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Auburn, Ohio State, Clemson, TCU and Oregon.
If you believe in the media’s ability to forecast the future, those are the five teams that are most likely to vie for a spot in this season’s College Football Playoff.
We’ve finally reached August, which means prediction season is over. It’s time to focus on actual football news when the players strap on their helmets in the coming days.
But since us media types worked so hard to give you some prognostications in July, here is a reminder of how the media picked each conference to shake out this season:
SEC
Let’s start at home, where the media picked Alabama to win the West, Georgia to win the East and Auburn to win the championship. Funny, but true. Here is a more in-depth breakdown of the media picks from SEC Media Days.
WEST
1. Alabama (92)
2. Auburn (108)
3. LSU (10)
4. Arkansas (6)
5. Ole Miss (3)
6. Texas A&M (4)
7. Mississippi State (2)
EAST
1. Georgia (166)
2. Tennessee (36)
3. Missouri (20)
4. South Carolina (1)
5. Florida (1)
6. Kentucky (1)
7. Vanderbilt
BIG TEN
The Big Ten does not conduct an official poll of its media for the purposes of preseason predictions. So, instead, we will look at the “unofficial” poll taken by Cleveland.com at Big Ten Media Days.
The consensus pick is an Ohio State vs. Wisconsin Big Ten championship game, and all 40 media members polled picked Ohio State to repeat as conference champions.
EAST
1. Ohio State (40)
2. Michigan State
3. Penn State
4. Michigan
5. Maryland
6. Rutgers
7. Indiana
WEST
1. Wisconsin (32)
2. Nebraska (5)
3. Minnesota (3)
4. Iowa
5. Northwestern
6. Illinois
7. Purdue
ACC
The ACC media believes that the rein of Florida State will come to an end in 2015.
Here are the results of the media vote taken at the ACC kickoff, courtesy of the Palm Beach Post:
ATLANTIC
1. Clemson (101)
2. Florida State (56)
3. Louisville (1)
4. North Carolina State
5. Boston College
6. Syracuse
7. Wake Forest
COASTAL
1. Georgia Tech (96)
2. Virginia Tech (44)
3. Miami (7)
4. Duke (4)
5. North Carolina (4)
6. Pittsburgh (3)
7. Virginia
BIG 12
Based on the way they finished last season, it is no surprise that the media views the Big 12 as a two-team race between TCU and Baylor. The question remains if one of them can come away as the “undisputed” conference champion this season, and earn their way into the College Football Playoff in the process.
Here are the results of the Big 12 Media Days poll:
1. TCU (32)
2. Baylor (10)
3. Oklahoma
4. Oklahoma State
5. Texas
6. West Virginia
7. Kansas State
8. Texas Tech
9. Iowa State
10. Kansas
PAC-12
The media expects Oregon to remain good in spite of losing Marcus Mariota, and for USC to return to its role as a national power. The winner of a Ducks/Trojans Pac-12 championship game likely would find itself in the College Football Playoff.
The results of the Pac-12 media poll are as follows:
NORTH
1. Oregon (37)
2. Stanford (8)
3. California
4. Washington
5. Washington State
6. Oregon State
SOUTH
1. USC (32)
2. Arizona State (7)
3. UCLA (6)
4. Arizona
5. Utah
6. Colorado
Nick Cole is a former print journalist with several years of experience covering the SEC. Born and raised in SEC country, he has taken in the game-day experience at all 14 stadiums.
