ACC

Tolly Predictions: The Playoffs

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Who are the conference winners? Is the playoff dominated by the SEC and B1G? Bracketology has infected college football. 

These are my preseason picks for the playoff.

Yes, I know, Florida State already has a loss from week 0. I was never going to pick them to win the ACC (see the top ACC team in my preseason top 25 as evidence). I’m late, but this is better than never. 

Conference Championships:

SEC: Georgia over Ole Miss
Big Ten: Ohio State over Oregon
ACC: Miami over Virginia Tech
Big 12: Oklahoma State over Utah
American: Memphis over UTSA

Round 1:

9 Michigan at 8 Penn State 
10 Texas at 7 Ole Miss
11 Notre Dame at 6 Alabama
12 Memphis at 5 Oregon

Quarterfinals:

1 Georgia vs 8 Penn State
2 Ohio State vs 10 Texas
3 Miami vs 6 Alabama
4 Oklahoma State vs 5 Oregon

Semifinals:

1 Georgia vs 5 Oregon 
2 Ohio State vs 6 Alabama

Championship Game:

1 Georgia vs 2 Ohio State

National Champion:

The Ohio State Buckeyes

Want more Walk On Fan? 

Check out our B1G predictions that came out yesterday.

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This article was written by Cole …

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Tolly’s Top 25 – Preseason

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My ballot for the AP Top 25 – If they let me have one

Is it too early to talk about the top 25? Absolutely. But AP ballots are due on Thursday August 1st. So if I’m going to have my ballot ready in time, I have to do it now. 

Top 5

1 – Ohio State
2 – Oregon
3 – Georgia
4 – Texas
5 – Alabama

I think these are the only 5 teams that can win a National Championship this year. The top 2 are the best of the B1G, and the next 3 are all SEC programs with loaded rosters. Unsurprisingly, these are also the 5 most likely teams to win the natty according to Vegas. As you can see, I’m leaning B1G over SEC at the top right now. 

6-10

6 – Penn State
7 – Notre Dame
8 – Ole Miss
9 – Michigan
10 – Utah

Penn State at 6 will be high for some, but they are one of very few teams with a proven QB and an elite run game. 

QB Riley Leonard transferred from Duke to Notre Dame. I expect him to elevate the golden domes who already …

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Finding Florida State and Clemson A New Home

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Have you ever sold your house with the assumption you’ll find a place to live after you’re kicked out? That’s kinda FSU’s and Clemson’s approach to conference realignment right now.

Leaving The ACC

It’s a foregone conclusion that Florida State and Clemson are leaving the ACC. There are open lawsuits between the teams and the conference. There are some disputed record requests, and a lot of slander is being thrown around between the 3 parties. When they actually get out (sometime between 2025 and 2027 seems reasonable), how much they have to pay (well over 200 million each), and where they are going (TBD) are all just “details” at this point. 

But the “where are they going” detail is what I find most interesting. Florida State and Clemson believe they will get an invite from the B1G or SEC. But what if they don’t?

Why Not The SEC or B1G

The SEC is already in the states of South Carolina and Florida, so FSU and Clemson don’t add any new TV markets or recruiting territory. Most importantly, Clemson and FSU would each take up a piece of the pie of money that the current 16 teams split 16 ways. …

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Who Can Win the Natty?

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There are 134 FBS teams. But let’s be honest, not all of them are capable of winning a national title. Who are the select few that could do it in 2024?

The Blue Chip Ratio

There is a metric used to determine who is capable of winning the national championship that has never been wrong since its inception in 2011, and would presumably be accurate going back to the inception of that national championship game.

This metric is the Blue Chip Ratio.
It’s quite simple. Over the last 4 recruiting cycles, a team must have over 50% of high school recruits be “blue chip” players. A blue chip player is a 4 or 5 star recruit. The transfer portal doesn’t matter. If the player plays doesn’t matter. If you have a bunch of 3 stars that are projected 1st round NFL draft picks, that doesn’t matter. Just acquire as much high school talent as possible.

As of right now, there are 407 blue chip players in the 2025 high school class. Teams generally add 20-30 high school recruits per year. When you consider that there are 68 Power 4 schools, that’s not a lot of talent to go around. …

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A Season of Change

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A lot has changed in college football in the last year. Thankfully you’ve found this article that will catch you up to date with the biggest changes. 

The Big 10 (18)

  • The Big Ten has dropped divisions. At the end of the season, the 2 teams with the best conference records will play in the B1G Championship game. (This means Ohio State vs Michigan could happen in back-to-back weeks).
  • 4 new schools have been added to the B1G, bringing membership to 18 schools. The new teams are Oregon, Washington, UCLA, and USC.
  • B1G Friday Night is now a thing. There will be a Big Ten Friday night football game every week this season except week 3.
  • Channel flipping. The “top 3” B1G games each week have locked in TV times and networks. FOX at Noon, CBS at 3:30, and NBC at 7:30 (all times EST). Sometimes NBC will put their “best” game on Peacock. It is what it is. 

The ACC 

  • They have also done away with divisions like the B1G.
  • They have added 3 new schools to the conference bringing membership to 17 schools. SMU, Stanford, and Cal are in the ACC now.
…

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Tolly Predictions: CFB Conference Title Games – P5 Edition

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The Post Season Has Begun, It’s Time to Crown Some Champions.

