For those of you who don’t know me, or haven’t read my Biography, I have attended three schools en route to my over-education: Marshall University, Bowling Green State University, and Louisiana State University. All three have FBS football programs, but only one of them is expected to be good. Guess which one. Anyway, since earlier I tried my hand at predicting the Big East, I thought it would be fun to put out my projections for each of the schools based off of their schedule. I don’t have time to do the entire conference of each (stupid dissertation), but here are my projections for each school with notes (in alphabetical order to avoid favoritism, even though we all know Marshall is my favorite).
p.s. In a weird twist, the team I grew up cheering for, WVU, plays all three of my Alma Maters (and near Alma Mater in the case of LSU) this year. Should be fun to keep track of which of my schools is the best (not looking good for poor ole BG).
Bowling Green State University (6-6) (4-4)
@Idaho L
Morgan State W
Wyoming W
@Miami OH L
@West Virginia L
@Western Michigan L
Toledo W
Temple L
@Kent State W
Northern Illinois L
Ohio W
@Buffalo W
Notes: The Wyoming game is crucial to bowl eligibility. I feel like BG can knock off either Toledo or Temple, but not both, so I picked their arch rivals, even though Toledo is expected to be significantly better. I feel like they have a shot at beating Idaho, but that is a long way to travel to start the season. They get Ohio at home, which is nice, but doubt many people think they can beat the Bobcats. Miami OH has BG sandwiched between two big non-conference games (Minnesota and Cincinnati), so hopefully they overlook BG.
Best-case scenario: 8-4
Worst-case scenario: 1-11
Marshall University (5-7) (4-4)
@West Virginia L
Southern Mississippi L
@Ohio W
VA Tech L
@Louisville L
@UCF L
Rice W
@Houston L
UAB W
@Tulsa L
@Memphis W
East Carolina W
Notes: The Southern Miss game is crucial to bowl eligibility, as is the ECU game to end the season. With their terrible away record the last few years, and looking at how they got shellacked last year @Bowling Green, they will probably lose to Ohio as well, but they are currently riding a six-game win streak against the Bobcats. This is a brutal schedule, and if they go 6-6, I will believe that this could be the strongest MU team since 2003. As I said in my WVU preview, I have a weird feeling that MU might beat WVU, but I can’t predict it. Go Herd!!
Best-case Scenario: 8-4
Worst-case scenario: 2-10
Louisiana State University (11-1) (7-1)
Oregon (neutral) W
Northwestern State W
@Mississippi State W
@West Virginia W
Kentucky W
Florida W
@Tennessee W
Auburn W
@Alabama L
Western Kentucky W
@Ole Miss W
Arkansas W
Notes: @Mississippi State and Florida games are crucial to LSU getting a BCS berth. I really don’t think the loss of Jordan Jefferson or Russell Sheppard to suspensions will hurt the Tigers. Jarrett Lee has a ton of big game experience and they have other good wide receivers. Every year LSU lets a non-BCS team hang around and nearly ruin their season. This year looks like it should be Western Kentucky, but LSU will destroy them. Do I think WVU can beat LSU? Absolutely. Do I think they will? Absolutely. Am I predicting them to win? Nope.
Best-case scenario: 12-0 with an eventual national championship
Worst-case scenario: 8-4
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