This is my third update on how the conference poll voting is shaping up. The last couple of years, I have I put up a poll for everyone to pick who would win each conference game during the year. I found these results fascinating prior to the year. When you vote in the poll, it tabulates the current % of votes for each team in each individual game. Prizes will be awarded at the end of the year for the people who predicted the conference’s most accurately. However, you need to vote on every single game to qualify. You cannot just vote on the six BCS conferences and skip the others. You have only until the end of the weekend to get your votes in!

Here are the current conference standings for all the conferences with the percentages of each game factored in according to your votes.

According to your votes Alabama is predicted to go undefeated in the regular season The Crimson Tide’s closest game is expected to come against LSU as they received 66% of the vote. In the East, South Carolina is expected to win all of their games except their road trip to Arkansas as the Gamecocks will look to make it two straight SEC East titles. Georgia also is expected to go 7-1 but only 47% of you so far expect them to beat South Carolina at home. Finally, Tennessee with a tough opening schedule is expected to start 0-6 before winning their final two.

Wisconsin is expected to go through the conference unscathed. Their closest game so far is expected to be a home game vs Nebraska (64%). Ohio St gets the nod for 2nd place in the Leaders due to their win over Penn St which would break their record of six straight shared or outright Big Ten titles. Big Ten newcomer Nebraska is expected to win the Legends division.

Like my magazine you are predicting the Sooners to run the table in the regular season. Texas A&M looks to have their best conference finish in many years according to you with their loss coming only to conference heavyweight Oklahoma on the road. Texas according to you is expected to have another “sub-par” season for them as you have projected 4 conference losses for the Horns.

According to you, Florida St will win the ACC Atlantic. So far the Seminoles look like clear winners in all the games (79% or more). Virginia Tech gets the nod in the Coastal as the Hokies (8-0) look to have a rematch against the Seminoles in the ACC Title game. Miami and North Carolina have each had their off-the-field issues this year and are picked to go 5-3 in the conference.

Of all the conferences that you have projected, the Pac-12 is the most interesting with Stanford (9-0) taking down 2-time defending champ Oregon in the North while Pac-12 newcomer Utah taking home the South title. Lots of the games in the conference are close and with a couple days left these standings could change.

The Big East also figures to be very competitive this year and so far your votes reflect that. Right now you favor Pittsburgh, USF and West Virginia all finishing a top the league at 6-1.

Boise St is your pick to win the MWC in their very first season and all of the games are 77% or more. 2-time defending champ TCU is picked 2nd while Air Force is picked third.

I wrote in the magazine that there could be the possibility of a CUSA Title Game featuring two 12-0 teams and you have both Houston and Southern Miss running through the conference slate 8-0 making that also a possibility according to you. Tulsa who finished #24 last year is picked 2nd in the West while LY’s CUSA Title champ UCF is picked 2nd in the East.

The WAC is vey balanced this year but Nevada seems to be your clear favorite as at least 75% of you have them winning in each game. Hawaii is your #2 while Fresno is #3.

The MAC West was a tough division for me to forecast and it seems like you guys agree with Toledo and Northern Illinois tied at the top at 7-1. In the East, Ohio and Temple are the clear favorites with 71% of you calling Ohio to beat Temple at home and grabbing the East crown.

This is a conference that kind of surprised me. Troy was your clear favorite to win just as my magazine predicted but defending champ FIU was only picked 4th while Middle Tennessee and Arkansas St were both picked to finish ahead of the Golden Panthers.

In a couple of days I will give you an final look at the standings for all of the conferences. If you have not voted already, on the PhilSteele.com homepage below the Daily Blog click on the conference poll. After clicking on the conference you get the complete conference schedule for each team with the home team capitalized. All you have to do is vote on who you will think the winner will be in each game and the current voting tally appears. Remember you can only vote once and take your time by maybe doing one conference at a time. To vote you do have to register your e-mail address and then login but this is just to make sure there is no stuffing of the ballot box. Have a great time voting and thanks in advance! Remember you only have a couple more days to vote as the the polls will be closed at the end of next week!

Only 5 Days Away Until the 1st College Football Game!!!

This is my second update on how the conference poll voting is shaping up. The last couple of years, I have I put up a poll for everyone to pick who would win each conference game during the year. I found these results fascinating prior to the year. When you vote in the poll, it tabulates the current % of votes for each team in each individual game. Prizes will be awarded at the end of the year for the people who predicted the conference’s most accurately. However, you need to vote on every single game to qualify. You cannot just vote on the six BCS conferences and skip the others. You have only until the end of next week to get your votes in!

