College football predictions: Picking Heisman winners, CFP champs and more
The season is here! While Week 0 gave us a taste of what’s to come, we consider this week the official start of the 2019 college football season. In this post you’ll find predictions from the Yahoo Sports staff for all of the important things like conference champions, the Heisman Trophy and the College Football Playoff. We also gave you our best guesses at how teams will do against their over/under win total projections. All regular season win totals are from FanDuel Sportsbook.
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2019 COLLEGE FOOTBALL PREDICTIONS
Here are our conference champions, Heisman and College Football Playoff picks. Clemson was the most popular national title pick and was chosen by four of the five writers polled.
WIN TOTAL PREDICTIONS
ACC Atlantic
Boston College (6) - Under
Clemson (11.5) - Over
Florida State (7) - Over
Louisville (3.5) - Under
NC State (7.5) - Under
Syracuse (7.5) - Over
Wake Forest (6) - Over
BEST BET: Wake Forest over 6
Wake Forest dealt with an array of injuries yet still won three of its last four to close out 2018. The Demon Deacons have won at least six games in three straight seasons and with 12 starters returning, including seven on offense, we like the Demon Deacons to surprise some people this year. Beating Utah State in the season opener could be the key to winning this bet.
ACC Coastal
Duke (5.5) - Under
Georgia Tech (3.5) - Under
*Miami (8.5) - Over
North Carolina (4.5) - Under
Pittsburgh (6.5) - Under
Virginia (7.5) - Over
Virginia Tech (8) - Over
***Notre Dame (8.5) - Over
BEST BET: Pittsburgh under 6.5
Pitt should be a perfectly average ACC team like it is most years, but a tough non-conference schedule — Ohio, Penn State and UCF — will likely put the team’s record around 6-6. The Panthers will be favored over Ohio, but will be a significant underdog at Penn State and will likely again be on the wrong side of the spread at home against UCF.
*Miami pick made before Week 0 loss to Florida.
*** Independent
Big Ten East
Indiana (6) - Under
Maryland (4) - Push
Michigan State (7.5) - Over
Michigan (9.5) - Over
Ohio State (10.5) - Under
Penn State (8.5) - Over
Rutgers (2.5) - Under
BEST BET: Penn State over 8.5
Even in a year when it underperformed, Penn State still won nine regular season games in 2018. As we noted in our PSU preview, the Nittany Lions will be heavily favored in their first five games in 2019, and then again in November home games against Indiana and Rutgers. That leaves five others — Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota and Ohio State — to get you two wins and over the 8.5. We’ll take that bet.
Big Ten West
Illinois (4.5) - Under
Iowa (8) - Push
Minnesota (7.5) - Over
Nebraska (8.5) - Under
Northwestern (6) - Push
Purdue (7) - Under
Wisconsin (8.5) - Under
BEST BET: Illinois under 4.5
Illinois was at its best in 2018 when it had an effective running quarterback (A.J. Bush) to go with running back Reggie Corbin. This year, the Illini’s quarterback will be Brandon Peters, a pocket passer who transferred from Michigan. That doesn’t seem like the best fit. Even if the Illini get through the non-conference schedule unscathed, it’s hard to find a realistic conference win other than Rutgers. You need two Big Ten wins to get over 4.5.
Big 12
Baylor (7.5) - Over
Kansas (3) - Under
Kansas State (5.5) - Under
Iowa State (8) - Push
Oklahoma (10.5) - Over
Oklahoma State (7) - Over
TCU (7.5) - Over
Texas (9.5) - Under
Texas Tech (6) - Under
West Virginia (5) - Push
BEST BET: Oklahoma State over 7
Oklahoma State disappointed in 2018, and Mike Gundy will be the first one to admit it. He is motivated to get the Cowboys back on track and has plenty of talent to do it, even if he won’t tell you who his starting quarterback is. Tylan Wallace could be one of the best receivers in the country. OSU should easily start the season 3-0 and should be able to get over seven wins as long as it takes care of business at home.
Pac 12 North
Cal (5.5) - Under
Oregon (8.5) - Over
Oregon State (2.5) - Under
Stanford (6.5) - Over
Washington (9.5) - Over
Washington State (8) - Push
BEST BET: Stanford over 6.5
Stanford hasn’t won fewer than seven regular season games during David Shaw’s time as head coach. In fact, you have to go back to 2008, Jim Harbaugh’s second season, to find a year where the Cardinal were worse than 7-5 in the regular season. Even with the brutal non-conference schedule of Northwestern, UCF and Notre Dame, it’s hard to believe the Cardinal won’t go at least 7-5.
Pac 12 South
*Arizona (4.5) - Over
Arizona State (6.5) - Over
Colorado (4.5) - Under
UCLA (5.5) - Under
USC (7) - Over
Utah (9.5) - Over
BEST BET: UCLA under 5.5
UCLA could be a significantly better team in Chip Kelly’s second season, but it will have to pull off a few upsets to get to six wins. Seriously, look at the schedule. The Bruins play Cincinnati, San Diego State and Oklahoma in the non-conference and get Washington State, Stanford, Utah and USC all on the road. Five wins feels like the ceiling.
*Arizona total dropped from 6.5 to 4.5 after Week 0 loss to Hawaii.
SEC East
*Florida (8.5) - Over
Georgia (10.5) - Over
Kentucky (6.5) - Over
Missouri (7.5) - Over
South Carolina (5.5) - Under
Tennessee (6.5) - Under
Vanderbilt (5) - Push
BEST BET: Missouri over 7.5
Missouri should win its four non-conference games — Wyoming, West Virginia, SE Missouri State and Troy — and also gets South Carolina, Ole Miss and Tennessee at home. There’s also three very winnable SEC road games: Vanderbilt, Kentucky and Arkansas. There are eight wins in there somewhere.
*Florida pick made before Week 0 win over Miami.
SEC West
Alabama (11.5) - Under
Arkansas (5) - Under
Auburn (7.5) - Over
LSU (9) - Over
Ole Miss (5) - Push
Mississippi State (8.5) - Under
Texas A&M (7.5) - Over
BEST BET: Arkansas under 5
Arkansas is going to be much better than the disaster that was Chad Morris’ first season, but where on the schedule do you see five wins? The four non-conference games are very winnable, but we have a hard time finding two SEC wins for the Razorbacks. They might get Ole Miss as a road underdog in Week 2, but that will get you to five. A push is better than losing.
