Prediction: Alabama will win highly contested SEC

By Brandon Ferris

Nick Saban exits the field after last year's thrilling national title game.

Year after year we see that the SEC is top heavy. The few heavyweights that dominate the SEC beat each other up each year, which usually leads to only one SEC team getting that prestigious college playoff berth. However, last year was the exception. 

Predictability is not always the most exciting route, but in the SEC, we’ve come to see that predictable is the norm. After winning its fifth national championship in the last nine years, it seems as though Alabama is the team to beat. Indeed, the Crimson Tide lost a lot of players in the NFL draft (as always), but Nick Saban can always rebuild within a few months. Players like Calvin Ridley, Minkah Fitzpatrick, Ronnie Harrison, and Bo Scarbrough will not be returning this year. A record 12 players were selected from Alabama in the NFL draft, but there are more than enough players for Saban to use. But, all eyes will be on the starting quarterback battle.

Speaking of quarterbacks, two teams that could dethrone Alabama have Heisman candidates leading their team. Jake Fromm of Georgia and Auburn's Jarrett Stidham look to lead their teams to the college football playoff.

Kirby Smart and the Bulldogs should have an easy time winning the East Division of the SEC, similar to last year. Georgia finished 13-2, with a 7-1 conference record. While they lost key contributors like Nick Chubb and Roquan Smith, a healthy Jake Fromm can take Georgia back to the SEC championship and maybe back to the College Football Playoff. Florida and Missouri may present tough challenges, but the Bulldogs should run all over them.

On the East side, look for Auburn and Alabama to take control. An Iron Bowl with huge implications is great for the SEC and college football. Auburn will look to control their games with their tough defense and Gus Malzahn will hope that Stidham can take the next step as an elite QB. Even though Auburn will present a tough challenge, the Tide will meet the Bulldogs in the SEC championship this year. 

With sleepers like Missouri, LSU, and Texas A&M with Jimbo Fisher, the SEC could have more of a level playing field this year. There are a lot of good quarterbacks in the south that can lead their team to many victories. 

However, the Tide will come out of the SEC and will look to win its sixth national title in 10 years. 

Prediction: Ohio State poised to win Big Ten title again

By Mike Santaniello

Urban Meyer's squad, despite heavy competition, win once again win the Big Ten.

The Big Ten is one of the most dominant conferences in all of college football. The conference has five candidates alone that could contend for a playoff spot.

Despite high competition, Urban Meyer’s Ohio State Buckeyes have held control of the the conference the last few years — teams such as Michigan, Wisconsin and Penn State are waiting to dethrone the reigning champs.

Michigan State also has potential to make some noise and be competitive.

Jim Harbaugh has Michigan ready to bounce back. They still have one of the most complete defenses on all three levels, and a very talented wide receiver core with Peoples-Jones predicted for a breakout season. It will be interesting to see Penn State’s team post-Saquon Barkley Era, but they are still a very well-rounded team.

Wisconsin still has a firm control over the weak west division, so they are bound to be in the mix of things. Michigan State was fortunate to win six close games last season, but have the coaching and talent to repeat that this year.

Despite all this I still see the Buckeyes making it back to the Big Ten Championship. I do not think Michigan State and Penn State have the talent to match up the well-rounded Urban Meyer-coached football team.

I do believe Michigan will be highly competitive this year and will be in the mix with Ohio State, but Jim Harbaugh’s inability to win big games will continue to haunt the Wolverines and it will knock them behind Ohio State in the East standings.

The west division is almost a lock with the Wisconsin Badgers destined for their fourth appearance in five years, with Iowa the only team with a chance to be competitive unless the Hawkeyes have a total collapse this year.

So with Wisconsin and Ohio State winning their divisions respectively, we will see a rematch of last year’s championship game. The result will be the same, with the Buckeyes beating the Badgers in dominant fashion with a 35-21 victory. This time, though, Ohio State will actually get into the playoff.

Sophomore J.K. Dobbins will have a repeat of his 174 yard MVP performance, I believe setting the pace on the ground for Ohio State with a 100-plus-yard game, and the pass rush will keep the Badgers quarterbacks running for their lives.

McSorley will pick up some hardware this year

McSorley scrambles against USC in the 2016 Rose Bowl game.

By Brandon Scalea

For the last two seasons, Penn State has knocked on the door but come up short.

This year, senior quarterback Trace McSorley will not only guide the Nittany Lions to college football's promised land, the four-team playoff, he will win the Heisman Trophy in the process.

The Vegas money line on McSorley to earn this hardware is currently +2700, so a conservative $20 bet would net $560. If you're in New Jersey or Delaware, where sports betting just became legal, I'd suggest looking into this.

