So we’ve finally made it…I think? Three Power 5 conferences intend to play college football this Fall and two are starting this weekend, the Big 12 and ACC, most of whom are playing a pathetic slate of non-conference games.
I’m still sad and upset though. Damn you COVID-19 for ruining what seemed at the outset like a fun 2020 year. But with the Pac-12 and Big 10 opting out of the season (at least for now), this appears to be the first Fall since 2000 that I won’t be attending any, much less 4+ football games. I don’t care that my Arizona Wildcats were going to STINK…I would’ve taken an 0-10 season over none at all (I did have to pause when writing that statement though).
In a normal year, I’m posting articles on this blog throughout late-July and August predicting the Pac-12, entire college football landscape, and more. And now it’s the second weekend in September and this will be my first CFB column since January…SAD.
Glad to have my good friends Jon Bell (JB) and (Bear Down) Steve Malina back for our fourth season of making picks. For our fourth weekly picker this season, I’m excited to have my long time buddy, Adam Lester, one of the most diehard Ohio State fans around, join us to see if he can capture the ‘expert’ picks crown. As long as there are games being played, in some form or another, we’ll be picking them each week.
Before our first set of weekly selections, here are a few season predictions from the ‘Experts’:
Eric Cohen
Twitter: @CohensCornerAZ
College Football Playoff Semifinalists: Clemson, Alabama, Texas, Florida
National Championship Game: Clemson over Alabama
Bold Prediction for the 2020-21 Season: The college football we see this Fall is the only college football we’ll see until late-August 2021. Talk of Spring leagues in the Big 10, Pac-12, Mountain West, MAC, and others seems extremely far-fetched to me. I believe we’ll get through a semblance of a college football season, declare a champion (which comes with an * since all conferences aren’t playing) and hopefully the sport gets back to full strength in time for the Fall of 2021.
Adam Lester
Twitter: @AjayLester
College Football Playoff Semifinalists: Clemson, Alabama, Florida, Oklahoma
National Championship Game: Clemson over Alabama
Bold Prediction for the 2020-21 Season: The Big Ten miraculously gets their s#@% together, starts October 10th, Ohio State makes playoff, wins the national title and Justin Fields wins the Heisman Trophy.
Jon Bell
Twitter: @KosherCoach
College Football Playoff Semifinalists: Clemson, Florida, Notre Dame, Alabama
National Championship Game: Clemson over Alabama
Bold Prediction for the 2020-21 Season: The Pac 12’s initiative with Quidel is the testing game changer that brings the conference to start after Thanksgiving. The Big 10 follows suit and due to COVID postponements during early games in September and October, the two conferences are able to wrangle their way into CFP discussion after all.
(Note: We’ll definitely be revising our CFP picks if Lester and JB are on to something with at least the Big 10 and maybe Pac-12 starting up before November).
Steve Malina
Twitter: @BearDownSteven
College Football Playoff Semifinalists: Clemson, Alabama, Oklahoma, Notre Dame
National Championship Game: Clemson over Alabama
Bold Prediction for the 2020-21 Season: Tennessee spends a few weeks ranked #1 after beating Alabama but loses two of the final three weeks taking them out of the SEC Championship game. Florida barely loses to Alabama and Georgia. Notre Dame loses two games to Clemson but is competitive in both and BYU goes undefeated resulting in the craziest debate for the 4th seed. Notre Dame’s history wins out resulting in the same CFP we had in 2018.
On to the lackluster slate of Week 2 games…we’re only picking 7 because I’m sorry Oklahoma and Texas fans, we’re not predicting games against your patsy non-conference opponents!
We’ll get back to the weekly bold predictions starting next week. In the meantime, here’s a new betting feature I’ll introduce to the NFL / CFB combined picks…the Pick 5. Quite simply it’s five football games, college or pro, against the spread.
Week 1 Pick 5 Selections:
Last Week: 0-0
Season: 0-0
Georgia Tech + 12.5 at Florida State
Louisville -11.5 vs. Western Kentucky
Buffalo Bills -6.5 vs. New York Jets
Carolina Panthers +2.5 vs. Las Vegas Raiders
Arizona Cardinals +7.5 vs. San Francisco 49ers
To read previous entries of my blog, click here. Also make sure to follow me on Twitter @CohensCornerAZ.
Cohen's Corner 
Oh my God, where do I start? First you slam the Big 12 for their “pathetic slate of non-conference games”. I almost stopped reading the article. Then I see someone picks Texas to make it to the Semi-Finals. I looked back and saw it was you Eric. If this was on paper, at that point, I would have shredded it.
Good job to Adam & Bear Down Steve for picking Oklahoma to get into the Semi-Finals. Also Steve, good job for staying away from Florida. What is it with you other 3 and Florida?
Everyone has Clemson beating Alabama in the Championship game; sorry but one of them will not get in and Clemson will not win it.
As for your picks this week, I didn’t see much of a difference. Bear Down Steve has a few opposite on his spread picks and Adam may of had one opposite. There shouldn’t be much of a difference in your standing.
Good job everybody; I’m looking forward to future articles.
Keep up the good work Eric and maybe take an anger management class to help you get over your Oklahoma Sooner Hatred. Texas, REALLY?
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Ha! I knew you wouldn’t like my picks…but Texas has all of their difficult games, minus OU, at home! Tom Herman has to get it done with a senior QB this year or his tenure there won’t be for much longer. Thanks for reading as always. I’ll make sure we pick OU games most weeks from here on out.
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