Bowl: Penn State vs Texas

7b. Out of those ten teams, predict the BCS Championship game and the national champion.
Louisiana State def. Southern California. Nittany Lion fans are once again incensed that their 1-loss team got passed over for another 1-loss glamour team from a big media market (USC) and have yet another thing to gripe about incessantly for the next few decades.

8. If you could attend only one regular season college football game this year, which one would it be?
Ohio State at Penn State (and I have a ticket!). Last time OSU came to town, back in 2005, Penn State won it 17-10 in perhaps the most exciting/intense/electric sporting event I've ever personally attended (there are a couple Gustavus MIAC/NCAA Div. III playoff basketball games that honestly challenge or might top it that were absolutely top-notch for electric atmosphere and quality of play (2003 MIAC semifinal vs Bethel comes to mind right away, 68-67 GAC on two free throws with 0.4 seconds left)). And hopefully with this year's OSU game Frame won't try to pick fights in the stadium like he did last time, haha.

9. Who will have more wins at season's end, JoePa or Bobby Bowden? (Bowden currently leads Paterno 366 to 363.)
Joe Paterno!

10. Suggest a name for this year's Penn State Dirty-Dawg group (yep, shameless promotion).
Beaver Stadium Cleaning Crew

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Name (location): Jon Lee (Spokane, WA)

1. Pick a team in the preseason top 10 who will NOT be in the top 10 when the regular season ends.
Wisconsin

2. Pick a team not in the preseason top 10 who WILL finish in the top 10 at the end of the regular season.
California

3. Predict the regular season record of your favorite team.
USC: 11-1

4. Predict the order of finish (top four teams) in your favorite conference -- if you pick SEC, Big 12 or ACC, pick the top 2 in each division.
Pac-10: 1. USC; 2. Cal; 3. Oregon; 4. UCLA

5. Predict the biggest upset in your conference (must be a conference game).
Pac-10: USC at Oregon, Oregon wins

6a. How many undefeated teams will there be at season's end (NOT including bowl games)?
0

6b. Which teams will be going undefeated?
N/A

7a. Predict the BCS teams -- in other words, pick the following ten teams: ACC champ, Big East champ, Big Ten champ, Big 12 champ, Pac-10 champ, SEC champ, and then the four next best teams. Remember, only two teams from the same conference can be in the BCS.
ACC: Virginia Tech; Big East: Rutgers; Big Ten: Michigan; Big 12: Nebraska; Pac-10: USC; SEC: Florida; At-large: Cal, West Virginia, Penn State, Texas

7b. Out of those ten teams, predict the BCS Championship game and the national champion.
USC vs Michigan; USC 42-27 Michigan

8. If you could attend only one regular season college football game this year, which one would it be?
Ohio State at Michigan

9. Who will have more wins at season's end, JoePa or Bobby Bowden? (Bowden currently leads Paterno 366 to 363.)
JoePa

10. Suggest a name for this year's Penn State Dirty-Dawg group (yep, shameless promotion).
USC for National Champs Group

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Name (location): Mike Mathison (Green Bay, WI)

1. Pick a team in the preseason top 10 who will NOT be in the top 10 when the regular season ends.
West Virginia

2. Pick a team not in the preseason top 10 who WILL finish in the top 10 at the end of the regular season.
Notre Dame

3. Predict the regular season record of your favorite team.
Wisconsin: 12-1

4. Predict the order of finish (top four teams) in your favorite conference -- if you pick SEC, Big 12 or ACC, pick the top 2 in each division.
Big 10: 1. Wisconsin; 2. Ohio State; 3. Michigan; 4. Penn State

5. Predict the biggest upset in your conference (must be a conference game).
Big 10: Northwestern over Ohio State

6a. How many undefeated teams will there be at season's end (NOT including bowl games)?
2

6b. Which teams will be going undefeated?
USC, Virginia Tech

7a. Predict the BCS teams -- in other words, pick the following ten teams: ACC champ, Big East champ, Big Ten champ, Big 12 champ, Pac-10 champ, SEC champ, and then the four next best teams. Remember, only two teams from the same conference can be in the BCS.
ACC: Virginia Tech; Big East: Louisville; Big Ten: Wisconsin; Big 12: Texas; Pac-10: USC; SEC: Florida; At-large: Ohio State, Rutgers, UCLA, Georgia

