Blog Review #5: Big 12 Expansion and My (Brilliant) Ideas

As I lay here in my death bed (I'm still sick :/), I began to think about the Big 12 and it's desire to expand and add new teams to the conference (because I want that to be my dying thought?).  This wasn't originally supposed to a blog post but instead of keeping these thoughts to myself, I figured I would share them with you readers (because people read my blog.. right?) so you can appreciate my "genius" as much as I do.  So here it is, my Big 12 Expansion Idea, broken down (I think way to much):

Big 12 (Currently):

TCU

Iowa State

Texas*

Oklahoma*

Oklahoma State

Kansas

Kansas State

West Virginia

Texas Tech

Baylor

*Oklahoma and Texas haven’t approved expansion idea.  If they leave they should go to the SEC.

Expansion Candidates:

UConn

Cincinnati

UCF

USF

Rice

Houston

SMU

Tulane

BYU

Air Force

Colorado State

SEC (with Texas and Oklahoma):

 East:

Florida

Georgia

South Carolina

Vanderbilt

Tennessee

Kentucky

Alabama*

Auburn*

West:

Texas A&M

Arkansas

Ole Miss

Mississippi State

LSU

Missouri*

Oklahoma*

Texas*

*Geographically, Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri are more “western” than Auburn and Alabama, so you move those 2 teams to the East and add Texas and Oklahoma to the West and move Missouri from the East to the West.  Iron Bowl rivalry stays.  Red River Showdown Rivalry stays as well.  Divisions stay even with 8 teams a piece.

Big 12 (without Texas and Oklahoma):

TCU

Iowa State

Oklahoma State

Kansas

Kansas State

West Virginia

Texas Tech

Baylor

Logical Additions:

BYU*

Houston*

Geographical Additions (self-explanatory):

Houston

Rice*

SMU*

*Rice and SMU aren’t good or prestigious (well SMU kinda is) but just location wise it works I guess.

Teams to Think About:

Air Force*

Colorado State*

*BYU and Houston are good and prestigious programs.  It makes sense to add them to increase ratings and add competition to the conference.  Air Force and Colorado State aren’t as prestigious and they do not sound like good Big 12 teams but their programs are decent enough at the moment to also be considered.  Only add if you really want to increase to 14 teams (or 12 if Texas and Oklahoma leave).

Teams to Not Even Consider:

UConn*

Cincinnati*

Tulane*

UCF*

USF*

*None of these programs are good enough or even prestigious enough to even be considered to join the Big 12.  No one wants to see UConn vs Baylor or like UCF vs TCU.  Those will just be demolitions.  Plus the AAC will shrink in size and will just destroy the conference.  Plus geographically it wouldn’t make sense for UConn or Cincinnati or any of these teams to be there (what about West Virginia though? Couldn’t tell ya. They’re an more of a Big 10 team to me but fits well in the Big 12).

Big 12 (Post Expansion if Oklahoma and Texas Leave):

TCU

Iowa State

Oklahoma State

Kansas

Kansas State

West Virginia

Texas Tech

Baylor

Houston*

BYU*

SMU*

Colorado State*

*4 expansion teams if Texas and Oklahoma leave.  Big 12 will have 12 teams and the name will make sense.  I feel like Colorado State would add better competition than the other teams considered therefore they should be added only if Texas and Oklahoma leave.  SMU on the other hand isn’t the best team in the world but they have the prestige (kinda) and the rivalries (all the Texas teams basically) to be added, again, only if Texas and Oklahoma leave.

Big 12 (Post Expansion if Oklahoma and Texas Stay):

TCU

Iowa State

Oklahoma

Texas

Oklahoma State

Kansas

Kansas State

West Virginia

Texas Tech

Baylor

Houston*

BYU*

*2 new expansion teams if Texas and Oklahoma stay

So long story short, no matter what, Houston and BYU should join the Big 12.  They are good teams and deserve to have better competition.  If Texas and Oklahoma do not approve the expansion idea (I wouldn’t blame them, I like the Big 12 like it is right now), they should move on the SEC which adds way more competition to the conference and will make it the best/hardest conference to play in college football more than it already is.

