College Football Season Picks Wrapup – Reviewing the Expert Predictions

Looking back at our preseason predictions, it’s almost cringe-worthy to see how awful Jon, Steve, Shane, and I did.

Let’s first focus on what we did get right though:
-All of us had Washington winning the Pac-12 Championship Game and Clemson winning the ACC.
-Steve had Ohio State winning the Big 10 and I had Oklahoma winning the Big 12, though Jon had the correct Big 12 matchup with the wrong result.
-We all chose Alabama vs. Georgia in the SEC title game with three of us getting Alabama’s win correct.
-All four of us had Alabama and Clemson in the final four…though no one would’ve predicted Notre Dame or Oklahoma’s success.
-Jon called USC as this season’s most disappointing team and he very well might’ve hit this one on the nose.

Now for where we really messed up…

-Our conference championship game picks as a whole would grade as a C-. All four of our predicted losers in the Pac-12 missed bowl games…Wisconsin was a major disappointment in the Big 10, Miami and Virginia Tech eeked out bowl berths, and TCU was quite lousy in the Big 12 this season.
-None of our Heisman Trophy picks will likely finish in the top-10…well maybe Shane’s pick of Georgia’s Jake Fromm will…but it’ll be close.
-Our Fiesta Bowl picks included two teams (USC and FAU) who didn’t even make bowls.
-But the worst, outside of Jon’s USC pick, was our most disappointing teams. I had Notre Dame, who went 12-0. Shane had Ohio State who went 12-1 and Steve chose Michigan who went 10-2. Yikes…

Let’s hope to do better next season…

Fanatic Guest Picker Standings:
Week 1 – Chris Schubert: 8-2 SU, 7-3 ATS
Week 2 – Wesley Franco: 7-3 SU, 6-4 ATS
Week 3 – Shawn Crespin: 5-5 SU, 5-5 ATS
Week 4 – Jeff Hoodzow: 9-1 SU, 6-4 ATS
Week 5 – Mike Bauer: 8-2 SU, 6-4 ATS
Week 6 – George Sarafin: 5-5 SU, 3-7 ATS
Week 7 – Mike Muraco: 5-5 SU, 4-6 ATS
Week 8 – Randy White: 5-5 SU, 5-5 ATS
Week 9 – Wesley Franco: 6-4 SU, 6-4 ATS
Week 10 – Wesley Franco: 6-4 SU, 3-7 ATS
Week 11 – Wesley Franco: 9-1 SU, 5-5 ATS
Week 12 – Wesley Franco: 5-4 SU, 6-3 ATS
Week 13 – Wesley Franco: 9-2 SU, 5-6 ATS
Week 14 – Wesley Franco: 8-2 SU, 7-3 ATS

Congratulations to Bear Down Steve and the Guest Pickers who won the straight up competition with a record of 95-45, one game ahead of me!  Last year Steve won with a 108-32 record so needless to say I did a better job of picking the more difficult games this season!

For the against the spread picks, I edged out the Guest Pickers by one with a 75-65 record. Last year the winner was two games above that total so not terribly far off.

Overall it seems college football is getting harder to predict, at least outside of the Alabama’s and Clemson’s of the world…and that’s a good thing overall for the sport.

I want to thank JB, Shane, Steve, Wesley, and the rest of the Guest Pickers for participating once again this year…always a fun column to write!

Next week we’ll do a bowl pick’em preview with our guest pickers to see who will be the postseason champ!

And finally… my Pac-12 predictions had some hits…but wow I was off badly on a few teams (UofA, USC, WSU)…

To read previous entries of my blog, click here. Also make sure to follow me on Twitter @eacohen83.