Here are the current conference standings for all the conferences with the percentages of each game factored in according to your votes.

According to your votes Alabama is predicted to go undefeated in the regular season The Crimson Tide’s closest game is expected to come against LSU as they received 65% of the vote. In the East, South Carolina is expected to win all of their games except their road trip to Arkansas as the Gamecocks will look to make it two straight SEC East titles. Georgia also is expected to go 7-1 but 48% of you so far expect them to beat South Carolina at home. Finally, Tennessee with a tough opening schedule is expected to start 0-6 before winning their final two.

Wisconsin is expected to go through the conference unscathed. Their closest game so far is expected to be a home game vs Nebraska (63%). Ohio St gets the nod for 2nd place in the Leaders due to their win over Penn St which would break their record of six straight shared or outright Big Ten titles. Big Ten newcomer Nebraska is expected to win the Legends division.

Like my magazine you are predicting the Sooners to run the table in the regular season. Texas A&M looks to have their best conference finish in many years according to you with their loss coming only to conference heavyweight Oklahoma on the road. Texas according to you is expected to have another “sub-par” season for them as you have projected 4 conference losses for the Horns.

According to you, Florida St will win the ACC Atlantic. So far the Seminoles look like clear winners in all the games (80% or more). Virginia Tech gets the nod in the Coastal as the Hokies (8-0) look to have a rematch against the Seminoles in the ACC Title game. Miami and North Carolina have each had their off-the-field issues this year and are picked to go 5-3 in the conference.

Of all the conferences that you have projected, the Pac-12 is the most interesting with Stanford (9-0) taking down 2-time defending champ Oregon in the North while Pac-12 newcomer Utah taking home the South title. Lots of the games in the conference are close and with more than a week left these standings could change.

The Big East also figures to be very competitive this year and so far your votes reflect that. Right now you favor Pittsburgh, USF and West Virginia all finishing a top the league at 6-1.

Boise St is your pick to win the MWC in their very first season and all of the games are 80% or more. 2-time defending champ TCU is picked 2nd while Air Force is picked third.

I wrote in the magazine that there could be the possibility of a CUSA Title Game featuring two 12-0 teams and you have both Houston and Southern Miss running through the conference slate 8-0 making that also a possibility according to you. Tulsa who finished #24 last year is picked 2nd in the West while LY’s CUSA Title champ UCF is picked 2nd in the East.

The WAC is vey balanced this year but Nevada seems to be your clear favorite as at least 70% of you have them winning in each game. Hawaii is your #2 while Fresno is #3.

The MAC West was a tough division for me to forecast and it seems like you guys agree with Western Michigan, Toledo and Northern Illinois all tied at the top at 7-1. In the East, Ohio and Temple are the clear favorites with 75% of you calling Ohio to beat Temple at home and grabbing the East crown.

This is a conference that kind of surprised me. Troy was your clear favorite to win just as my magazine predicted but defending champ FIU was only picked 4th while Middle Tennessee and Arkansas St were both picked to finish ahead of the Golden Panthers.

In a couple of days I will give you an final look at the standings for all of the conferences. If you have not voted already, on the PhilSteele.com homepage below the Daily Blog click on the conference poll. After clicking on the conference you get the complete conference schedule for each team with the home team capitalized. All you have to do is vote on who you will think the winner will be in each game and the current voting tally appears. Remember you can only vote once and take your time by maybe doing one conference at a time. To vote you do have to register your e-mail address and then login but this is just to make sure there is no stuffing of the ballot box. Have a great time voting and thanks in advance! Remember you only have a couple more days to vote as the the polls will be closed at the end of next week!

Only 14 Days Away Until the 1st College Football Game!!!

This is my second update on how the conference poll voting is shaping up. The last couple of years, I have I put up a poll for everyone to pick who would win each conference game during the year. I found these results fascinating prior to the year. When you vote in the poll, it tabulates the current % of votes for each team in each individual game. Here is an example of what Alabama’s % look like after you have voted.

Naturally the Crimson Tide are a big favorite in most of their games and even with a showdown vs potential top 5 LSU, 65% of you have the Tide coming out on top.

Prizes will be awarded at the end of the year for the people who predicted the conference’s most accurately. However, you need to vote on every single game to qualify. You cannot just vote on the six BCS conferences and skip the others. You have only until August 27th to get your votes in!