Let's take a look at what the kid from Ashburn, Virginia has done in his first two years in Happy Valley. While he's certainly been overshadowed by the tremendous athlete that was Saquon Barkley, the quarterback emerged as one of the nation's finest dual-threats. While Penn State struggled with a subpar offensive line, McSorley still played a major role in a Big Ten title in 2016, resulting in being the first team out of that year's playoff. Last season, the Nittany Lions started 7-0 before dropping two consecutive road heartbreakers to Ohio State and Michigan State, respectively.

No single play defined McSorley's skill and football intelligence more than one that proved the difference in Iowa last season.

With the Hawkeyes clinging to a 19-15 lead with under 10 seconds to play over the then-undefeated Nittany Lions, PSU needed a miracle. On fourth and goal, with the rowdy Iowa crowd shaking the stadium, McSorley saw something he didn't like in the Hawkeye defense and made a quick adjustment. He quickly got the snap, took a two-step drop and fired the winning touchdown pass in the back of the end zone as time expired.

Barkley had been shut down virtually the whole game, so Penn State needed McSorley to come up huge. He rose to the challenge.

Last season, he completed 65 percent of his passes for over 3,200 yards. He threw 26 touchdowns and 8 interceptions. His 2016 numbers were even better: 3,600 yards and 29 touchdowns.

Penn State has been on the rise the last two seasons and it's due in large part to the young man under center. He's got the same skill set as Baker Mayfield, last year's Heisman winner and this year's first overall pick in the NFL Draft.

The de facto Big Ten Championship will be the Sept. 29 showdown against Ohio State at Beaver Stadium. It will be the whiteout game, and Penn State fans might even break last year's attendance record — 110,000-plus in the whiteout against Michigan.

Let's see if McSorley's senior season will be his best yet.

Brandon Scalea can be reached at brandonscalea22@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @brandonscalea.  

Predictions for second set of CFB Rankings

By Brandon Scalea

Baker Mayfield threw for 598 yards against OK State and emerged as a Heisman favorite.

Tonight at 7 p.m. ET will be the second set of rankings put together by the College Football Playoff Committee.

It was a relatively easy week for the top four, so expect that to remain exactly how it was last week. The bubble teams is where it starts to get interesting, though.

Oklahoma was ranked No. 5 last week, but it's coming off easily its most impressive win of the year — 62-52 over Oklahoma State. In that battle of 7-1 teams, Sooner quarterback Baker Mayfield had a career night, throwing for 598 yards and five touchdowns. With Penn State running back Saquon Barkley being shut down the last two weeks, it suddenly looks like Mayfield is the Heisman frontrunner.

Anyway, don't be shocked if the Sooners sneak into the No. 4 spot. Clemson had that fourth spot last week, and the Tigers are coming off a win over ranked NC State. But the team had to come from behind and escape with a 38-31 victory.

Ohio State and Penn State were No. 6-7, respectively, and both teams are coming off bad, bad losses. The Buckeyes were run out of the stadium by Iowa and the Nittany Lions were beaten at the buzzer by Michigan State. PSU will now drop out of playoff contention, probably falling as far as No. 16 in the rankings. I'd drop Ohio State to No. 12.

The Buckeyes aren't necessarily out of the hunt yet, but they'll need a home win against the Spartans to have a slight chance.

With the 6 and 7 spots now open, I'd move Wisconsin to No. 6 and TCU to No. 7. Both teams have a lot to prove still, but each can make their own case.

CFB Playoff Rankings predictions for tonight:

1. Georgia
2. Alabama
3. Notre Dame
4. Clemson

5. Oklahoma  6. Wisconsin  7. TCU

Brandon Scalea can be reached at brandonscalea22@gmail.com or scaleasports@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @brandonscalea. 

Week 9 is one to forget for the Big Ten

By Brandon Scalea

Michigan State beat Penn State, 27-24, on a last-second field goal on Saturday. Photo from PennLive

As I sat in High Point Solutions Stadium for a relatively unimportant game between Rutgers and Maryland, I kept checking my phone to see the Big Ten's hopes for a playoff bid basically falling apart.

As the home Scarlet Knights went on to win an impressive 31-24 game against the Terrapins for coach Chris Ash's biggest win yet, Ohio State was routed by Iowa and Penn State was beaten in the final moments by Michigan State.

Here's what this means for the Big Ten: there is little to no shot that the conference will be represented in this year's College Football Playoff. 

At 9-0, Wisconsin is the Big Ten's last remaining undefeated team, but experts have continued to say the Badgers, even at 13-0 with a conference title under their belt, might be left out of the final top four. UW has yet to play a ranked team this season, and might not all year. Their only legitimate challenge during the regular season is a Nov. 18 home matchup with the unranked, beaten-down Michigan Wolverines.

