ODB Season Predictions Revisited

Another college football season has come and gone and now we have an entire offseason ahead of us. So this seems like a perfect time to brush off the big season prediction post that we did way back in August. To keep this post from being several miles long, I only am showing those who actively contributed for ODB during the 2014 season. If you want to see the original post from 5 months ago, the Internet is your friend.

	ACC
	Atlantic
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Mark Seymour
Peter Pope
Prashanth Francis
Ted Harrison
Conner Morris
David Fankhauser
Colby Conner
Ima HammerU
JB Lajzer

ACTUAL:
1) Florida State 8-0
2) Clemson 6-2
3) Louisville 5-3
4) Boston College 4-4
5) NC State 3-5
6) Syracuse 1-7
7) Wake Forest 1-7

All things considered, this division played out about as we expected. Florida State was the biggest slam dunk pick at the beginning of the season and, although they had their moments, were able to win the Atlantic for a 3rd consecutive year. If anything, we all overrated Syracuse and underrated Boston College but otherwise we did pretty well here. As for the Coastal...

	ACC
	Coastal
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Mark Seymour
Peter Pope
Prashanth Francis
Ted Harrison
Conner Morris
David Fankhauser
Colby Conner
Ima HammerU
JB Lajzer

ACTUAL:
1) Georgia Tech 6-2
2) Duke 5-3
3) North Carolina 4-4
4) Pittsburgh 4-4
5) Miami 3-5
6) Virginia Tech 3-5
7) Virginia 3-5

The ACC Coastal looked like it might be a total crapshoot before the season and that's exactly what happened. JB comes out looking good with the Georgia Tech pick but he also had Duke dead last. Some of us were silly enough to pick North Carolina or Virginia Tech in this division and WELP.

	Big 12
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Mark Seymour
Peter Pope
Prashanth Francis
Ted Harrison
Conner Morris
David Fankhauser
Colby Conner
Ima HammerU
JB Lajzer

ACTUAL:
1) Baylor 8-1 (61)
1*) TCU 8-1 (58)
3) Kansas State 7-2
4) Oklahoma 5-4
5) Texas 5-4
6) West Virginia 5-4
7) Oklahoma State 4-5
8) Texas Tech 2-7
9) Kansas 1-8
10) Iowa State 0-9

With this being a Baylor blog, it's at least encouraging to know that all of our writers picked Baylor to win the conference. Oh wait, Ted picked Oklahoma? Bahahaha. I think we were all a little guilty of believing the preseason hype around OU but absolutely none of us had TCU in the conference title picture, with our picks ranging from 4th all the way to 9th. Almost everyone was dead on with K-State at #3 as well.

	Big Ten
	East
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Mark Seymour
Peter Pope
Prashanth Francis
Ted Harrison
Conner Morris
David Fankhauser
Colby Conner
Ima HammerU
JB Lajzer

ACTUAL:
1) Ohio State 8-0
2) Michigan State 7-1
3) Maryland 4-4
4) Rutgers 3-5
5) Michigan 3-5
6) Penn State 2-6
7) Indiana 1-7

It was widely thought before the season that this would be determined by the Ohio State/Michigan State game and that's how it played out even though only Ted and JB picked the Buckeyes. We all overrated Penn State and Michigan while underestimating what Maryland and Rutgers would do in their Big Ten debuts. There wasn't a whole ton of variance between us in the Big Ten East. On to the West one.

	Big Ten
	West
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Mark Seymour
Peter Pope
Prashanth Francis
Ted Harrison
Conner Morris
David Fankhauser
Colby Conner
Ima HammerU
JB Lajzer

ACTUAL:
1) Wisconsin 7-1
2) Minnesota 5-3
3) Nebraska 5-3
4) Iowa 4-4
5) Illinois 3-5
6) Northwestern 3-5
7) Purdue 1-7

Outside of Florida State, Wisconsin was the only unanimous pick and we went 2 for 2 as the Badgers won the West although they didn't exactly prove that they belonged in the Big Ten championship game. The real outlier here were those pesky Gophers from Minnesota. None of us had them as high as 2nd in the division and a couple had them as low as 6th. The rest of the division played out pretty much according to plan.