Conference Standings

There are not many surprises in your voting to date with the exception of a few conferences. I do find it interesting that you have Stanford winning the Pac-12 North Division at 9-0 even with the loss of HC Harbaugh, 3 OL and their top 2 rec’s. Also in the Pac-12 South newcomer Utah is a surprise winner at 7-2. In the SEC you have Auburn slated for 5th place like I have in the magazine but seeing the defending national champs with a 1-7 conference record is a bit of a surprise. Also Middle Tennessee is picked to go 7-1 in the Sun Belt according to you while defending champ FIU is projected to go 5-3 and finish in 4th.

Here are the current conference standings for all the conferences. In tomorrow’s blog I will put in the schedules for each team and have the current percentages for each and every game.

2011 Projected Conference Standings
According to Your Votes 8/16/11

16 Days Until the First College Football Game!!!

The last couple of years, I have I put up a poll for everyone to pick who would win each conference game during the year. I found these results fascinating prior to the year. When you vote in the poll, it tabulates the current % of votes for each team in each individual game. Here are the results of the fan poll from 2009.

When initially reviewing the results I was quite impressed with the accuracy as you the fans did quite well in numerous conferences. In fact, when I calculated the results (similar to what stassen.com does for all the major preseason college football magazines) you guys finished #1!!!! Check out my June 10 Blog for more details.

On Saturday, we closed the polls for all the conference predictions and below is the results for every single conference game. Now up on PhilSteele.com, is all the non-conference games for you to vote on. he Non-Conference Poll will run until Sunday, Aug 29th. On Monday the 30th, look for the Weekly Polls to start. There are games every day Thursday September 2nd thru Monday September 6th as the first week of the season looks to kick off with a bang! Weekly prizes will be awarded throughout the season.

SEC WEST

According to your votes Defending champ Alabama is predicted to go undefeated in the regular conference season for the 3rd year in a row! Georgia was the last SEC team to do so back in 1980-82 playing a six game schedule. The Crimson Tide’s closest game is expected to come against LSU as they received 66% of the vote. According to you, Auburn will start 6-0 in the SEC before dropping their last two to Georgia and Alabama. In somewhat of a surprise, LSU gets the nod over Arkansas despite the game being played in Little Rock on November 27.

SEC EAST

In the East, Florida is expected to win all of their games except their road trip to Alabama as the Gators will look to make it three straight SEC East titles. Georgia also is expected to go 7-1 but just 41% of you so far expect them to beat Florida. Surprisingly to me, you have South Carolina at just 3-5 in conference play as they must face three of the best teams in the SEC West in Auburn, Alabama and Arkansas. Finally, Tennessee with a tough opening schedule is expected to start 0-5 before winning their final three.

BIG TEN

Ohio St is expected to go through the conference unscathed and this would be their sixth straight shared or outright Big Ten title. Their closest games are expected to be their road trips to Wisconsin (67%) and Iowa (67%). Speaking of the Hawkeyes, they the nod for 2nd place over Wisconsin (69%) and according to you should win most of their games comfortably with only the Penn St and Wisconsin games coming under 75%. Wisconsin and Penn St do not play each other this year and the Badgers and Nittany Lions are expected to tie for 3rd with both of them having 6-2 records. Michigan St may be in line for HC Dantonio’s best season yet and according to you they will finish with a 5-3 mark. Michigan HC Rich Rodriguez may be sitting on the hottest seat in all of college football this year and is job could be in jeopardy if the Wolverines finish with a 3-5 mark as you predict.

BIG 12 SOUTH

My first question when I picked up the voter data for the Big 12 was “Who is picked to win Texas/Oklahoma?” The answer is Oklahoma with a convincing 73% of the vote. Naturally that means Oklahoma was picked top go 8-0 by the voters with 85% calling for a road win at Texas A&M. Defending champ Texas is also expected to lose to Nebraska while Texas A&M looks to have their best conference finish in many years according to you with losses coming only to conference heavyweights Oklahoma, Texas and Nebraska. Texas Tech looks to be in store for another nice season under first year HC Tommy Tuberville with a 5-3 conference mark.

BIG 12 NORTH

Nebraska looks to make it to a 2nd consecutive trip to the Big 12 title game in their final season in the conference. Their closest game is the rematch of last year’s classic Big 12 Title game against Texas but this time 62% of you have the Cornhuskers beating the Longhorns in their game at Lincoln. If Nebraska does run the table, it would set up for a huge Big 12 Title showdown against Oklahoma in what could be the last meeting in a storied rivalry. Missouri is next in the division with a 4-4 conference record. It is interesting to see four Big 12 South teams with 5-3 or better overall records while only one team in the Big 12 North is expected to finish above .500. Naturally this shows that the South is without question the stronger division in the league.