Other Teams to Consider Outside of the Approached Expansion Teams:

San Diego State

Tulsa

Boise State

Nevada

1. This was by far my favorite article to write and I will never regret writing it. I wrote this article to inform readers about the Big 12 Expansion and share my thoughts and ideas about it.  I was just laying in bed and saw a headline on ESPN about it so I started thinking about it and I wrote down my ideas to remember for later (like if I needed some use for it later on in life?) and then I finished my thoughts and just though "I should post this one my blog!" and here we are. So basically all of this happened randomly and yet I think it was one of my bests posts ever.
2. I literally had no trouble writing this whatsoever.  I knew exactly what I was typing as all the thoughts came naturally to me and I had written them down earlier.  I knew what point I wanted to get across and how to get it across and to me everything just lined up perfectly. If I had any trouble with it it probably would've been from formatting it from Word to Blogger because I think it was weird when I first did it. But other than that I had no trouble.
3. I wrote this to inform readers of the expansion, share my ideas of the expansion, and hopefully spark a discussion about the expansion (which didn't happen but it was still viewed a lot).  I wanted readers to read my opinions to develop their own about not only my ideas but the expansion.  My goal was to get people thinking about it too basically. I don't know if I achieved that goal but ESPN's article got me thinking so hopefully my article got some people thinking. 

Blog Review #4: My College Football Experience: Penn State

You may be asking yourself, "what's so important about college football?" I'm here to answer that. College football brings people together from not just all over the state but all over the country. People come together to root for a common team and have a good time. To me, that's what is important about college football (and scouting for future NFL players but we have to focus on world impact so shhhhh...). So this article is about the culture of college football and it's impacts. On September 17th and October 1st I traveled to State College, Pennsylvania to see the Penn State Nittany Lions play and for the first time I got to experience the real college football culture. The only college football games I've been to were at Holy Cross and UMass but I was too young to really have a good experience. But Penn State is a football school. This school's pride is it's football team. It has such a prestigious football program, I don't know if I'll get into it much in this article but it has such a rich history, especially with Joe Paterno. But when you get to Penn State on a football Saturday, there are tailgaters everywhere. You see people dressed in navy and white sitting by their trucks or RVs grilling, throwing around a football, just talking to other fans, having a great time before a football game. I, for one, am not much of a tailgater. I just never really had experience tailgating before and I did go to a tailgate for like 15 minutes and it was awkward because I didn't really know the people there, but my sister did (did I mention she's on the Penn State dance team/Lionettes?). So if you ever go tailgating, go with people you know because it will be a lot more fun. But the tailgating seems to bring a lot of people together. When Penn State played in-state rival Temple, I saw a lot of Temple fans and Penn State fans tailgating together, which at first I found surprising but then I thought about it and it made sense. Because they're both from the state, families could have different backgrounds but when it comes down to it, it's just a friendly rivalry between them. But yeah, a lot of people come from around the country to root for their alma mater or favorite college football team and just have a great time. Now we're going to talk about the fans in the stadium during the game. They are loud. Like they will scream anything and everything and they don't care. A lot of them are alumni of Penn State and they made that obvious screaming the alma mater and every chant they've heard when they went. I'm not much of a fan of screamers but after the Student Section, that might change. The Penn State Student Section is the best I've ever seen. They're rowdy and they don't care. It's fun to listen and just watch them. They're so into the game. I can't wait to be apart of a student section some day. The only thing bad, to me, is the post game antics. It's tough to leave the stadium after and even leave State College after. I get that it's like that everywhere but this is the first time I've really experienced it. The roads are closed on campus and it's lines of traffic everywhere. It's hard to get places post-game is what I'm trying to say basically. But overall, Penn State is a great college football school culturally speaking. The tailgaters seem welcoming, the fans and student section are loud and proud, and Penn State has won every game I've been to. Culture is very important to college football. If you don't have school spirit, you won't have a fun experience. A lot of school's pride are their sports programs. It's completely different from a high school football game. At college (or a division 1 FBS school at least), the whole school is there and they're very into the game and they have a lot of fun. In about a month I am heading to Syracuse, so I will most likely make a comparison after that and write about it. I will also try to head back down to Holy Cross or another local FBS/FCS school or even a division 2 or 3 school, and make comparisons as well, like compare the culture. Also the Saturday Review will be out later! See ya at the Review!