Wisconsin has pretty much already clinched the Big Ten West. With Penn State (7-2, 4-2 Big Ten) out of contention for the Big Ten Championship, next week's game between the Spartans and Buckeyes in Columbus will be the de facto Big Ten East title game. Both of those teams are 5-1 in conference play.

All the momentum, however, seems be on Michigan State's side.

The Spartans are fresh off a come-from-behind win against No. 7 Penn State in a weird, weather-delayed game. There was a noon kickoff, a three-and-a-half-hour delay for lightning and a walk-off field goal after night had fallen and half the stadium had gone home.

In a season where MSU has already beaten its "big brother" in Ann Arbor and a top-10 Nittany Lion team, one would expect Mark Dantonio's squad to beat the Buckeyes too, for good measure.

Meanwhile, Ohio State is coming off what might be the worst loss of Urban Meyer's career. In front of a hostile blackout crowd in Iowa, the Buckeyes surrendered 55 points and only scored 24. JT Barrett, who emerged into the Heisman race after last week's win over PSU, all but killed his chances after throwing four interceptions Saturday.

The No. 6 Buckeyes are the sixth top-10 team in the last nine years that has fallen at Iowa. Notably, the Hawkeyes came up just short earlier this year against the then-No. 3 Nittany Lions, who won on the last snap of the game.

We know that college football is a crazy game with crazy story lines, but right now it seems like the Big Ten will need some outside help to get a team into the College Football Playoff.

Here are some predictions moving forward: Ohio State will beat Michigan State, 20-16, next week. The Buckeyes will get into the Big Ten Championship and beat Wisconsin convincingly. At 11-2 overall, Ohio State will finish the season at No. 6 and fall short of the playoff.

Brandon Scalea can be reached at brandonscalea22@gmail.com or scaleasports@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @brandonscalea. 

Breaking down first CFB Playoff rankings

By Brandon Scalea

It's that time of year — we are eight weeks into the college football season, which means the venerable College Football Playoff committee has released its first rankings.

I can happily say that for the first time since the committee's inception a few years ago, there were actually a few surprises in the rankings. Here they are, in case you missed them:

1. Georgia 
2. Alabama
3. Notre Dame
4. Clemson

First two out: Oklahoma, Ohio State 

Undefeated Alabama has been No. 1 in the AP and Coaches' Polls since the beginning of the season, so the committee is really making a statement here putting the Bulldogs in the top spot. While Georgia is also unbeaten with arguably a tougher schedule, the Crimson Tide have made easy work of every opponent, including 59-0 and 66-3 beatdowns of Vanderbilt and Ole Miss, respectively.

With only LSU and Auburn left as slight challenges, you can expect Alabama to finish the regular season 12-0 and earn a spot, yet again, in the SEC Championship in Atlanta. Georgia has all but earned the SEC East division title, so a No. 1 vs. No. 2 showdown is pretty much set to decide who wins the SEC and who gets the spot in the playoff. Despite both teams playing tremendously this season, it would be a long shot to have two SEC teams in the four-team playoff.

Notre Dame has quietly stormed through its schedule after a week 2 loss at home to Georgia, 20-19. Since then, the Irish have dominated rival USC and nationally-ranked NC State. The team still has a very tough road ahead, with road games at Miami and Stanford. If ND finishes the season 11-1 with their only loss to Georgia — especially if the Bulldogs win the SEC — then the team should be a lock for a playoff spot.

Clemson has probably the worst loss out of all the top one-loss teams — to Syracuse a few weeks back. That game wasn't a fluke either, the Orange thoroughly outplayed the then-No. 2 Tigers. But Clemson has impressive road wins over Louisville and Virginia Tech, and a home win against Auburn. As the defending national champion, the Tigers will probably stay at No. 4 if they can win the ACC.

It's interesting to note that there are currently no Big Ten teams in the top four. Penn State had been ranked No. 2 and seemed destined for a national title run after a miraculous road win over Iowa, and a vengeful 42-13 win over No. 19 Michigan. But the Nittany Lions had a fourth quarter collapse to Ohio State, and now the Buckeyes are the favorite to win the Big Ten.

Penn State certainly isn't out of the race, but a lot will have to go right for them to get back into the top four. After all, Ohio State finished 11-1 last season, did not even play in the Big Ten Championship, but still finished the season No. 3.

There are still four weeks left until championship weekend, and right now, it's safe to say that no one is a lock for the playoff just yet.

Brandon Scalea can be reached at brandonscalea22@gmail.com or scaleasports@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @brandonscalea.