NCAA Football count down! (updated)

[ycartrob]

SI.com's college football writers Stewart Mandel, Andy Staples, Cory McCartney, Luke Winn, Bill Trocchi, Arash Markazi and Gennaro Filice provide their predictions for the season.

BCS predictions
Mandel:
National title: Ohio State vs. Oklahoma
Rose: USC vs. Wisconsin
Fiesta: Texas Tech vs. Arizona State
Sugar: Georgia vs. West Virginia
Orange: Clemson vs. Florida

Staples:
National title: Oklahoma vs. Georgia
Rose: USC vs. Ohio State
Fiesta: Missouri vs. Wisconsin
Sugar: Florida vs. BYU
Orange: Clemson vs. USF

McCartney:
National title: Ohio State vs. Oklahoma
Rose: USC vs. Wisconsin
Fiesta: Florida vs. Missouri
Sugar: Georgia vs. West Virginia
Orange: Clemson vs. BYU

Winn:
National title: Ohio State vs. USC
Rose: Georgia vs. Wisconsin
Fiesta: Oklahoma vs. West Virginia
Sugar: Florida vs. Missouri
Orange: Wake Forest vs. BYU

Trocchi:
National title: Oklahoma vs. Ohio State
Rose: USC vs. Wisconsin
Fiesta: Missouri vs. Florida
Sugar: Georgia vs. BYU
Orange: Clemson vs. Pittsburgh

Markazi:
National title: USC vs. Georgia
Rose: Ohio State vs. West Virginia
Fiesta: Oklahoma vs. BYU
Sugar: Florida vs. Missouri
Orange: Clemson vs. Wisconsin

Filice:
National title: Ohio State vs. USC
Rose: Wisconsin vs. Arizona State
Fiesta: Oklahoma vs. Georgia
Sugar: Florida vs. Texas Tech
Orange: Clemson vs. Pittsburgh

[The DARK]

Corso dons the Tiger hat...I knew it....

[ycartrob]

ABC/ESPN Networks 2008 College Football Schedule

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3264057

[corey]

Dang, Michigan. You suck.

[ycartrob]

and either USC looked like a pro team or Virginia looked like a high school team.

[mjkoehler]

Holy crap is OK pounding on Chat.

Yeah, Nebraska is winning at half time.

[Crispy]

That MU-Illinois game is fun to watch.
Chattanooga might come back to haunt the dirtburglars at the end of the season, in regards to strength of schedule...

[EAZYE]

the dirtburglars, really, come one crispy :-/  you can do better than that.  Congrats on the win against Washington State.  Tracy I wish that not so many people are picking us to get in the championship game.  Kinda hoped we might fly under the radar this year and just sneak in.  But that being said we did look good against the creampuff that is Chattanooga

[EAZYE]

MJ and BH congrats as well on the W's your respective teams earned today as well.  

Hey Brad is Alabama going undefeated now? ;)   Looks like year 2 of the Saban era might be a good one.

[corey]

Alabama looked really fucking good last night. I hope they continue to play smart football like that. It was like seeing a different John Parker Wilson. No stupid throws, just wise decisions all around on his part. I was also pleasantly surprised by our young defense. Very pleasantly surprised.

[BH]

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[size=48]I[/size]

[size=48]Z[/size]

[primushead]

What the hell was that Apps??!!?

Oh well.  It IS LSU after all.  My boys can do NO WRONG this season, especially after Michigan and after 3 National Championships in a row.

Alabama looked good there, Brad.  

The ACC sucks apparently.  And North Carolina only won by 8 against McNeese State.  Ouch.  

Is basketball here yet?

[Angry Ewok]

Wow... Alabama beat the snot out of Clemson.

"I cannot remember us getting beat physically that bad in the past three years," Bowden said. "We never established any kind of control in the game. We are obviously not the ninth-rated team in the country. We just got physically whipped on both sides of the ball."

RUSHING YARDS
Alabama     239
Clemson     0

That about says it all. John Parker Wilson didn't make any stupid mistakes, and that is what the game depended on. Defense is much stingier than I expected it to be, receiving team has much better hands than they did last year... I've been predicting Alabama will go 9-3... it's a little on the high side, but Saturday's game has me feeling much more comfortable with that.

We need more depth on that O-Line, the secondary needs a tad more discipline, and the special teams is kind of iffy. But with 16 freshmen, 6 of them starters, this kind of stuff will be ironed out, soon.

Our tickets were surprisingly awesome, by the way. The dome was really nice, Chic-fil-A did a superb job with the venue. Centennial Park was completely out of beer, water, and soda, two or three hours before the gates even opened... but besides that, everything was awesome.


Thank God football season is back.

The SEC is 10-1, so far, with half of the conference in the Top 15. Nice.

[Crispy]

the dirtburglars, really, come one crispy :-/  you can do better than that.  Congrats on the win against Washington State.  Tracy I wish that not so many people are picking us to get in the championship game.  Kinda hoped we might fly under the radar this year and just sneak in.  But that being said we did look good against the creampuff that is Chattanooga

Sorry EZ, it's hard to resist when I hear "Aggie" all the time. I'm really not the typical OSU fan with the intense hatred for all things OU. My parents are OU fans, season tickets since '62  - I was too until I went to grad school in Stillwater. I didn't realize that so many were picking OU to be in the champ game, I thought they were more under the radar too with the recent bowl results, but they do have a great chance to win it all.
I was pretty happy with OSU's performance - I hate that the season opener is always on the road. The defense was better than I expected and that's what I always worry about.
Anyways, I always thought 'dirtburglar' was a pretty good play on 'Sooner' - you know, land run cheater? ;)

[mjkoehler]

YES More in state hatred for the Okies!!! Maybe the combined karma will wound them so my beloved Huskers can actually stand a chance.....actually I don't even think that will help. Hopefully the rebuild is only 1 season.

[bearass]

wait...the needle just scratched HUSKERS!!!!????? you gotta be joking

[ycartrob]

UT coulda, shoulda, woulda...

[Angry Ewok]

Great game - as long as you don't care who wins or loses. It looked to me like the referees sort of screwed the Vols, but the Vols played so terrible in the second half I don't think they deserved to win, anyway.

What were those fans thinking when they started chanting "S-E-C"? Didn't really look like SEC football to me, considering the run was totally kaput and they didn't seem to put much pressure on the QB.

That was NOT a touchdown in the 4th, though... the dude slapped the peg over with his left hand, while his entire right side, including the ball, were airborne and out of bounds. There were also a few spots where the refs seemed to be ignoring the offside, false start, illegal formation, holding, facemask, and illegible receiver.

UCLA's quarterback sure did take advantage of the halfassery in orange, though. Kudos to him for his stellar performance in the second half. I was most impressed with their kicker, though - that dude was on fire.

Knowing Fat Phil, he'll still pull a good season out of his ass.

[Penny Lane]

okay--i have to admit, from what i've seen and heard, USC is playing like a pro team....either that or VA was pretty terrible..maybe a little of both. that combined w/beanie wells' questionable foot injury--i'm starting to get extremely nervous ---that said, i still have confidence in seine and our other running backs, but that was a HUGE blow when he went down.  the upshot of sat's game, pryor looked great--4 for 6 and a TD---

but seriously, USC looked good....the execution was impeccable from what i hear, too--- :-/

[TheBigChicken]

UT coulda, shoulda, woulda...

Damn, Smokey looks beat. I wonder how Big Blue fan feels today.It's OK because I know UGA has it coming...Only a matter of time :-/ :-/