Every year there are games that define the college football season. They decide who plays for National Championships and who doesn't. These are my top 5, most important games in 2008.

5. Alabama @ Clemson- 8/30/08

Many people have Clemson in their top 10 and Alabama, well, not so much. Clemson's easy schedule allows them to have a chance at a National Championship game this season. Alabama hopes to show off their #1 recruiting class. This might be Clemson's only real chance at losing. Once they get rolling it will be hard for any ACC team to beat them. So Alabama will try and catch them off guard week 1 and ruin their National Chamionsip dreams. If not, it might be a long year for the Crimson Tide.

4. Missouri @ Texas- 10/18/08

Two top 10 teams in many peoples preseason top 25. This is a huge Big 12 match-up between teams dreaming big right now. Despite being on different sides of the Big 12 this game will provide a costly loss to one of the teams involved for a conference championship. The winner will likely be sitting pretty for a conference championship game bid, and maybe a National Championship game.

3. Texas @ Oklahoma- 10/11/08

You have to feel bad for Texas as they play two of the most important games of the year. Not only does this game have huge Conference and National Championship dreams on the line, it also has bragging rights in one of college football's best rivalries. Two top ten teams will be dueling out in, in my opinion, the most competetive conference in college football next season.

2. Ohio State @ Southern Cal- 9/13/08

One of the most anticipated non-conference games ever. Two top 5 teams will be playing for, most likely, the #1 ranking in college football. Ohio State looks to take an early edge over the field to return to the National Championship for the third straight season. While USC is trying to prove that they can get back for the first time since falling to Texas.

1. Florida vs. Georgia-  11/01/08

The reason this game gets the edge over OSU @ USC is because it's a conference game. And because Florida and Georgia are both in the SEC East means that only one of them can be in the Confernce Championship game, and most likely it will be the winner of this game. Not to mention it is one of the best rivalries in college football. And the battle between Heisman hopefuls Tim Tebow and Knowshon Moreno.

 

Everyone said I was on crack for picking the Eagles to win the Super Bowl in an earlier post, but I'm going to stick to that. I'm now going to do some more predictions.

MVP- Brian Westbrook...2,200 yards from scrimmage

Defensive Player of the Year- Mario Williams... 15 sacks

Defensive Rookie of the Year- Chris Long... 10 sacks

Offensive Rookie of the Year- Darren McFadden... 1,300 rushing yards

Best Players at skill positions

QB

1st. Tom Brady... who cares I hate him

2nd. Donovan McNabb... 28 passing TDs and 6 rushing

3rd. Peyton Manning... 30ish passing TDs

RB

1st. Brian Westbrook... already told you

2nd. LT... 20 total TDs

3rd. Steven Jackson... 2,000 yards from scrimmage

WR

1st. Braylon Edwards... around 15 TDs

2nd. Randy Moss... he admits he's BLEEP... just kidding... that would be funny though

3rd. Andre Johnson... around 12 TDs

 

 

 

I know that the draft has taken place yet but I'm going to predict each division winner and wild card team, plus the championship games and Super Bowl.

NFC

East- Philadelphia Eagles(12-4)- When Donovan McNabb is healthy the Eagles can compete for a Super Bowl. The last time he was... they did.

North- Green Bay Packers(11-5)- I don't care that Brett is gone because Aaron Rodgers is GOOD.

South- New Orleans Saints(11-5)- They had a let down last year after being one game from the Super Bowl... it won't happen again.

West-Seattle Seahawks(10-6)- How many straight times have they won this?

Wild Card- Cowboys(11-5) and Giants(10-6)

Close but no cigar- Redskins, Buccaneers, Rams

NFC CHAMPIONSHIP- Eagles vs Saints

AFC

East- Patriots(13-3)- No explanation needed.

North- Cleveland Browns(11-5)- First surprise as the Browns take down the Steelers. I like their offseason additions.

South- Jacksonville Jaguars(12-4)- The toughest division in football lands in the hands of the team with the best run game in the NFL. They win some crazy tiebreaker over the also 12-4 Colts.

West- San Diego Chargers(12-4)- The rest of the division is trash and the Chargers aren't. That Simple.

Wild Card- Colts(12-4) and Steelers(10-6)

Close but no cigar- Texans, Titans, Broncos

AFC Championship- Jaguars vs Chargers

SUPER BOWL

Eagles vs Chargers

Winner- Eagles

Super Bowl MVP- Donovan McNabb



This pick might be slightly biased but nothing else in this is.

Now I don't want to lie to you and say I'm a huge Davidson fan... because well I'm not. But like everyone else in the world not from Kansas I was cheering for Davidson to shock Kansas just like they did to Georgetown and Wisconsin. I was dissappointed when they came up two points shy in their elite effort. But when I heard the news that Stephen Curry was staying for his junior year at Davidson I really got excited. I am going out on a limb right now, April 1st  2008, and saying that Davidson will win the National Championship in 2009. I know that they are losing very, very good point guard Jason Richards but they still have Stephen Curry and as we saw thats almost all you need.  Next time around Davidson will have some greatly needed experience, but  no one is going to underestimate them like they did this time around.  There are two reasons for that. 1. They know they made it to the elite 8 this year. 2. They will be much higher then a 10 seed.