The outcome of these games will determine who makes the final iteration of the 4 team playoff. 7 of the 10 Power 5 teams competing next weekend have a shot to make the final 4 (sorry Louisville, Oklahoma State, and Iowa) Below are my predictions for the P5 Conference Championship games, and how I think the race for the 4 Team Playoff pans out. 

  • Odds listed refer to spreads taken from FanDuel at the time of writing
  • All kickoff times listed are Central Time

Pacific-12 Conference (Pac-12):

Friday, 7:00 PM – Allegiant Stadium – Las Vegas, Nevada

Oregon vs Washington (+9.5)

Prediction:
Oregon 42
Washington 35

Expect a full blown offensive explosion. A lot of writers out there think Oregon will splatter the Huskies. I have Oregon winning, but I also have the score close enough that some Big Penix Energy could lead Washington to a miracle win. I know Washington won the 1st meeting between these 2, but Washington has been struggling as of late, and Oregon has been an absolute buzzsaw. 

Big 12 Conference (XII):

Saturday, 11:00 AM – AT&T Stadium –

…

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Is it a Quiet Week? Or Will Some Big Upsets Hit? – Week 9 Preview

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A Pac-12 Elimination Game, A Possible Upset in the Big 12, and An ACC Matchup with Title Implications.

It’s not the greatest college football weekend if we’re being honest here. I’ll be watching games, but there is no national needle mover like OSU-PSU or Bama-Texas. In a normal year that game this week would be Florida-Georgia, and that game is still good this week, but Florida is down enough right now that the game doesn’t have the same weight to it. I think the same can be said for OSU-Wisco with Bucky being down for the last 2-3 years. 

Even though there aren’t massive name-brand games, there are games with postseason and long-term implications. The games I talk about this week will, or could affect multiple conference title races. And maybe some upsets happen. Upsets tend to strike when no one sees them coming (that’s why it’s an upset). I think it’s safe to say no one saw UNC blowing it to Virginia last week. Who could go down this week?

I have my picks for the week down below.  It was a little rough last week; I went 3-5, but I was 0.5 pts away from 4-4. It may …

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Tolly’s Top 25 – Post Week 8

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My ballot for the AP Top 25 – If they let me have one

I have some short explanations for my picks in groups of 5 from 1 to 25. Then, at the bottom, I have the top 40 all in one list with the AP rankings in parentheses. As usual, I have plenty of disagreements with the AP. There is an entire conference I think they are overvaluing. 

First order of business, a shoutout:

Last Saturday WOF was at the Wisconsin @ Illinois game. Claire and Mark were in the stands near us in the Wisco away section, and were an absolute blast to watch the game with. Fans could take notes on “how to be a fan” from them. Thanks again, Claire and Mark, for hanging out during the game. 

Top 5

1 – Ohio State
2 – Michigan
3 – Washington
4 – Florida State
5 – Georgia

THE Ohio State is #1. I hate it, but it is what it is. No team has a better pair of wins than At Notre Dame and Vs. Penn State. OSU doesn’t really have any struggle games outside of their big matchups either. So based on overall resume, …

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What to Watch by Conference – Week 8 Preview

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The 1st B1G game, The 3rd Saturday in Oct., and what’s good in the other Conferences.

Week 8 of College football is here. We are well past the halfway point and getting into the meat of conference schedules. With conference play dominating the schedule in week 8, I decided that is how I would break down this week’s games – by conference. 

As far as my picks for the week go, I have them down at the bottom like normal. I finally had a positive week after struggling the last in the last 2. For some reason, I’m leaning heavily towards road teams this week. That won’t come back to bite me, right? 

What to Watch – By Conference

This week we are doing a conference by conference look at what fans should/will be watching. Most fans follow the conference their team plays in and also catch the biggest games. 

Big Ten

You are a B1G fan. This is your conference. And unfortunately, you only have access to 1 television. You could channel flip, but let’s say you don’t. What 3 games will you watch parked in front of your TV for 10 hours on Saturday?

Early:
7 Penn State …

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Tolly’s Top 25 – Post Week 7

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My ballot for the AP Top 25 – If they let me have one

I have some short explanations for my picks in groups of 5 from 1 to 25. Then, at the bottom, I have the top 25 all in one list with the AP rankings in parentheses. I’m closer to the AP than I expected, but there are still a couple of major disagreements between our lists. 

Top 5

1 – Michigan
2 – Washington
T-3 – Penn State
T-3 – Ohio State
5 – Georgia

Michigan is the only team that has blown out every single opponent they’ve played. Their schedule is hot garbage, but they’ve done what good teams do to bad schedules: dominate.

Washington has the new “best win in the country” designation. And outside of a pesky Arizona game, they’ve been as dominant as Michigan against their schedule.

Penn State looks like the better team to me, but Ohio State has the better resume (the Notre Dame win on the road). I couldn’t decide, and they play this week. I’ll sort it out then.

Georgia has looked good exactly once: the destruction of Kentucky. Every other game they’ve started slow, had running game issues, …

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