College Football - Week 1

College football season has begun!! Yayyyyy!!

This summer wasn't as bad as normal ones, since we did have the olympics. But now that college football is here, I want to do a blog post once a week on what we learn after watching the games from that week and maybe a little preview for the next week. I'm glad to say that a lot of these, I actually predicted!

What We Learned

Alabama is probably the best team in the nation, at least until proven otherwise. I had them losing their first game to Michigan only because I didn't they would gel by week 1 with such a young team. Nope...I was wrong. They are ready to go and will probably beat LSU later on this year, to return to the national championship game. Let's hope someone can take them down this time (USC, Oklahoma, Florida State...I'm talking to you).

Michigan is a lot of smoke and mirrors. When they played a team the caliber of Alabama, albeit young caliber, it wasn't even close. This leaves the Big Ten wide open. I think Wisconsin and Michigan State are a 1/2-notch above the Wolverines at this point. I'm excited about that, too, since Ohio State's bowl game IS the Michigan game. Bring it on!

Florida State is a really good team. Despite playing Murray State, not the greatest team, they pretty much did whatever they wanted including pounding the ball.

Stanford is not a very good team. Everyone talks about the Pac-12 being this power conference. They're not. In fact, the Pac-12 is closer to being the Big East than they are the SEC. If you take away Oregon and USC, you basically have the Big East. Utah is up-and-coming and Stanford was good last year, but since losing their coach, legendary QB, and 3 other NFL draft picks, they've become average. Don't even mention Washington State, either. Everyone else is average to below-average.

West Virginia is a little overrated. Don't know why this is news; they're slightly overrated every year.

Nebraska is becoming a solid addition to the Big Ten. Just in time, too, because Penn State is going to be very very bad for the next 7-10 years. Losing to Ohio university (not Ohio STATE, just Ohio) is only the tip of a very big, cold, and dark iceberg. I hope they do well, but I don't think they will for a while.

Texas will shortly become an elite college team again. UCLA and Tennessee are also turning corners.

And I can't forget my Buckeyes! Granted, they played a bad team. But I loved seeing Miller pass for so many yards. Sure he had 161 yards on the ground, but being able to pass the ball was something he wasn't taught under Tressel. The Buckeyes seemed thin at wide receiver, but with Stoneburner already established and the emergence of Devin Smith and Corey Brown, they may have a nice little corps going forward. What a catch by Smith....man.

What we can expect

Utah and Utah State are getting closer and closer...not because Utah is getting worse, quite the opposite. They're on track to being the 3rd or 4th best team consistently in the Pac-12 in the next few years. Utah State is just getting a lot better. Props to their program.

The Miami-Kansas State game should be fun to watch. Notre Dame and Purdue should be good, too. Nebraska traveling to UCLA makes it interesting....unless the Huskers start blowing out the Bruins. That's about it this next week...

Watch for Air Force to try and capitalize on Michigan's banged-up quarterback. Denard is good on the ground, but his one knock has always been passing. It showed against the Tide.

After blowing out Southeastern Louisiana (did anyone ever hear of them before this blog post?!) this weekend, Mizzou will get a wake-up call to the SEC playing Georgia next week.

Week 3 will provide some good match-ups, but week 2 is pretty much a down week. Nice week to do it, too, since the NFL will be debuting.

Picks to win the conferences:

ACC: Florida State
Big East: Louisville I guess?
Big Ten: Michigan State
Big 12: Oklahoma
Pac-12: USC
SEC: Alabama

National Championship: USC vs. Alabama
Winner: USC!!

I just want someone other than an SEC team to finally win it...I don't care who it is. I think USC, Oklahoma, and Florida State have the best shots. So cheers to them!

I'll post this every week, following the majority of the college games. Good luck to your teams, unless you're a Michigan fan, and GO BUCKS!!!