ACC ATLANTIC

According to you, Florida St will win the ACC Atlantic with their only loss coming to Miami. So far the Seminoles look like clear winners in all the other games (80%+) with the exception of a home game against North Carolina (54%). Despite being picked to win at Boston College, Clemson is in 3rd with their tough schedule that includes predicted losses to ACC Coastal teams Miami, North Carolina and Georgia Tech. Meanwhile Boston College only gets one of the four possible Top 25 teams from the Coastal in Virginia Tech and gets the nod at 5-3.

ACC COASTAL

In the Coastal, the Hokies are heavy favorites in most of their games with only road games against Miami (55%) and North Carolina (66%) coming under 84%. Miami is picked to go 7-1 while Georgia Tech and North Carolina are picked to finish 5-3 in the conference.

PAC-10

The Pac-10 was the toughest conference for me to forecast this year as there is very little difference between the top 9 teams. So far your voting tallies agree with my “toughest conference to forecast” assessment as you have several tight races between conference favorites. USC even though they stand alone at the top with a 8-1 record, five of their games are in the 49-64% range which means one or two could go either way. Defending champ Oregon is picked to go 7-2 with only two their two losses coming under 70%.  Oregon St in somewhat of a surprise is picked by you to finish tied at 2nd at 7-2 despite breaking in a new QB. Washington also is picked to go 7-2 while Stanford is projected to go 6-3. Two teams who I have rated much higher than you guys; Arizona and California are expected to finish below .500 in conference play but both teams had at least two games that could have gone the other way according to your votes.

BIG EAST

The Big East also figures to be very competitive this year and so far your votes reflect that. Right now you favor Pittsburgh to finish the conference season unscathed with West Virginia coming in at #2 with a 6-1 mark. Cincinnati, USF and Connecticut all finished at 4-3 with the Bearcats coming close to 5-2 (49% at Connecticut).

MWC

This conference has been dominated by Utah, BYU and TCU (Air Force a clear #4) in the past several years and this year looks no different. Right now you have TCU edging out Utah (60-40%) as the Horned Frogs look to be a heavy favorite in the other seven games with a 90%+ vote in each! Outside of the TCU game, Utah is also a heavy favorite in most of their games. BYU is projected to go 6-2 while Air Force is 5-3 with annual wins against all the conference teams outside of the Big Three.

CUSA WEST

Houston is your runaway choice to win the CUSA West division with only the game at SMU (65%) coming in under 78%. Meanwhile SMU looks to make it to their 2nd bowl game in a row and according to you, that should be no problem with a 7-1 projected conference mark. Tulsa looks to rebound from last year’s disappointing 5-7 season as the Golden Hurricane are predicted to go 5-3 in conference play.

CUSA EAST

In the East, UCF is the favorite with a 7-1 record and wins over traditional CUSA powers Southern Miss and East Carolina. I do find it surprising that despite returning just 8 starters and having a new coach that East Carolina was predicted to finish at 5-3. UAB who I think has a great shot at bowl eligibility this year was projected to finish at just 2-6 in conference play.

WAC

There is no surprise here as Boise St is your heavy favorite to win the WAC with no game coming in under 90%. Nevada and Fresno St like my magazine are picked to finish just behind the Broncos. I do think it is surprising that you have Hawaii picked to finish 4th with a 5-3 record.

MAC EAST

Like my magazine predicts, Temple is your favorite to thru the MAC schedule unscathed and make their 1st trip to the MAC Championship game. The Owls were easy choices in most of their games with only a road trip to Northern Illinois coming under 70%. Ohio is predicted to finish 2nd in the East while new Buffalo HC Jeff Quinn looks to have a successful 1st year with a 5-3 projected finish.

MAC WEST

In the West, Northern Illinois is your pick to win it all as the Huskies barely edge out Western Michigan (55%) in the October 30 showdown. Surprising to me is that Central Michigan despite losing its HC, record-setting QB, its top two WR’s, and their top RB from last year are picked to finish 6-2 in conference play.

SUN BELT

Middle Tennessee is projected to finish 8-0 in the conference for the first time in their history with only their home game against Troy (59%) being considered a toss-up.  Defending champ Troy comes in at 7-1 while Arkansas St is projected to finish 6-2. Their was some reshuffling around in these standings since my last update as North Texas was projected to go just 1-7 in conference play but now the Mean Green are expected to go 3-5 which is a little closer to my 3rd place projection for them.

Only 16 Days Until the First College Football Game!!!