1. I wrote this article to talk about the experience of a real division one FBS college football game.  In this article, I talked about my experience at a Penn State football game such as the atmosphere, the culture, and the game as a whole.  I wanted to show readers what goes on around the game regarding the crowd. It helped me pay attention more to the atmosphere rather than just the game as the fans were loud and proud and I just thought that was awesome.  I wanted to write about it just to show how fans felt about college football and what goes on before, during and after games.
2. I had a little difficulty writing this mainly because I didn't really know where I was going with the post.  I didn't know what I wanted to say to get my point across that the atmosphere at Penn State games is amazing and that college football is not only just a game but a community.  I just kind of wrote down what I was thinking and hoping it would just go with the flow, ya know?
3. I wanted to show people through this article that college football is more than just the league before the NFL.  I wanted to show them that it is just like the NFL, where a whole community comes together to root for a similar team and have fun together. It was amazing to witness all the tailgating and just the whole Penn State community come together, having fun with each other, watching a team they all love. I just wanted people to experience what I experienced and learn that it is more than just a sport on TV.

Blog Review #3: AP Top 25 Week #3

With week 2 of the college football season behind us, the Associated Press (AP) released the new Top 25 schools in the nation:

AP Top 25:
1. Alabama
2. Florida State
3. Ohio State
4. Michigan
5. Clemson
6. Houston
7. Stanford
8. Washington
9. Wisconsin
10. Louisville
11. Texas
12. Michigan State
13. Iowa
14. Oklahoma
15. Tennessee
16. Georgia
17. Texas A&M
18. Notre Dame
19. Ole Miss
20. LSU
21. Baylor
22. Oregon
23. Florida
24. Arkansas
25. Miami

Now some teams that won last Saturday that dropped significantly were Clemson, who fell from #2 to #5 and Georgia, who fell from #9 to #16. Both of these teams were put on "upset alert" and could've been apart of "Sadder-Day's Upsets" (I'm gonna use this pun whenever possible.. sorry!) but they managed to pull out a win. Clemson was very surprising last Saturday when they played Troy, a team from the Sun Belt conference. Troy kept this game close throughout the whole entire game basically and only lost by 6 points, with the score being 30-24 in favor of Clemson. The Clemson Tigers were favorites to make and even win the College Football Playoffs this year. Despite dropping to #5, they still have a very good chance of making their way back up into the top 4. But it will be interesting to see how they fair against other teams in the ACC after this game against Troy. Georgia played FCS team Nicholls State and boy was it close! Georgia, despite being down 14-10 in the 3rd quarter, managed to score 2 touchdowns in 2 minutes and held on to win 26-24. The Georgia Bulldogs had basically a 99% chance of winning this game and Nicholls State were heavy underdogs coming into the game. Georgia was a favorite to win the SEC East but again, it'll be interesting to see how they fair against other SEC teams after almost losing to a team that's not even in the FBS. Other teams that I'm surprised to see ranked so high are Washington and Michigan. Just my opinion, I believe these teams are overrated. Michigan has mainly been predicted so much success due to former NFL coach Jim Harbaugh taking over as head coach of the team. I just don't believe that Michigan has earned the right to be #4 just because of the prestige of their coach. I don't really know anything about Washington and why they are #8. They really didn't make too much noise in the Pac-12 last year. I couldn't tell you why they are there, but I expect them to fall at some point in the middle of the season. They can't win the Pac-12. End of story. Arkansas made the Top 25 after beating #15 TCU. They jumped from the depths of the unranked teams to #24 in the nation. I don't know how long they'll last but I have high hopes for Austin Allen and the rest of the team and I hope to see more wins from them. Other than that I really have nothing else to say about the rankings. Not bad Associated Press.. Not bad.

