re: How will the other conferences play out

Oh, God... it's conference superiority argument season. Ugh.

The Big Ten East is a few years away from being insane: Penn St is on its way back, Harbaugh will get Michigan up and running, Ohio St. is already fully weaponized, and Sparty is a power now. It's still a bit of a two-team division right now (OSU and Sparty), but you can see a pretty cool future.

The Pac-12 South, however, is already there. Every team is good, and that is going to be a bloodbath. Some team will come out of that at 10-2 and no one will appreciate they will be one of the four best teams in the nation.

Just to be fun:

ACC: Virginia Tech pulls the upset as Clemson pulls the ultimate Clemsoning.

Big Ten: Ohio St. rolls.

Big 12: Baylor. TCU is getting way too much love for a team that rode some unsustainable turnover luck last season. Baylor travels to KSU the year they will stink. That's probably their toughest road game outside of the state of Texas aside from Okie St. Texas will be better than people think.

Pac-12: Oregon. The South bloodbath makes that division impossible to pick (just be safe and say USC), so play it safe with Oregon, who will maul the North.

SEC: Georgia. Bama loses a lot more than people think, returning less starters than almost any team in the nation (well, except Miss St.). Auburn and A&M's defenses will not be magically fixed by hiring a great DC. It takes talent as well. LSU wins the West, by virtue of its relatively easier cross-over schedule.