Way too early college football predictions

So last week I went over some way too early NFL predictions. I figure why not step down a level and do some college football ones. We all know that college football is the superior one over the NFL, you can fight me on it, and this year should shape up to be another good one. We all know that the SEC is the supposed king of the college football landscape. Will that change this year? Will someone step up to knock off the mighty SEC? We’ll find out.

1. The Iowa Hawkeyes will finish second behind Wisconsin again in the Big 10 west, but manage to pick up another eight wins or so. Their schedule isn’t as daunting this year without Ohio State, Michigan or Michigan State. Hardest game? At Penn State on October 27.

2. The Iowa State Cyclones win six/seven games and will go to a second straight bowl. A 3-0 non-conference could happen, and with at least three winnable Big 12 games, Iowa State should have a shot at some upsets again. Toughest game? September 15 at home against Oklahoma. Sooners will want revenge.

3. The winner of the Big 10 will be Wisconsin. They are a model of consistency and I feel like the top four teams from the east all have question marks. Ohio State is in the mix, probably more than Michigan or Penn State.

4. The Big 12 winner will be, and get ready to be shocked on this one, West Virginia. I like their offense, and we know defense isn’t super important in this conference. Oklahoma is due for one of those weird years where their talent level plays below it should.

5. The Heisman Trophy winner won’t be a quarterback this season. Instead, it’ll go to the senior running back out of Stanford, Bryce Love. Love had just under 2000 yards last year and averaged 8.3 yards per carry, and that was even missing a game. He is a game changer.

6. The best player however is Houston junior defensive tackle Ed Oliver. The guy is a monster who gets into backfields with ease. He was a five star prospect that chose to go to Houston. NFL scouts are high on this guy and you should be too.

7. North Dakota State should win another FCS Championship. What a program that has become in the last decade or so. I’ve often thought of how they’d do with a jump to FBS and how the Big 12 would actually be good to take them in.

8. The PAC-12 will fail to see a team hit 11 wins and they miss out on the playoffs. I love the PAC-12, but this is going to be a down year for the conference. Stanford is the best out of the bunch and I don’t think they’re quite that great to get that far.

9. The SEC only gets one team in the playoffs this season. Last year was a nightmare for a lot of non-SEC fans. It will be Alabama, as it usually is for that conference.

10. The other three teams? Wisconsin, Clemson and my dark horse pick to crash this party, Boise State. The Broncos have to get some sort of respect at some point, right?

11. The two playoff semifinal games will be Wisconsin against Clemson and Alabama against Boise State. The Tigers will win and then so will Boise State.

12. Boise State becomes the first team outside of the big five conferences to win a National Title.

13. Just kidding. This is Alabama’s world and we simply live in it. As much as I hate to say it, Roll Tide.