Cole Tollison

Who is making the 2023 CFP? Why I think I just might know.

College football is about Saturdays, it’s about rivalries, it’s a sport where the regular season matters more than the postseason… for now. That said, many of us are still looking forward to the CFP to watch the best teams duke it out on the gridiron in their quest for a natty. And to be fair, I think if you want to call your shot on who’s going to win it all, you should do it before the season starts.

(I’m a little late, I know week 0 already happened. But, I got all of my regular season predictions done before that. So give me a break.)

What I’ve Predicted So Far:

ACC:

My full ACC predictions are here.

ACC Championship Game: Florida State vs. Louisville

ACC Champion: Florida State

Notable Records:

Florida State (11-2) – ACC Champ

Louisville (9-4) – ACC Runner-Up

Clemson (10-2)

Notre Dame (9-3)*

North Carolina (9-3)

*join a conference jerks

Pac-12:

My full Pac-12 predictions are here.

Pac-12 Championship Game: Washington vs. Oregon State

Pac-12 Champion: Washington

Notable Records:

Washington (12-1) – Pac-12 Champ

Oregon State (10-3) – Pac-12 Runner-Up

USC (10-2) 

Oregon …

What the heck was that? Why was there football yesterday? Isn’t week 1 next weekend?

Week 0 is an honored college football tradition dating all the way back to *checks Wikipedia* 2017 or 1983? Like everything involving the NCAA, there are a multitude of complex rules, rule changes, and weird decisions. To play a week 0 game, the game must be approved by the NCAA; that’s the main thing to keep in mind. There were a bunch of week 0 games in 2002. None were played from 2005 to 2015. And 2017, the current set of rules for week 0 was put in place. Since 2017 we’ve consistently had multiple Week 0 games (ignoring 2020 for obvious reasons).

(If you’re trying to win a bar bet, the actual 1st Week 0 game was in 1983 when #1 Nebraska beat #4 Penn State at Giants Stadium in New Jersey)*

Who Would Even Want to Play in Week 0?

Everyone.

Every team would gladly play a week 0 game given the opportunity. 

It gets the kids back for fall camp 1 week sooner, so coaches get more practices.

It adds another weekend of TV inventory for networks and conferences. (i.e. more …

Who is winning the Pac-12? What will the order of finish be? Who is making a bowl game?

These will be my record predictions for the Pac-12. I will list every game for the predictions, but the primary takeaway should be the final record. We will also compare my predictions to the over/under win total for each team to see how the betting public feels about the Pac-12.

Predictions for the bottom half of the Pac-12 can be found here.

*Odds listed refer to O/U win totals taken from DraftKings at the time of writing

6th – UCLA – O/U win total: 8.5

Coastal Carolina – W

At San Diego State – L

NC Central – W

At Utah – L

Bye

Washington State – W

At Oregon State – L

At Stanford – W

Colorado – W

At Arizona – L

Arizona State – W

USC – L

California – W

I was kind of shocked to see their win total set at 8.5.  They lost a great QB in DTR and a phenomenal RB in Zach Charbonnet; both are in the NFL now. Chip Kelly has made this a transfer portal team, so year to year they are …

Who is at the bottom in the Pac-12? What will the order of finish be? Who is making a bowl game?

These will be my record predictions for the Pac-12. I will list every game for the predictions, but the primary takeaway should be the final record. We will also compare my predictions to the over/under win total for each team to see how the betting public feels about the Pac-12.

Predictions for the top half of the Pac-12 can be found here.

*Odds listed refer to O/U win totals taken from DraftKings at the time of writing

7th – Washington State – O/U win total: 6.5

At Colorado State – W

Wisconsin – L

Northern Colorado – W

Oregon State – W

Bye

At UCLA – L

Arizona – W

At Oregon – L

At Arizona State – W

Stanford – W

At California – L

Colorado (Friday) – W

At Washington – L

I’m actually pretty high on Washington State. The Pac-12 is just tough this year. I could easily see this squad beating UCLA or even upsetting Wisconsin, again. They are going to beat somebody above them in the odds. I have it being Oregon State, but …