This is my third update on how the conference poll voting is shaping up. The last couple of years, I have I put up a poll for everyone to pick who would win each conference game during the year. I found these results fascinating prior to the year. When you vote in the poll, it tabulates the current % of votes for each team in each individual game. Prizes will be awarded at the end of the year for the people who predicted the conference’s most accurately. However, you need to vote on every single game to qualify. You cannot just vote on the six BCS conferences and skip the others. You have only until the end of the week to get your votes in!

Here are the current conference standings for all the conferences with the percentages of each game factored in according to your votes. There have been some notable changes since my July 31 Blog. USC is now expected to lose at Oregon St giving the Trojans their only conference loss of the season. In the last update, North Carolina and NC State were tied at 50% but now the Tar Heels have the voting edge with 54% of the vote as expected. Also in the MAC, Northern Illinois and Western Michigan were tied atop the league with identical 6-1-1 records with the teams each getting 50% of the vote in the game at Western. Now the Huskies have the advantage with 51% and are now alone at the top with a 7-1 record.

According to your votes Defending champ Alabama is predicted to go undefeated in the regular season for the 3rd year in a row. (Georgia was the last SEC team to do so back in 1980-82 playing a six game schedule). The Crimson Tide’s closest game is expected to come against in-state rival Auburn as they received 65% of the vote. According to you, Auburn will start 6-0 in the SEC before dropping their last two. In the East, Florida is expected to win all of their games except their road trip to Alabama as the Gators will look to make it three straight SEC East titles. Georgia also is expected to go 7-1 but just 41% of you so far expect them to beat Florida. Finally, Tennessee with a tough opening schedule is expected to start 0-5 before winning their final three.

Ohio St is expected to go through the conference unscathed and this would be their sixth straight shared or outright Big Ten title. Their closest games are expected to be their road trips to Wisconsin (68%) and Iowa (67%). Iowa gets the nod for 2nd place over Wisconsin (68%) and according to you should win most of their games comfortably with only the Penn St and Wisconsin games coming under 75%. Wisconsin and Penn St do not play each other this year and the Badgers and Nittany Lions are expected to tie for 3rd.

Like my magazine you are predicting the Sooners and Cornhuskers to run the table in the regular season and meet up in the Big 12 title game. Texas is the biggest obstacle for both teams but 74% of you expect Oklahoma to win the Red River Rivalry and 64% of you expect Nebraska to beat the Longhorns at home. Texas A&M looks to have their best conference finish in many years according to you with losses coming only to conference heavyweights Oklahoma, Texas and Nebraska. It is interesting to see four Big 12 South teams with 5-3 or better overall records while only one team in the Big 12 North is expected to finish above .500. Naturally this shows that the South is without question the stronger division in the league.

According to you, Florida St will win the ACC Atlantic with their only loss coming to Miami. So far the Seminoles look like clear winners in all the other games (80%+) with the exception of a home game against North Carolina (54%). Despite being picked to win at Boston College, Clemson is in 3rd with their tough schedule that includes predicted losses to ACC Coastal teams Miami, North Carolina and Georgia Tech. Meanwhile Boston College only gets one of the four possible Top 25 teams from the Coastal in Virginia Tech and gets the nod at 5-3. In the Coastal, the Hokies are heavy favorites in most of their games with only Miami (56%) and North Carolina (66%) coming under 84%. Miami is picked to go 7-1 while Georgia Tech is picked to finish 5-3 in the conference.

The Pac-10 was the toughest conference for me to forecast this year as there is very little difference between the top 9 teams. So far your voting tallies agree with my “toughest conference to forecast” assessment as you have several tight races between conference favorites. USC even though they stand alone at the top with a 8-1 record, five of their games are in the 49-63% range which means they could go either way. Defending champ Oregon is picked to go 7-2 with only two their two losses coming under 70%.  As mentioned above, Oregon St is now picked to finish in a tie for 2nd with their win over USC.

The Big East also figures to be very competitive this year and so far your votes reflect that. Right now you favor Pittsburgh to finish the conference season unscathed with West Virginia coming in at #2 with a 6-1 mark. Cincinnati, USF and Connecticut all finished at 4-3 with the Bearcats coming close to 5-2 (48% at Connecticut).

This conference has been dominated by Utah, BYU and TCU (Air Force a clear #4) in the past several years and this year looks no different. Right now you have TCU edging out Utah (58-42%) as the Horned Frogs look to be a heavy favorite in the other seven games with a 90%+ vote in each. BYU is projected to go 6-2 while Air Force is 5-3 with annual wins against all the conference teams outside of the Big Three.