7b. Out of those ten teams, predict the BCS Championship game and the national champion.
Wisconsin def. LSU

8. If you could attend only one regular season college football game this year, which one would it be?
Wisconsin at Minnesota

9. Who will have more wins at season's end, JoePa or Bobby Bowden? (Bowden currently leads Paterno 366 to 363.)
Joe-Pa

10. Suggest a name for this year's Penn State Dirty-Dawg group (yep, shameless promotion).
Michael Vick's Doghouse

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Name (location): Robert Long (Princeton, NJ)

1. Pick a team in the preseason top 10 who will NOT be in the top 10 when the regular season ends.
Starting with a bold prediction, I'm going with Florida -- and no, Lindsey had NO influence on this pick. While the Gators have a bounty of talented newcomers and Tim Tebow will actually throw the ball this year, the Gators lost most of their defense to the NFL/graduation. Defense is king in the SEC and I don't see Florida's inexperienced defense making critical stops late in games, especially since they will get everyone's best shot this year. Florida loses three conference games (Tennessee, @ LSU and @ South Carolina) and finishes out of the top ten.

2. Pick a team not in the preseason top 10 who WILL finish in the top 10 at the end of the regular season.
One of the two undefeated teams this year will be the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors. An easy schedule (home games against Boise State and Washington) with only one possible road test (Nevada) should allow Hawaii to put up video game type offensive numbers all season. Their ludicrously weak schedule will keep them out of the 2008 Fiesta Bowl, but their undefeated record will assure them of a top-10 finish.

3. Predict the regular season record of your favorite team.
Texas Longhorns: 10-2
Arkansas St. -- W
TCU -- W (*upset alert*)
@ UCF -- W
Rice -- W
Kansas St. -- W
Oklahoma -- W (thank goodness your QB stinks, Carver)
@ Iowa St. -- W
@ Baylor -- W
Nebraska -- W (nervous about this)
@ OK State -- L
TX Tech -- W
@ TX A&M -- L

4. Predict the order of finish (top four teams) in your favorite conference -- if you pick SEC, Big 12 or ACC, pick the top 2 in each division.
Big 12 North -- blech: 1. Missouri; 2. Nebraska (because Nebraska loses at Missouri)
Big 12 South -- 1. Texas; 2. Oklahoma (the way it should be)

5. Predict the biggest upset in your conference (must be a conference game).
Big 12: I guess it has to be Texas losing @ Oklahoma State

6a. How many undefeated teams will there be at season's end (NOT including bowl games)?
2

6b. Which teams will be going undefeated?
LSU, Hawaii

7a. Predict the BCS teams -- in other words, pick the following ten teams: ACC champ, Big East champ, Big Ten champ, Big 12 champ, Pac-10 champ, SEC champ, and then the four next best teams. Remember, only two teams from the same conference can be in the BCS.
ACC: GA Tech; Big East: who cares (er, WVU); Big Ten: Michigan; Big 12: Texas; Pac-10: USC; SEC: LSU; At-large: Oklahoma, Tennessee, UCLA, Penn State

7b. Out of those ten teams, predict the BCS Championship game and the national champion.
LSU beats USC to continue the SEC's run of football/baseketball titles.

8. If you could attend only one regular season college football game this year, which one would it be?
Texas vs Oklahoma, which is always held during the Texas State Fair. The stadium is divided 50/50 and you can see the burnt orange/crimson divide from the blimp. Throw in the bands, the mascots, and the cheerleaders -- this is my must-see.

9. Who will have more wins at season's end, JoePa or Bobby Bowden? (Bowden currently leads Paterno 366 to 363.)
Uhh, push? I'll say Bobby Bowden by one (PSU gets 10 wins, FSU gets 8).

10. Suggest a name for this year's Penn State Dirty-Dawg group (yep, shameless promotion).
Beaver Stadium Cleanup Crew

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I'll make a new post with other people's survey answers as they come in. Or you can post them as a comment! C'mon, join in the fun!

Posted by Jared at August 23, 2007 12:49 AM

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Posted by: Jared at August 23, 2007 12:59 AM

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