Has a "mid-major" ever won a National Championship?

Since I really started filling out my brackets for the big dance I have had a nack for picking the big upsets. In 2005 I had 14 Bucknell over 3 Kansas(it happened). In 2006 I had 14 Northwestern State over 3 Iowa(it happened). Last year no team 12 or higher won a game but I correctley picked 11 VCU over 6 Duke and 11 Winthrop over 6 Notre Dame( I also had two near misses with 15 TAMU-CC over 2 Wisconsin and 13 Davidson over 4 Indiana). Now you probably just think I fill out a bracket with a ton of upsets and then say after I got all the big upsets right, but I don't. I just happen to know who will be upset.

2008 Predictions

Biggest Upset- 14 Cal State Fullerton over 3 Wisconsin

Team People Think Might Upset But Won't- 12 George Mason

Near Upsets- 16 Portland State over 1 Kansas and 16 Texas-Arlington over 1 Memphis

Teams Seeded 10 Or Higher That Will Go Deep- 10 Davidson(Sweet 16), 10 South Alabama (Sweet 16), 11 Baylor (Sweet 16), 11 Kansas State(Elite Eight)

Final Four- 1 UNC, 1 Kansas, 2 Texas, 4 UCONN

National Championship- North Carolina vs Texas

Champion-North Carolina

Since my Eagles are out of the playoffs i need a few reasons to tune in at all during the playoffs and I have found a few that intrest me.

The Washington Redskins- With Todd Collins at QB the Redskins have not lost a game. After the tragic death of Shaun Taylor and then falling to 5-7 I thought they were done, and i kind of wish they had been done because if they would have finished 7-9 the Eagles would be in the playoffs. But you can't write what has happened to this team and this will be one of the few times I ever cheer for them.

Vince Young- Everyone expected more from VY this year than he actually put out on the field but the Titans are in the playoffs. I remember watching those two insane performances that Vince had in the Rose Bowl in back to back years at Texas where he just took over. It will be interesting to watch the performance of (in my opinion) someone who will become a superstar in the NFL.

Norv Turner-After the Chargers awful start to the year everyone was asking why the Chargers fired Marty but now Norv can silence all of his previous critics. But what if he loses in the first game, do they fire him like they did to Marty, I doubt it but just something to watch for.

And of course

The Patriots- I really hope they lose. I could not stand seeing them win AGAIN and to go undefeated.

What I want to happen- Redskins and Titans Superbowl with the Titans winning and Vince winning the MVP.

What I think will happen- Patriots and Packers Superbowl with the Patriots winning and Tom Brady winning the MVP...ugh

 

In case you missed it on Sunday Brian Westbrook fell down at the one to allow the Eagles to kneel away the remaining time on the clock. The game was 10-6 and the two minute warning struck after this and the time-out less Cowboys could do nothing to prevent Donovan McNabb from kneeling down to wrap up the win. 

In one of my fantasy leagues my team is headed to the championship and I will not be playing the best team in the league because of this, instead i will be playing the 4th best team to take the $115 main prize. The best team in the league was affected by Brady's awful play and...of course Westbrook. He lost by 3 points and touchdowns are worth 6.  HA HA HA..welcome 115 bucks. I now will watch my team play an average team instead of the team that went 14-0 in the regular season and it feels great.

My team won because Romo got shut down by my Eagles. I mean 3 ints and 1 fantasy point. Thank You. I hate two things in this world. A-Rod and Romo. Mainly because I'm an Eagles and Red Sox fan but mainly because I hate metro sexuals who slick back their hair and put on all of their perfume. Nothing makes me happier then seeing them fail and that is exactley what Romo did on Sunday.

Let me hear about Westbrook and what it did to your fantasy team.

Texas Tech and Oklahoma have in common the fact that they both lost to teams from the Southland Conference. Now your probably saying those games were just flukes and that the SLC is a joke. Lets look at the past. 2006, Northwestern State beats Iowa in the first round of the NCAA tourny. A 14 over 3 upset. 2007 TAMU-CC almost upsets Wisconsin. This season(2007-2008) Sam Houston St. beat Texas Tech and is currentley 8-0 with wins over teams from more respected conference, like at Saint Louis from the A-10. Texas-Arlington is 8-0 with a key win at a solid Witchita St. team. Stephen F. Austin 7-1 with a victory at Oklahoma. The conference has a 59-38 record as of December 10th. Look I'm not saying that this is like the Big 12 or ACC but it should get a little respect for the quality of teams they put out on the floor. It would be nice to see maybe 2 or 3 teams from this conference go to the NCAA tournament. And maybe if only one goes don't make them a 15 or 16 seed and make them have to have to play a dominant team in the first round. This in my opinion is one of the better mid-major conference but yet they never get multiple teams in March Madness like the A-10 or Missouri Valley Conference.

Let me know what you think.