With the college football regular season set to begin in just under two weeks’ time, the time for talking has nearly concluded.
But as the final days of the offseason drag on, media members will continue to lay down their predictions in hopes of exclaiming “I told you so!” in January.
At CBS Sports, a group of analysts dared to project the over/under win totals for all 16 of the SEC’s programs, leading to predictably sizable backlash.
CBS’ Chip Patterson, Danny Kannell, Bud Elliott and Tom Fornelli took to the “Cover 3” podcast to break down their predictions, and they were rarely in agreement.
The four individuals do all believe that Alabama will eclipse a total of 8.5 wins, Georgia will go over 9.5 victories, Kentucky will finish under 4.5 wins, Oklahoma will get over 7.5 wins and Texas A&M will fall below 8.5.
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But beyond that, the takes varied, with Fornelli making a primary point of how SEC fans need to start accepting that their annual win-loss record will not look the same as it has in years’ past.
“The league has long touted how strong it is, how deep it is, and how difficult the schedules are,” Fornelli wrote. “Well, if the league is deep, and now you’re playing an extra game against it, compared to a non-con game against a G6 school you’re favored by 24 against, guess what? You’re not as likely to win as many games as you’re used to.”
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Parker is currently the sports editor for Gulf Coast Media in Foley, Alabama. He's a graduate from Mizzou who has experience covering the Tiger football and basketball beats for SB Nation, and he's worked for a variety of sports news outlets in the past.