Houston is your runaway choice to win the CUSA West division with only the game at SMU (66%) coming in under 80%. Meanwhile SMU looks to make it to their 2nd bowl game in a row and according to you, that should be no problem with a 7-1 projected conference mark. In the East, UCF is the favorite with a 7-1 record and wins over traditional CUSA powers Southern Miss and East Carolina.

There is no surprise here as Boise St is your heavy favorite to win the WAC with no game coming in under 90%. Nevada and Fresno St like my magazine are picked to finish 2nd and 3rd in the conference but I do think it is surprising that you have Hawaii picked to finish 4th with a 5-3 record.

Like my magazine predicts, Temple is your favorite to thru the MAC schedule unscathed and make their 1st trip to the MAC Championship game. Ohio is predicted to finish 2nd in the East while new Buffalo HC Jeff Quinn looks to have a successful 1st year with a 5-3 projected finish. In the West, Northern Illinois is now your pick to win it all as the Huskies barely edge out Western Michigan (51%) in the October 30 showdown.

Middle Tennessee is projected to finish 8-0 in the conference for the first time in their history with only their home game against Troy (55%) being considered a toss-up.  Defending champ Troy comes in at 7-1 while Louisiana, Arkansas St and FAU all are projected to finish 5-3. It is surprising that my #3 pick North Texas is projected to finish just 1-7 according to you.

In a couple of days I will give you an final look at the standings for all of the conferences. If you have not voted already, on the PhilSteele.com homepage below the FCS countdown, select a conference of your choice. After clicking on the conference you get the complete conference schedule for each team with the home team capitalized. All you have to do is vote on who you will think the winner will be in each game and the current voting tally appears. Remember you can only vote once and take your time by maybe doing one conference at a time. To vote you do have to register your e-mail address and then login but this is just to make sure there is no stuffing of the ballot box. Have a great time voting and thanks in advance! Remember you only have a couple more days to vote as the the polls will be closed at the end of the week!

Only 22 Days Away Until the 1st College Football Game!!!

This is my second update on how the conference poll voting is shaping up. The last couple of years, I have I put up a poll for everyone to pick who would win each conference game during the year. I found these results fascinating prior to the year. When you vote in the poll, it tabulates the current % of votes for each team in each individual game. Here are the results of the fan poll from 2009.

When initially reviewing the results I was quite impressed with the accuracy as you the fans did quite well in numerous conferences. In fact, when I calculated the results (similar to what stassen.com does for all the major preseason college football magazines) you guys finished #1!!!! Check out my June 10 Blog for more details.

Here are the current conference standings for all the conferences with the percentages of each game factored in according to your votes. There have been some notable changes since my July 12 Blog. LSU is now expected to beat Arkansas while Michigan St now gets the nod over rival Michigan. The Washington Huskies have moved up significantly in the past few weeks as they are now expected to beat UCLA and Cal now and are now picked by you to go 7-2 in the conference. TCU is now your pick to win the MWC with a slight nod over Utah (52-48%). One game I found interesting was that NC State and rival North Carolina are tied with 50% of the vote despite the game being at North Carolina this year.

According to your votes Defending champ Alabama is predicted to go undefeated in the regular season for the 3rd year in a row. (Georgia was the last SEC team to do so back in 1980-82 playing a six game schedule). The Crimson Tide’s closest game is expected to come against in-state rival Auburn as they received 64% of the vote. According to you, Auburn will start 6-0 in the SEC before dropping their last two. In the East, Florida is expected to win all of their games except their road trip to Alabama as the Gators will look to make it three straight SEC East titles. Georgia also is expected to go 7-1 but just 39% of you so far expect them to beat Florida. Finally, Tennessee with a tough opening schedule is expected to start 0-5 before winning their final three.

Ohio St is expected to go through the conference unscathed and this would be their sixth straight shared or outright Big Ten title. Their closest games are expected to be their road trips to Wisconsin (69%) and Iowa (68%). Iowa gets the nod for 2nd place over Wisconsin (67%) and according to you should win most of their games comfortably with only the Penn St and Wisconsin games coming under 75%. Wisconsin and Penn St do not play each other this year and the Badgers and Nittany Lions are expected to tie for 3rd.

Like my magazine you are predicting the Sooners and Cornhuskers to run the table in the regular season and meet up in the Big 12 title game. Texas is the biggest obstacle for both teams but 74% of you expect Oklahoma to win the Red River Rivalry and 64% of you expect Nebraska to beat the Longhorns at home. Texas A&M looks to have their best conference finish in many years according to you with losses coming only to conference heavyweights Oklahoma, Texas and Nebraska. It is interesting to see four Big 12 South teams with 5-3 or better overall records while only one team in the Big 12 North is expected to finish above .500. Naturally this shows that the South is without question the stronger division in the league.

