Since most on this board will be focused on the Ravens, I’ve decided to use my blog mostly to talk College Sports. Since the college football season is now less than two weeks away, I will begin to make some projections and predictions on the season. Once the season begins I will post games of the week, Heisman projections, etc. For now I will preview the coming season. I am premiering my unofficial WNST Top 25 today. Over the next week I will publish a preview and analysis for each 1-A conference and the 1-AA conferences of Towson and Morgan. But today will have a national focus.
LAWSON LAMBERT’s TOP 25
(for comparison sake the AP ranking is in parentheses)
1. Oklahoma (3)
2. Florida (1)
3. USC (4)
4. Texas (2)
5. Alabama (5)
6. Ohio St. (6)
7. Mississippi (8)
8. Oklahoma St. (9)
9. Georgia (13)
10. Oregon (16)
11. Florida St. (18)
12. LSU (11)
13. Illinois (27)
14. California (12)
15. Boise St. (14)
16 Penn St. (9)
17. Georgia Tech (15)
18. Virginia Tech (7)
19. South Florida (45)
20. BYU (20)
21. Notre Dame (23)
22. Kansas (25)
23. West Virginia (32)
24. Michigan St. (29)
25. TCU (17)
As you can see I went against the grain and picked Oklahoma number one. I think they and Florida are evenly matched. Last year in the NC game, Oklahoma was driving in the 4th quarter to take the lead when Florida DB Ahmad Black made one of the best defensive plays in a big game, EVER. I always give the edge the next season to the loser. Oklahoma will have something to prove all year, especially against Texas, and I think they do it. Of course I wouldn’t be surprised if Florida wins again.
The teams I have vastly different than the AP poll are Illinois and South Florida on the high side. I think the Illini will bounce back in a big way this year in Juice Williams final season. And the AP poll has no Big East team in the Top 25, but whichever Big East team goes 6-1 in conference and 9-3 overall will be ranked. I say that team will be South Florida. On the downside I ranked Penn State and Virginia Tech lower than the AP. I think Penn State is just not as good as they were last year and will be too dependent on Darryl Clark; and Va tech is just so vanilla on offense that I think they will be unable to avoid a couple of losses. I like Boise St, BYU, and TCU to all have fine seasons, but I think they will all stub their toe at least once, so therefore no BCS Buster this year. Utah was cheated last season, but they lost too much and are probably only the third best team in their own conference this year, so I have them unranked.
Here is my early projection of the bowl games you will be seeing this coming holiday season.
New Mexico Bowl- Nevada vs. Colorado St.
St. Petersburg Bowl- Rutgers vs. Southern Miss
New Orleans Bowl- Troy vs. Tulsa
Las Vegas Bowl- BYU vs. Arizona St.
Poinsettia Bowl- Arizona vs. TCU
Hawaii Bowl- Boise St. vs. East Carolina
Emerald Bowl- UCLA vs. NC State
Meineke Car Care Bowl- Clemson vs. West Virginia
Motor City Bowl- Minnesota vs. Western Michigan
Music City Bowl- Auburn vs. Miami (FL)
Independence Bowl- Kentucky vs. Texas Tech
Champs Sports Bowl- Iowa vs. North Carolina
Eagle Bank Bowl- Maryland vs. Louisiana Tech
Holiday Bowl- California vs. Kansas
Humanitarian Bowl- Fresno St. vs. Utah
Texas Bowl- Navy vs. Missouri
Armed Forces Bowl- Air Force vs. UTEP
Sun Bowl- Oregon St. vs. Baylor
Insight Bowl- Wisconsin vs. Nebraska
Chick Fil-A Bowl- South Carolina vs. Georgia Tech
Outback Bowl- Michigan St. vs. Mississippi
Capital One Bowl- Penn St. vs. Georgia
Gator Bowl- Virginia Tech vs. Notre Dame
Cotton Bowl- LSU vs. Oklahoma St.
Liberty Bowl- Houston vs. Tennessee
International Bowl- Cincinnati vs. Bowling Green
PapaJohns Bowl- Pittsburgh vs. Florida Atlantic
Alamo Bowl- Michigan vs. Colorado
GMAC Bowl- Central Michigan vs. Wake Forest
BCS GAMES
Orange Bowl- Florida St. vs. Illinois
Sugar Bowl- Alabama vs. South Florida
Rose Bowl- USC vs. Ohio State
Fiesta Bowl- Texas vs. Oregon
National Championship- Oklahoma vs. Florida
Next up: Big East and Conference USA analysis
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