1. I wrote this post to inform people of the Top 25 rankings in college football and discuss the change in the rankings. Like I would talk about why certain teams are where they are and how they got there. This was another one of my "weekly segments" where I posted a similar article like this informing readers on the rankings and giving my thoughts on them.

2. The only trouble I really had writing this type of articles was the fact I had to keep going back and forth between pages typing the Top 25 out because I couldn't memorize all 25 teams on the list.  It sounds stupid but it was kind of frustrating going back and forth it was very time consuming for me.  Other than that I really enjoyed making this article because I never really had to think about what I was going to write before hand, everything I typed was just everything I was thinking about the rankings at the time. Like if I made a joke to myself about a certain team in the rankings on the spot, it would go into the article because to me it would make the article better and it was what I was thinking at the time.

3.I wanted to inform the readers of the rankings and tell them why I thought why certain team was ranked where they were. Yes, it may have been a biased opinion of why they were ranked where they were but I was still informing the readers of the rankings.  All my articles just seem to be giving readers information rather than having a big picture where they think about stuff. I just say words and I expect them to take in those words and just go "okay cool." Probably not the greatest thing but there is really nothing to feel about the Top 25 besides just feeling informed.

Blog Review #2: Saturday Review #1 (9/10/16)

Week 2 of the college football season was an interesting one. Many of the nation's top teams were put on "upset alert" from smaller lower conference schools. But most top teams prevailed to go 2-0 (W-L) on their journey to the college football playoffs. We'll start this review with my Game of the Week:

Game of the Week: Arkansas vs #15 TCU 

Now basically everyone came into this game (well I did at least) thinking that TCU would crush Arkansas due to Arkansas's struggles against Louisiana Tech last weekend (Arkansas won 21-20). But surprisingly, the Razorbacks led by junior quarterback Austin Allen, gave TCU a run for their money and actually led the whole entire game being up 20-7 after the 3rd quarter. But TCU, led by junior quarterback transfer Kenny Hill, scored 21 points in the 4th quarter to take the lead but a late touchdown pass from Austin Allen to Keon Hatcher tied the game at 28-28 and sent the game into overtime. In overtime, both teams scored on their first possessions to tie the game at 35 but in the 2nd overtime Arkansas managed to hold TCU to a field goal and the score was 38-35. The Razorbacks needed to kick a filed goal to tie it and send it to a 3rd overtime or score a touchdown to win the game. And on 3rd and goal, Austin Allen ran the ball in to score the game winning touchdown and Arkansas upset #15 TCU 41-38. This game all around was a great game, it was one of my favorite games that I've seen in a while and (besides the fact I've been a Razorback fan since 2010-ish) it was a good ending to a hard fought game and that is why it is my game of the week.

Team/Player of the Week: #13 Louisville Cardinals/QB Lamar Jackson

Typically I wouldn't combine Team of the Week and Player of the Week but the Louisville Cardinals, led by sophomore quarterback Lamar Jackson, have been on a tear lately. The Cardinals, who are now 2-0, have outscored their opponents 132-42 in the 2 games that they've played and Jackson has had a total of 13 touchdowns over the span of 2 games. On Saturday, the Cardinals played fellow ACC team, the Syracuse Orange, in their first conference game of the season. Within the first 5 minutes of the game the Cardinals were already up 21-0 and Jackson scored all of those touchdowns with 1 passing touchdown and 2 rushing touchdowns. The final score of that game was 62-28 in favor of the Cardinals. Jackson went 20/39 with 411 passing yards, 1 passing touchdown, and 199 rushing yards with 4 touchdowns. At the moment Lamar Jackson is my favorite to win the Heisman Trophy despite my mutual dislike of Louisville. I know the Cardinals have only played 2 poor teams so far but right now it seems like they can't be stopped and also seem to be a force to reckon with in the ACC. The Cardinal's next game is September 17th against #2 Florida State Seminoles at 12pm (Game of the Week candidate for next week?).