According to you, Florida St will win the ACC Atlantic with their only loss coming to Miami. So far the Seminoles look like clear winners in all the other games (80%+) with the exception of a home game against North Carolina (55%). Despite being picked to win at Boston College, Clemson is in 3rd with their tough schedule that includes predicted losses to ACC Coastal teams Miami, North Carolina and Georgia Tech. Meanwhile Boston College only gets one of the four possible Top 25 teams from the Coastal in Virginia Tech and gets the nod at 5-3. In the Coastal, the Hokies are heavy favorites in most of their games with only Miami (56%) and North Carolina (66%) coming under 84%. Miami is picked to go 7-1 while Georgia Tech is picked to finish 5-3 in the conference.

The Pac-10 was the toughest conference for me to forecast this year as there is very little difference between the top 9 teams. So far your voting tallies agree with my “toughest conference to forecast” assessment as you have several tight races between conference favorites. Even though USC is picked to finish a perfect 9-0, five of their games are in the 53-62% range which means they could go either way. Defending champ Oregon is picked to go 7-2 with only two of their games coming under 70%.  As mentioned above, Washington is your pick to finish tied for 2nd while Oregon St and Stanford are next with 6-3 records.

The Big East also figures to be very competitive this year and so far your votes reflect that. Right now you favor Pittsburgh to finish the conference season unscathed with West Virginia coming in at #2 with a 6-1 mark. Cincinnati, USF and Connecticut all finished at 4-3 with the Bearcats coming close to 5-2 (49% at Connecticut).

This conference has been dominated by Utah, BYU and TCU (Air Force a clear #4) in the past several years and this year looks no different. Right now you have TCU barely edging out Utah (52-48%). TCU looks to be a heavy favorite in the other seven games with a 90%+ vote in each. BYU is projected to go 6-2 while Air Force is 5-3 with annual wins against all the conference teams outside of the Big Three.

Houston is your runaway choice to win the CUSA West division with only the game at Southern Miss (79%) coming in under 80%. Meanwhile SMU looks to make it to their 2nd bowl game in a row and according to you, that should be no problem with a 7-1 projected conference mark. In the East, UCF is the favorite with a 7-1 record and wins over traditional CUSA powers Southern Miss and East Carolina.

There is no surprise here as Boise St is your heavy favorite to win the WAC with no game coming in under 90%. Nevada and Fresno St like my magazine are picked to finish 2nd and 3rd in the conference but I do think it is surprising that you have Hawaii picked to finish 4th with a 5-3 record.

Like my magazine predicts, Temple is your favorite to thru the MAC schedule unscathed and make their 1st trip to the MAC Championship game. Ohio is predicted to finish 2nd in the East while new Buffalo HC Jeff Quinn looks to have a successful 1st year with a 5-3 projected finish. In the West, Western Michigan and Northern Illinois are in a dead heat with identical 6-1-1 records with their game October 30 at Western an even 50-50.

Middle Tennessee s projected to finish 8-0 in the conference for the first time in their history with only their home game against Troy (55%) being considered a toss-up.  Defending champ Troy comes in at 7-1 while Louisiana, Arkansas St and FAU all are projected to finish 5-3. It is surprising that my #3 pick North Texas is projected to finish just 1-7 according to you.

In two weeks I will give you an updated look at the standings for all of the conferences. If you have not voted already, on the PhilSteele.com homepage below the FCS countdown, select a conference of your choice. After clicking on the conference you get the complete conference schedule for each team with the home team capitalized. All you have to do is vote on who you will think the winner will be in each game and the current voting tally appears. Remember you can only vote once and take your time by maybe doing one conference at a time. To vote you do have to register your e-mail address and then login but this is just to make sure there is no stuffing of the ballot box. Have a great time voting and thanks in advance!

Only 33 Days Away Until the 1st College Football Game!!!

The last couple of years, I have I put up a poll for everyone to pick who would win each conference game during the year. I found these results fascinating prior to the year. When you vote in the poll, it tabulates the current % of votes for each team in each individual game. Here are the results of the fan poll from 2009.

When initially reviewing the results I was quite impressed with the accuracy as you the fans did quite well in numerous conferences. In fact, when I calculated the results (similar to what stassen.com does for all the major preseason college football magazines) you guys finished #1!!!! Check out my June 10 Blog for more details.

