Well I hope everyone is ready for the 2017 season! I know we here at Simplified Football sure are. It’s year 4 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 like all the other seasons. 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 made it to the Championship game for the 2nd straight season. The eventual National Champion Clemson was 11th, Washington was 18th, and Ohio State was 9th in our Pre-Season Power Poll. Our Predictions had Alabama, Clemson, and Ohio St in the top 6 and Washington 23. 15 of the Power Poll Top 25 finished in the Final top 25 and 16 of our Top 25 predictions finished there.
This year the top 20 average 4.67. Last year it averaged 4.55. This year the teams are a better than the teams last year. There were a few tweaks to the formula (as is normal) but all in all the tweaks did not account for anything close to .12 difference on average.
There is a pretty steep difference in the ACC, Big10, Pac12, and SEC and the Big 12. I know for the Bowls terminology it is the Power 5, but this year it’s closer to the Power 5 and then the Big 12. Also there is a pretty big difference in the American conference and the rest of the group of 5 conferences (MWC, MAC, Sun Belt, and CUSA). This year it’s closer to the Power 4, the big 2, and the group of 4. Although there is still a decent gap between the Big 12 and the American conference. One more thing to add is that the difference in the Big 12 isn’t so much a lack of quality teams at the top as Texas, Ok St, and OU are all top 25 caliber teams and maybe even TCU. But the lack of decent teams in the middle and having bad teams at the bottom. I do think the top 2 in any of the Power 4 conferences (Clemson, FSU, Ohio St, Penn St, Alabama, Auburn, USC, Washington and a few more like Michigan, Stanford, Georgia, and Wisconsin) would all win the Big 12.
SF Pre-Season Top 25:
- Alabama (5.25)
- FSU (5.15)
- Ohio St (4.93)
- Auburn (4.91)
- Washington (4.80)
- Penn St (4.76)
- LSU (4.73)
- USC (4.68)
- Stanford (4.64)
- Wisconsin (4.59)
- Clemson (4.59)
- Georgia (4.59)
- Oklahoma St (4.58)
- Oklahoma (4.54)
- Florida (4.49)
- UCLA (4.49)
- Miami (4.47)
- Michigan (4.45)
- Texas (4.43)
- Arizona St (4.42)
- Ole Miss (4.40)
- Tennessee (4.36)
- TCU (4.30)
- Houston (4.29)
- Vanderbilt (4.28)
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 over Georgia
ACC: FSU over Miami
Big 12: Oklahoma over Texas
Pac 12: USC over Washington
Big 10: Ohio St over Wisconsin
American: USF over Houston
MWC: Boise St over San Diego St
C-USA: Southern Miss over Marshall
MAC: Western Michigan over Bowling Green
Sun Belt: Appalachian State
Final CFP Top 25 Predictions:
- Alabama
- FSU
- Ohio St
- USC
- Penn St
- Washington
- Clemson
- Michigan
- Notre Dame
- Wisconsin
- Auburn
- Stanford
- Oklahoma
- Georgia
- Oklahoma St
- Miami
- USF
- Louisville
- Northwestern
- LSU
- Houston
- Western Michigan
- Arizona State
- Virginia Tech
- NC State
Contract Bowls:
Peach – Michigan v USF
Fiesta – Penn St v Washington
Cotton – Auburn v Oklahoma
Orange – Clemson v Notre Dame
Playoffs:
Sugar – Alabama v USC
Rose – Florida State v Ohio St
Championship Game in Tampa: Florida State v Alabama
2017 Champion – Alabama
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