Pac-12

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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B1G Bowl Games Announced

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Dates, Locations, and Opponents Are Set.

In a normal year, there are a lot of B1G vs SEC bowl games. This year, there are even more. College Football is racing towards a Power 2 and all other conferences are becoming less relevant. See, 13-0 FSU missing the CFP as proof. Of the 12 teams playing in the NY6, 10 of them will be in the SEC or B1G next year (5 a piece). 

I have the Pac-12 members who are joining the B1G in August 2024 listed as “Bonus” B1G bowl matchups. All 4 of the new B1G members (USC, UCLA, Oregon, Washington) have at least 6 wins this season, which is more than B1G West was able to muster. 

  • Odds listed were taken from FanDuel at the time of writing.

SEC vs B1G

Rose Bowl: 1 Michigan vs 4 Alabama (+1.5) – CFP
Jan 1, 2024 – Rose Bowl Stadium – Pasadena, California

Cotton Bowl: 7 Ohio State vs 9 Missouri (+3.5)
Dec 29, 2023 – AT&T Stadium – Arlington, Texas

Peach Bowl: 10 Penn State vs 11 Ole Miss (+3.5)
Dec 30, 2023 – Mercedes-Benz Stadium – Atlanta, Georgia…

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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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The Penultimate Weekend – Week 12 Picks

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SEC West Cupcake Week, My Picks For This Week, It’s Almost Over

You want game picks? Well, I’ve got game picks. I’ve got more picks than I’ve done for any week all season. I also have a short rant about some certain teams scheduling practices that I need to get off my chest. I complain every year, but nothing changes. Last week every media person out there said “Upsets are coming.” Well, they lied. This is college football; favorites win almost all the time. That’s why upsets are such a big deal. I don’t foresee much in the way of upsets this week, so picking against the spread will have to be interesting enough (for most of the games). This isn’t the greatest week of matchups, but it’s not bad either. There are a lot of oddball games that are more like setups for the epicness to come next week. 

Rivalry week, I can’t wait. But for now, these games will do. 

SEC West… WTF?

It’s cupcake week in the SEC West. Every single SEC West team is playing a Group of 5 school or an FCS team. It’s basically a glorified bye week for them heading …

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3 Weeks Left – Week 11 Picks

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Just Picks, no more, no less

I didn’t have the time or energy to do a preview piece this week. That’s on me. But, I do still want to put out game picks for the week to be consistent on that front. This is a super short article that is really more of a list than an article. Obviously, the big game of the week is Michigan at Penn State, but there are some good matchups in the SEC and Pac-12 as well.

  • Odds listed refer to spreads taken from FanDuel at the time of writing

Spread Picks*:

3-4 last week, not good, but not terrible. I’m picking mostly big games (because I didn’t preview them), but I wouldn’t make a pick without a strong opinion of the game. Below are my week 11 picks against the spread for today’s games. 

Michigan at Penn State (+5.5) – Upset Pick 
Drew Allar has been leagues better at home compared to on the road. There’s too much noise around Michigan right now. Harbaugh’s squad slips up. 

Alabama at Kentucky (+11.5) 
Alabama has been bad on the road for 3 years. I think they win, but it’s a struggle win.

Maryland at Nebraska…

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Will OU and UT Leave the Big 12 On Top? – Week 10 Preview

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The Last Bedlam, SEC division races, Pac-12 Quarterback Showdown.

This is the Big 12’s week to shine. The top 6 teams in the conference all play each other, and 5 of the 6 only have 1 conference loss so far. Who is going to the Big 12 title game is likely going to be decided this weekend. OU and UT both play losable games this week. It would be total chaos in the conference (and at those schools) if one or both were to take the L. 

Elsewhere, there are some games with division implications in the SEC. The B1G has a very quiet weekend ahead. The Pac-12 has a massive QB battle in Primetime. And the ACC is… basically not in this article. 

That said…

What Will I Be Watching? 

The Badgers are on the road and I’m not going. That means I’ll be parked in front of a pair of televisions for most of Saturday watching college football. Well, one game on the TV, and one on a laptop. Whatever works. I’ll go through the TV windows talking about the game I expect to be on my screens, and list a couple of alternatives that might be decent …

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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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