Only 70 more days. That’s what I tell myself as I sit at my desk, like a college kid counting the days left till graduation. It seems like every day since the Ohio State Buckeyes held up that God-awful new national championship trophy I’ve been checking some college football countdown clock, marking the days left until the 2015 season. Now that the NBA Finals are long over, Major League Baseball and soccer are just barely holding over this sports junky. So, now seems like as good a time as any to throw out some way too early college football predictions for 2015. ? Two teams from the same conference will not make the College Football Playoff. The SEC placing two teams in the national title game was the ultimate confirmation of the conference’s dominance during the BCS era. So, naturally, that confidence (or arrogance, depending on which part of the country you live in) carried over into many a pundit predicting the SEC would put two teams into the inaugural CFP this past season.But after everything that happened last season, not to mention how many bonafide superstars left for the draft after last season, can anyone seriously sit there and say there are two teams in the same conference that both look like playoff locks? Take into account all of the random nonsense that happens during the course of every single college football season, such as Laqoun Treadwell fumbling at the goal line and both Mississippi schools coming out of nowhere, and I’m not ready to say any conference is sending two teams to college football’s version of the Final Four. ? The PAC-12, not the ACC, will be shut out of this year’s playoff. The ACC has been a punch line to fans and pundits around the country for a while now. Even when Florida State fielded one of the most dominant teams in recent college football history in 2014’s national champion, people were still trying to discredit its success because of its weak conference slate. Even last year, the Noles were admittedly not as good as their record to the point that people were arguing that an undefeated FSU shouldn’t be in the playoff. This year, the ACC is already being pegged as the front-runner of the five major conferences to be left out, but I’m putting my money on the PAC-12. Don’t get me wrong, I love the PAC-12 – those late-night games are a lifesaver on Saturdays in the fall and I think they have a serious case for being the nation’s best conference – but the conference lost too many game changing players to the draft. Marcus Mariota’s departure from Oregon will set the Ducks back this year and Brett Hundley’s early exit from UCLA will stop the Bruins from taking the leap most thought they would make last year. Couple those two storylines with USC not quite back to being USC and I’m having a hard time finding a PAC-12 team that can run the gauntlet in what is usually a very strong, balanced conference. Which brings me to my next prediction… ? Deshaun Watson will be this year’s Heisman darkhorse candidate. The reason I think the ACC will put a team in the playoffs this year is not because I’m an FSU fan – in fact, I think the Noles will take a huge step backwards this season compared to their recent success in spite of the addition of Everett Golson…
Continue Reading: Predicting the 2015 college football season
