Well I hope everyone is ready for the 2016 season! I know we here at Simplified Football sure are. It’s year 3 of the playoff system and there is sure to be a lot of controversy and discussion and twists and turns this season. We’ll start this season off with a Power Poll of the top 25 Rated teams, as well as a prediction of the final Top 25 and Conference Champions. The Power Poll is just a ranking of how our formula rates each team based off of talent, experience, and past performance relative to their talent and experience.
Last season’s Top rated team was Alabama. Who ended up winning the National Title. Michigan State was 5th and Clemson was top 25. Only Oklahoma last year was outside of the Pre-season top 25. 2014 We correctly predicted 3 of the Playoff Teams (FSU, Oregon, and Alabama), with the 4th team being the Big 10 champ who we predicted as Wisconsin instead of Ohio St (We correctly had Wisconsin and Ohio St in the Big 10 Champ game, just incorrectly predicted the winner).
SF Pre-Season Top 25:
- Alabama (4.96)
- FSU (4.84)
- LSU (4.83)
- Michigan (4.69)
- UCLA (4.62)
- Texas A&M (4.56)
- Southern Cal (4.55)
- Notre Dame (4.54)
- Ohio St (4.54)
- Auburn (4.52)
- Clemson (4.51)
- West Virginia (4.50)
- Georgia (4.45)
- Tennessee (4.44)
- Stanford (4.44)
- Miami (4.43)
- Oklahoma St (4.42)
- Washington (4.41)
- Oklahoma (4.40)
- Oregon (4.36)
- Baylor (4.36)
- North Carolina (4.36)
- Ole Miss (4.31)
- Arkansas (4.29)
- Michigan St (4.25)
For the predictions we will predict each Conference Champion, Playoff Teams and the Final CFP rankings (pre-Bowl) and finish it with our Championship game prediction:
SF 2016 Predictions:
SEC: Alabama (12-1) over Georgia (9-4)
ACC: FSU (12-1) over UNC (9-4)
Big 12: Oklahoma 10-2
Pac 12: UCLA (11-2) over Stanford (10-3)
Big 10: Ohio St (11-2) over Iowa (8-5)
American: Houston (10-3) over Cincinnati (8-5)
MWC: San Diego St (10-3) over Boise St (8-5)
C-USA: Western Kentucky (10-3) over Southern Miss (9-4)
MAC: Bowling Green (9-4) over Western Michigan (8-5)
Sun Belt: Arkansas St (10-2)
Final CFP Top 25 Predictions:
- Alabama
- FSU
- UCLA
- OU
- Ohio St
- Clemson
- Michigan
- LSU
- USC
- Notre Dame
- Georgia
- Tennessee
- Stanford
- West Virginia
- North Carolina
- Michigan St
- Oregon
- Oklahoma St
- TCU
- Texas A&M
- Miami
- Auburn
- Washington
- Ole Miss
- Louisville
*Alabama and FSU are clearly in with the toughest schedules and most wins against the top 25 (and their losses to top 25 teams). UCLA has a bad loss but overall a tougher schedule than Ohio State and the Champ game over OU. Ohio State has the Championship game over OU, but OU has a head to head win (beating Ohio St earlier in the season) thus they get the nod. It would be a headache for the CFP deciding between those 3 as well as Clemson, LSU, and Michigan in the end.
Contract Bowls:
Rose – Ohio St v USC
Sugar – LSU v West Virginia
Cotton – Michigan v Houston
Orange – Clemson v Notre Dame
Playoffs:
Peach – Alabama v Oklahoma
Fiesta – Florida St v UCLA
Championship Game in Tampa: Florida State v Oklahoma
2016 Champion – Florida State
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