Overall 2012 Football Preview

College football has turned into a monster.  There is not a single event in many towns/states that achieves an economic impact anywhere close to a college football weekend.  Some hotels, restaurants, catering companies, etc. make their entire year from 6 or 7 home football game weekends.  The only other events that compare are NFL games.  I have talked to hundreds of people this offseason about football and all have said at some point in our conversation how ready they are for football.  Well we are here!  A few thoughts I have going into the season.

This will be the last time I talk about Penn State and Sandusky.  The punishment laid down on Penn State was above and beyond what was necessary.  The people this punishment will impact had nothing to do with Sandusky or the rest of the program.  I am in no way endorsing what happened because I think it is disgusting to say the least.  It will be 20 years before Penn State is relevant again in football.  This lack of relevancy will hurt local merchants in and around State College, PA(economic impact).  I understand why the NCAA put down the sanctions they did, but I don’t agree with the harshness of them.

This probably goes without saying, but the SEC will be awesome again.  Almost half the conference has the ability to make a run at the SEC/NCAA championship (Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, LSU, South Carolina).  I would not rule out the possibility of another SEC/SEC national championship game.  The SEC deserves a shot to defend the title until someone knocks them off.  I can’t even make a prediction for the SEC Championship game because I really think all of the above teams have a shot at it.  One play in a season will be what separates one or two of the above teams from the rest.  You will notice the play when you see it because the media juggernaut known as ESPN will show/talk about it at least 1,000 times.

The national media loves it when they have the chance to hype either USC or Notre Dame.  This year I was shocked to see Notre Dame not ranked in the preseason Top 25 because no matter what it seems like they always are.  The team the media is riding this year is the University of Southern California.  The Trojans return some major talent and deserve the right to be called one of the best preseason teams.  At worst this team will be a 10 win team, but I think the “under the radar” Oregon Ducks may be the best Pac-12 Team.  What I would tell you to look for this year for USC is elevated spreads.  Preseason they have 6 games with a 3+ TD spread.  Opening game spread against Hawaii Saturday is -40.  If Hawaii scores 1 TD the Trojans probably don’t cover.  If the spreads start to get out of control I like whoever is playing USC against the spread.  More times than not underdogs in large spread games are a good pick(especially Nick Saban coached teams because he does not leave starters in to run up the score).

Will a major team run through their schedule undefeated?  I always look at preseason schedules and think yes several teams should be able to do this, but they all end up losing to a team they should dominate.  Not sure how many teams can win all their games, but if we have 2 or 3 undefeated teams with a couple of 1 loss SEC teams then all hell could break loose.  I kind of hope it happens.

Opening weekend games that I like  

Penn State -6 against Ohio - I like this pick because I feel like this team will play this game with a lot of built up emotion, kind of an US against the world mentality.  Penn State has more talent than Ohio.  The sanctions against Penn State won't really start impacting the program until next year. 

Troy -6 against UAB – Troy will be an above average small team this year while UAB will be a bad.

Southern Miss +20 against Nebraska – If USM can get something from their quarterback this game will be close.