Preseason Conference Projections

Its that time of year again! I have done a moderate research and some random guessing to come up with my Preseason Conference Champs and BCS Bowls Projections! It will be a two part post with the Bowl Projections coming out tomorrow.  I will also be keeping my own top 25 this year, so that should be fun too.  Keep a look out later in the week for my weekly picks as well as other thoughts on the season.  

Below I have written up how I think each major conference will play out this year. And yes, I still included the Big East.

In order to make this interesting, I’m going to pick the top 3 teams from each conference.  For conferences with a championship game, that will include the two division champs and then a third “wild card” team.  For the others it will just be the top three.  The rankings next the team represent their "pre-conference championship game" record. 

SEC

LSU – West (12-0)

Georgia – East (12-0)

Alabama – (11-1)

Georgia wins the East by not having to play any of the powerhouse teams from the West.  With probably the easiest schedule in America, the bulldogs go into the SEC championship game undefeated.  They lose big in the championship game.

PAC-12

USC – South (11-1)

Oregon – North (11-1)

Washington State– (9-3)

USC wins the south and beats Oregon twice in the process.  They will have home field advantage for both the regular season game and the championship game and win both in close fashion.  USC will lose one close game this year on the road.  Washington State will have a nice under new head coach Mike Leach. 

B1G

Michigan – Legends (10-2)

Wisconsin – Leaders (9-3)

Michigan State – (10-2)

If anyone beside Wisconsin wins the Leaders division, it will be the biggest upset of the year.  With OSU and PSU ineligible, all they have to do is beat Illinois, Indiana, and Purdue.  On the other side Michigan finally beats MSU and clinches the Legends division and then beats a worse than expected Wisconsin team. 

BIG12

Oklahoma (11-1)

West Virginia (10-2)

Oklahoma State (9-3)

West Virginia will beat both Oklahoma and Texas in their first season in the Big 12 but won’t be able to avoid the upset (twice).  That leaves OU and OSU to fight it out in the bedlam, which (sadly) Oklahoma should win.  

ACC

Virginia Tech – Coastal (10-2)

Florida State - Atlantic (11-1)

Clemson – Atlantic (10-2)

Virginia Tech will lose to both FSU and Clemson during the regular season, but will still win the Coastal.  They will avenge their loss to FSU in the conference championship game.  FSU beats Clemson and I don’t trust any ACC team to not trip up at some point (thus the loss for FSU and for Clemson).

BIG EAST

USF – (8-4)

Louisville – (8-4)

Rutgers – (7-5)

This is a crap shoot of a conference these days.  I pick USF because they are from Florida and should be able to recruit better players (in theory).  It really doesn’t matter…