"Sadder"-Day's Upsets/Play of the Week: Central Michigan Beats #22 Oklahoma State

I don't know about you but I appreciate that pun and yes, I came up with it myself. Again, I typically wouldn't combine subjects like upsets and the play of the week but one of the major upsets last Saturday came from my play of the week. Despite many almost upsets last Saturday and the fact Arkansas beat #15 TCU (I know it's an upset but I'm not writing about it again and Arkansas is actually a good team), the one upset that stood out to me was Central Michigan (a MAC team) beat #22 Oklahoma State (a Big 12 team... I know...) 30-27 on a last second hail mary pass into a lateral pass backwards, where Central Michigan ran it in for the game winning touchdown (hence the Play of the Week). A lot of controversy surrounded this game after it ended because of the officials/referees. I didn't watch the game but apparently the referees missed a bunch of penalties and misinterpreted a lot of rules. In fact, one of the misinterpreted rules led to the Play of the Week. Central Michigan was awarded one more play after a penalty when they shouldn't have which led to the game winning touchdown. After the penalty, time expired and the game should've ended but the referees forgot/misinterpreted the rule and Central Michigan scored and won. The referees have since been suspended and the game will not be overturned. Despite the controversy, this is still my "Sadder"-Day's Upset (embrace the pun).
Play of the Week Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a24Vg-0QSzU

September 10th brought us some really great college football games. We saw a lot of close games and some upsets. We also teams come together to honor the victims of 9/11 with moments of silence and t-shirts. I will get into the college football culture and community more when I see Penn State vs Temple on September 17th. There I will write my review of the game and basically my visit to Penn State. Until next time!

1. I wrote this as one of my first articles to be one of many "weekly segments" for my blog.  The purpose was for readers to get information on the most recent weekend of college football such as the top players, teams, and games of that weekend.  My goal was to inform them on what was best about that weekend in case they either missed it or wanted to hear an opinion on that weekend.
2.I didn't really have too much trouble typing these types of articles.  It was very time consuming typing out all the little sections but other than that I really liked making these.  These articles made me pay attention to all the games and watch some amazing players and plays and I was happy to share them along with my thoughts to readers.
3. I think my rhetorical purpose was to inform readers about the past weekend and make them aware of anything amazing that they missed.  I just want the audience to feel informed really.  I want them to think like "woah that must've been a great game!" or like "Wow what a play!" And they would be able to get all that from these types of posts.

Blog Review Post #1: RIP Brandon Jackson

Sad news from the college football world came yesterday when the Army Black Knights announced their sophomore cornerback, Brandon Jackson, was killed in a single car accident, just after Saturday's win against the Rice Owls. Police were called to the sight of the crash just after 1:50am in Cronton, New York, 19 miles south from West Point, home of the Army Black Knights. He was driving by himself when he hit a guardrail and was killed. “Words cannot describe the grief that our team is feeling over the loss of our brother and friend Brandon,” said head coach, Jeff Monken, of Jackson. Jackson will most likely be honored this Saturday before Army's game against UTEP.

1. I wrote this post to show that there is more to college football than just player stats and game scores.  I wrote to show how there can also be tragedy throughout the world of college football.  I also wrote this to just spread the news on not only just a player's death but a young man's tragic death in the real world.
2. I had remember having trouble finding the right information about the death.  It was hard to find articles that had good details about what happened and Jackson's background.  Other than that I had no trouble writing this article.
3. I wanted readers to just be aware that tragic things can happen to college football players besides injuries in games.  I guess I wanted the readers to feel some sort of sadness about Jackson's death.  I feel like this article was more of just an informational article about Jackson's death rather than a tribute to Jackson so there really isn't much emotion to it.