Here are the current conference standings for the SEC, Big 10, Big 12, ACC, Pac-10, Big East and MWC with the percentages of each game factored in according to your votes.

According to your votes Defending champ Alabama is predicted to go undefeated in the regular season for the 3rd year in a row. (Georgia was the last SEC team to do so back in 1980-82 playing a six game schedule). The Crimson Tide’s closest game is expected to come against in-state rival Auburn as they received 64% of the vote. According to you, Auburn will start 6-0 in the SEC before dropping their last two. Also Arkansas and LSU right now are in a dead heat to finish 3rd in the West. In the East, Florida is expected to win all of their games except their road trip to Alabama as the Gators will look to make it three straight SEC East titles. Georgia also is expected to go 7-1 but just 40% of you so far expect them to beat Florida. Tennessee with a tough opening schedule is expected to start 0-5 before winning their final three.

Ohio St is expected to go through the conference unscathed and this would be their sixth straight shared or outright Big Ten title. Their closest games are expected to be their road trips to Wisconsin (67%) and Iowa (67%). Iowa gets the nod for 2nd place over Wisconsin (67%) and according to you should win most of their games comfortably with only the Penn St and Wisconsin games coming under 75%. Wisconsin and Penn St do not play each other this year and the Badgers and Nittany Lions are expected to tie for 3rd.

Like my magazine you are predicting the Sooners and Cornhuskers to run the table in the regular season and meet up in the Big 12 title game. Texas is the biggest obstacle for both teams but 74% of you expect Oklahoma to win the Red River Rivalry and 65% of you expect Nebraska to beat the Longhorns at home. Texas A&M looks to have their best conference finish in many years according to you with losses coming only to conference heavyweights Oklahoma, Texas and Nebraska. It is interesting to see four Big 12 South teams with 5-3 or better overall records while only one team in the Big 12 North is expected to finish above .500. Naturally this shows that the South is without question the stronger division in the league.

According to you, Florida St will win the ACC Atlantic with their only loss coming to Miami. So far the Seminoles look like clear winners in all the other games (90%+) with the exception of a home game against North Carolina (57%). Despite being picked to win at Boston College, Clemson is in 3rd with their tough schedule that includes predicted losses to ACC Coastal teams Miami, North Carolina and Georgia Tech. Meanwhile Boston College only gets one of the four possible Top 25 teams from the Coastal in Virginia Tech and get the nod at 5-3. In the Coastal, the Hokies are heavy favorites in most of their games with only Miami (60%) and North Carolina (65%) coming under 84%. Miami is picked to go 7-1 while North Carolina and Georgia Tech are picked to finish 5-3 in the conference. It is interesting to see that you have both Virginia and NC State going 0-8 in the conference.

The Pac-10 was the toughest conference for me to forecast this year as there is very little difference between the top 9 teams. So far your voting tallies agree with my “toughest conference to forecast” assessment as you have several tight races between conference favorites. Even though USC is picked to finish a perfect 9-0, five of their games are in the 50-60% range which means they could go either way. Defending champ Oregon is picked to go 8-1 with only two of their games coming under 69%. Stanford is picked 3rd with a 6-3 overall mark while Arizona, Oregon St and Washington are all picked to finish at 5-4.

The Big East also figures to be very competitive this year and so far your votes reflect that. Right now you favor Pittsburgh to finish the conference season unscathed with West Virginia coming in at #2 with a 6-1 mark. Cincinnati, USF and Connecticut all finished at 4-3 with the Bearcats coming close to 5-2 (49% at Connecticut).

This conference has been dominated by Utah, BYU and TCU (Air Force a clear #4) in the past several years and this year looks no different. Right now you have Utah barely edging out defending champ TCU (52-48%). TCU despite the projected loss to Utah looks to be a heavy favorite in the other seven games with a 90%+ vote in each. BYU is projected to go 6-2 while Air Force is 5-3 with annual wins against all the conference teams outside of the Big Three.

In the next day I will add the rest of the conferences’ current results in and in two weeks I will give you an updated look at the standings for all of the conferences. If you have not voted already, On the PhilSteele.com homepage below the FCS countdown, select a conference of your choice. After clicking on the conference you get the complete conference schedule for each team with the home team capitalized. All you have to do is vote on who you will think the winner will be in each game and the current voting tally appears. Remember you can only vote once and take your time by maybe doing one conference at a time. To vote you do have to register your e-mail address and then login but this is just to make sure there is no stuffing of the ballot box. Have a great time voting and thanks in advance!

Only 51 Days Away Until the 1st College Football Game!!!