	Pac-12
	North
	1	2	3	4	5	6
Mark Seymour
Peter Pope
Prashanth Francis
Ted Harrison
Conner Morris
David Fankhauser
Colby Conner
Ima HammerU
JB Lajzer

ACTUAL:
1) Oregon 8-1
2) Stanford 5-4
3) Washington 4-5
4) California 3-6
5) Washington State 2-7
6) Oregon State 2-7

This was another division that went about as we expected in our picks. Oregon wound up winning by 3 games over Stanford...nice pick Conner! Cal was a better team than we all expected while nobody had Oregon State finishing last, but hey Mike Riley got the Nebraska job out of a 5-7 season so what do we know?

	Pac-12
	South
	1	2	3	4	5	6
Mark Seymour
Peter Pope
Prashanth Francis
Ted Harrison
Conner Morris
David Fankhauser
Colby Conner
Ima HammerU
JB Lajzer

ACTUAL:
1) Arizona 7-2
2) UCLA 6-3
3) Arizona State 6-3
4) USC 6-3
5) Utah 5-4
6) Colorado 0-9

Hahaha oh this one didn't go so well. Arizona wound up winning the Pac-12 South on the last weekend of the season even though Hammer was the only one to even have UA in the top half of the the division. UCLA was the pick du jour here except for Prashanth who went with USC. This was probably the most evenly competitive division in college football this year with the exception of Colorado.

	SEC
	East
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Mark Seymour
Peter Pope
Prashanth Francis
Ted Harrison
Conner Morris
David Fankhauser
Colby Conner
Ima HammerU
JB Lajzer

ACTUAL:
1) Missouri 7-1
2) Georgia 6-2
3) Florida 4-4
4) Tennessee 3-5
5) South Carolina 3-5
6) Kentucky 2-6
7) Vanderbilt 0-8

Congrats to Hammer and JB on this one. Most everyone picked South Carolina or Georgia to win the East, and although Georgia probably should've won the division, good grief we were all way off on South Carolina. I should also point out that none of us had Florida as high as 3rd so maybe Will Muschamp wasn't as bad as we thought? Kidding of course.

	SEC
	West
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Mark Seymour
Peter Pope
Prashanth Francis
Ted Harrison
Conner Morris
David Fankhauser
Colby Conner
Ima HammerU
JB Lajzer

ACTUAL:
1) Alabama 7-1
2) Mississippi State 6-2
3) Ole Miss 5-3
4) Auburn 4-4
5) LSU 4-4
6) Texas A&M 3-5
7) Arkansas 2-6

In a division packed with good football teams, Alabama seemed to be the safe play here and that's the way it played out. Behind that, it got ugly. Almost everyone had LSU and Auburn in the top 3 but both teams struggled to find consistency this season. Mississippi State was the big surprise here by finishing 2nd. Yours truly had them 4th but everyone else has them at 5 or 6. And if anything, we overrated the Aggies.

	College Football Playoff
	NATIONAL CHAMPION
Mark Seymour
Peter Pope
Prashanth Francis
Ted Harrison
Conner Morris
David Fankhauser
Colby Conner
Ima HammerU
JB Lajzer

All things considered, we didn't do too poorly here. Everyone had at least 2 of the eventual final 4, and several had 3 of 4 but nobody correctly predicted all 4. Conner got the closest by having Alabama, Oregon, Florida State and Baylor. Ohio State wound up being the thorn in everyone's side here as only Ted and JB had them in at all. Props to Ted for having the Buckeyes as the national champion. Outside of Mark and I picking eventual 6-6 South Carolina, Ted drinking the Sugar Bowl Trevor koolaid and JB going with LSU, none of these were particularly comical.

So how did we do? Did this season play out the way that you expected or did these last few months just blow your mind?