Clemson Wins the National Championship

I like sleeping. I like it so much that at halftime I went to bed and missed one of the best games in College Football National Championship history.  Clemson topped defending National Champion Alabama in a rematch of the 2016 National Championship game.  Alabama struck twice in the first half to open the game as their running back Bo Scarborough ran for 2 mid distance touchdowns as Alabama took a 14-0.  Clemson scored midway through the second quarter to get on the board and Alabama went into halftime with a 14-7 lead.  Then I went to bed.  And then it got really good. Alabama dominated the third quarter as they went into the fourth quarter up 24-14, looking to repeat as National Champions.  Then the Clemson offense went off.  A four yard Watson touchdown pass made it 24-21.  Then a 1 yard Gallman run made it 28-24 and more than midway through the fourth quarter Clemson had their first lead of the game.  A 30 yard run by Alabama freshman quarterback Jalen Hurts put Alabama back up 31-28, then something magical happened.  A Clemson drive led by Deshaun Watson ended with 1 second left on the clock as he threw a touchdown to wide receiver Hunter Renfrow and that was it.  Clemson won 35-31.  It was amazing.  Both Clemson and Alabama finish their seasons at 14-1 as Clemson claims the #1 spot in all of college football.  A great way to end the season.  And this blog.  As the semester comes to an end, this blog will too as I no longer have use for it and there is nothing left to write about.  Perfect timing, huh?  Well anyway this is going to be my last post.  I feel like it's a good post to end on.  Congrats to Clemson for winning an amazing National Championship game!  I want to end this on a high note so below is the play that won Clemson the National Championship.  Enjoy and peace!

 

 

Bowl Results

Well the college football bowl season has come to a close :( There were lots of good games and some surprising upsets, but overall it was a good season.  Next year should bring even better bowls!  Here are the results for the bowl games:

FCS Celebration Bowl: North Carolina Central vs Grambling State
Pick: Grambling State
Result: Grambling State 10-9

New Mexico Bowl: New Mexico vs UTSA
Pick: New Mexico
Result: New Mexico 23-20

Las Vegas Bowl: Houston vs San Diego State
Pick: Houston
Result: San Diego State 34-10

Raycom Media Camellia Bowl: Appalachian State vs Toledo
Pick: Toledo
Result: Appalachian State 31-28

AutoNation Cure Bowl: UCF vs Arkansas State
Pick: Arkansas State
Result: Arkansas State 31-13

New Orleans Bowl: Southern Mississippi vs Louisiana Lafayette
Pick: Louisiana Lafayette
Result: Southern Mississippi 28-21

Miami Beach Bowl: Central Michigan vs Tulsa
Pick: Tulsa
Result: Tulsa 55-10

Boca Raton Bowl: Memphis vs Western Kentucky
Pick: Memphis
Result: Western Kentucky 51-31

Poinsettia Bowl: BYU vs Wyoming
Pick: Wyoming
Result: BYU 24-21

Idaho Potato Bowl: Idaho vs Colorado State
Pick: Colorado State
Result: Idaho 61-50

Popeyes Bahamas Bowl: Eastern Michigan vs Old Dominion
Pick: Old Dominion
Result: Old Dominion 24-20

Armed Forces Bowl: Louisiana Tech vs #25 Navy
Pick: Louisiana Tech
Result: Louisiana Tech 48-45

Dollar General Bowl: Ohio vs Troy
Pick: Troy
Result: Troy 28-23

Hawaii Bowl: Hawaii vs Middle Tennessee State
Pick: Hawaii
Result: Hawaii 52-35

St. Petersburg Bowl: Miami (OH) vs Mississippi State
Pick: Mississippi State
Result: Mississippi State 17-16

Quick Lane Bowl: Maryland vs Boston College
Pick: Maryland
Result: Boston College 36-30

Independence Bowl: North Carolina State vs Vanderbilt
Pick: North Carolina State
Result: North Carolina State 41-17

Heart of Dallas Bowl: Army vs North Texas
Pick: Army
Result: Army 38-31 OT

Military Bowl: #24 Temple vs Wake Forest
Pick: #24 Temple
Result: Wake Forest 34-26

Holiday Bowl: Minnesota vs Washington State
Pick: Washington State
Result: Minnesota 17-12

Cactus Bowl: Boise State vs Baylor
Pick: Boise State
Result: Baylor 31-12

Pinstripe Bowl: #23 Pittsburgh vs Northwestern
Pick: #23 Pittsburgh
Result: Northwestern 31-24

Russell Athletic Bowl: Miami (FL) vs #16 West Virginia
Pick: #16 West Virginia
Result: Miami (FL) 31-14

Foster Farms Bowl: Indiana vs #19 Utah
Pick: #19 Utah
Result: #19 Utah 26-24

Texas Bowl: Texas A&M vs Kansas State
Pick: Texas A&M
Result: Kansas State 33-28

Birmingham Bowl: South Florida vs South Carolina
Pick: South Florida
Result: South Florida 46-39 OT

Belk Bowl: Arkansas vs #22 Virginia Tech
Pick: Arkansas
Result: #22 Virginia Tech 35-24

Alamo Bowl: #12 Oklahoma State vs #10 Colorado
Pick: #12 Oklahoma State
Result: #12 Oklahoma State 38-8

Liberty Bowl: Georgia vs TCU
Pick: TCU
Result: Georgia 31-23

Sun Bowl: #18 Stanford vs North Carolina
Pick: #18 Stanford
Result: #18 Stanford 25-23

Music City Bowl: Nebraska vs #21 Tennessee
Pick: Nebraska
Result: #21 Tennessee 38-24

Arizona Bowl: Southern Alabama vs Air Force
Pick: Air Force
Result: Air Force 45-21

Orange Bowl: #6 Michigan vs #11 Florida State
Pick: #6 Michigan
Result: #11 Florida State 33-32

Citrus Bowl: #20 LSU vs #13 Louisville
Pick: #20 LSU
Result: #20 LSU 29-19

TaxSlayer Bowl: Georgia Tech vs Kentucky
Pick: Kentucky
Result: Georgia Tech 33-18

Outback Bowl: #17 Florida vs Iowa
Pick: #17 Florida
Result: #17 Florida 30-3

Cotton Bowl: #15 Western Michigan vs #8 Wisconsin
Pick: #8 Wisconsin
Result: #8 Wisconsin 24-16

Rose Bowl: #9 USC vs #5 Penn State
Pick: #5 Penn State
Resut: #9 USC 52-49

Sugar Bowl: #14 Auburn vs #7 Oklahoma
Pick: #7 Oklahoma
Result: #7 Oklahoma 35-19

Playoff Game #1/Peach Bowl: #1 Alabama vs #4 Washington
Pick: #1 Alabama
Result: #1 Alabama 24-7

Playoff Game #2/Fiesta Bowl: #2 Clemson vs #3 Ohio State
Pick: #3 Ohio State
Result: #2 Clemson 31-0

So I mean I didn't do too bad... Like 21 out of the 41 (not counting the National Championship) is pretty good for me.  It's over 50% so I'll take it.  But it all comes down to January 9th as #1 Alabama takes on #2 Clemson for the second straight year (kind of like John Cena vs The Rock part 2, but hopefully way better).  I think I'm going to wrap this blog up with a National Championship write up and then the end of the season awards such as Team of the Year, Player of the Year, etc. Until then!

National Championship: #1 Alabama vs #2 Clemson

Well my prediction was wrong.  What else is new?  #1 Alabama silenced the #4 Washington offense, winning 24-7 and advancing to the National Championship for the second straight year.  #2 Clemson shut out #3 Ohio State 31-0, also advancing to the National Championship for the second straight year.  So basically we have a repeat of last year's National Championship Game, Alabama vs Clemson.  The last time these two teams faced off was last year's National Championship, where Alabama squeaked out the win 45-40 to win their third National Championship in five years.  Clemson is looking for redemption in this game as they look to win their first National Championship ever in their program's history.  I expect Alabama to win but this game will be close again.  The departure of Alabama's Offensive Coordinator Lane Kiffin leaves a huge question mark on the performance of Alabama's offense, especially the performance of freshman quarterback Jalen Hurts.  But Alabama's defense has stepped up as of late and if they can stop the Washington offense then they could easily stop the Clemson offense.  As much as I hate to say it... ROLL TIDE!