I'm a Bronny James Fan

The NBA combine came and went these past couple of days. A bunch of the top prospects opted out of most of the drills and scrimmages, but some kids were still there trying to up their draft stock. One such prospect is Bronny James. You may know who his father is, LeBron James.

Bronny has been living in his father's shadow since he showed a proclivity for basketball. I remember hearing about Bronny being a decent prospect coming out of high school in regards to playing division 1 college basketball. He moved high schools, played at a prestigious basketball high school and got some D-1 offers. I was hoping Michigan would go after him. He eventually ended up at USC, close to home, and they brought in a monster class. Bronny then had a scary cardiac arrest situation and that sidelined him for a while. He missed the start of the season. He was eventually cleared to play mid-season and he did.

He was fine. He did not set the world on fire. He played in Isaiah Collier's shadow. Collier is one of the top prospects in this upcoming draft. But, Bronny never really set the college basketball world on fire. He plays the game correctly, but that doesn't add up to eye popping stats or highlight plays. USC also played well below their preseason status. They were below .500. They didn't make the NCAA or NIT tournament. And they were easily bounced from the Pac 12 tournament in round 2. The Bronny NBA stock was relatively low.

Then he entered the draft and the transfer portal. He was maintaining his college eligibility, but he was also going to see what his NBA stock looked like. He had a damn good combine. His vertical is big. He had good form and shooting touch. He made a bunch of threes. And he participated in the scrimmages. He looked a little timid in the first scrimmage, but in the second one, he balled out. He looked to score. He was quick to make a move to get to the basket. He played solid defense. He made the correct pass. He showed he has a chance to be drafted. And

I'm here for it. There are people out there that are degrading him. They are saying he is not an NBA prospect. They don't want him to succeed. They are mad at him for no reason, other than the fact that he is LeBron James' kid. The hate he is getting online is brutal. I feel pretty bad for him. These keyboard warriors are calling him all kinds of things, and I am certain they wouldn't score a point against him in a game of 1 on 1. It is easy to shit talk behind a screen name. But these people hold no control over Bronny's NBA future. But because of these keyboard nitwits, I am becoming a big time Bronny fan. I want this kid to make it and have staying power. He is already an above average defender. He showed in the scrimmages that he can hit floaters. He can also spot up for the corner three. He makes the correct decision in a half court offense. He runs the break really well. This kid has the skills to make it in the NBA for a good long while. And he should make it based on his own skill and merit. There is clearly something there. He has the goods. Some team may take a shot on drafting him. Or if he doesn't get drafted, he will most certainly be on a G League team. This isn't the Ball family we are talking about here. Bronny is so much more skilled than LiAngelo Ball. He seems to be much healthier than LaMelo or Lonzo. He has been medically cleared by the NBA.

I'm on Bronny's side. I am rooting hard for him. When/if he gets into the league, I'll be excited to see him play either with or against his dad. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet.

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The Heisman Trophy Candidates are Half Right and Half Wrong

The Heisman finalists were revealed last night, and spoiler alert, obviously I am making a joke, all four finalists are QB's.

I'm not against QB's or anything, but it just seems like that is the only position that they want to award with the Heisman trophy. I understand that QB's are the "most" important players on the team. I get that they get all the shine. I understand that the fanbases put so much on who the team they root for puts in at QB. That whole scenario played out this year with Michigan. All the talk was about Cade McNamara and JJ McCarthy. That was the lead story all offseason. No one talked about who was going to replace Hassan Haskins. They made minimal chatter about replacing some d lineman. They barely mentioned the new offensive lineman, who give the QB all the time to throw the ball. None of that was as big as Cade vs JJ as the starting QB. And I am sure it is the same way with other teams.

Two of the four finalists fully deserve to be in New York. CJ Stroud and Caleb Williams are more than deserving. They have had tremendous seasons. They have both put up video game numbers. They have broken school records. They have been impeccable. Personally I think the award is already wrapped up too. I believe that Caleb Williams is an absolute lock to win the Heisman. He has been really good this year. He has done all he can to win the Heisman. It is not his fault that Utah beat USC twice. He put up big numbers in both games, even being injured in the Pac 12 title game. Williams has been consistently awesome all season long. As has Stroud. He had a few clunkers, Michigan and Northwestern, but even in those games he put up big numbers. He couldn't throw much at Northwestern, so he made up for it by getting a ton of rushing yards. In the Michigan game he went well over 300 yards passing. It was the turnovers and only two TD passes that held him back. He and Williams have been near locks all year to get to New York as Heisman finalists.

The other two QB's that are there, I do not fully understand the logic. Max Duggan is very good. He has had a very good season. He has weapons all over the field. He has put up decent numbers. But he has not been mentioned all year. I have not heard anyone say he should be a Heisman finalist. I watch a ton of sports talk shows and the name Max Duggan has not been mentioned once, until the Heisman finalists were announced. The Heisman finalists are usually touted all season, or at least after three games into the season. Duggan has had a very good year, but not a Heisman finalist type year. And Stetson Bennett, I mean, come on. He wasn't even 1st or 2nd team all SEC. He does not have humongous numbers. He has not done anything that has made me say "WOW" while watching him play this year. If anything he has taken a little step back this season. Bennett is a fine game manager. He does little runs here and there and makes a throw or two a game, but he is not a Heisman guy. The Heisman is not an award for a career. It is a year to year thing. Stetson Bennett should not be there because he has an otherworldly defense and doesn't have to do much as the starting QB. I am baffled by this invite. This is the one that makes no sense to me. I do not get it at all. I was stunned when I saw he was a finalist. It is baffling.

There are so many more deserving players. Blake Corum should be there over Bennett. Hendon Hooker had a far better season in the same conference. He is a better SEC QB than Stetson Bennett. So is Bryce Young. Deuce Vaughn would have been a better candidate than Bennett. I could go on and on and on. At least last season they invited and had some defensive players mentioned as Heisman candidates. This year seems like the Heisman voters just put some QB's names on a wall and picked the ones that they threw darts in. Max Duggan may be deserving, but there is no world where Stetson Bennett should be a Heisman finalist. That is a joke.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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I Know Exactly Why Lincoln Riley Left for USC

Michigan finally beat the university of Ohio State on Saturday after almost a ten year drought. It was glorious and wonderful and they punched them in the mouth and I just kept putting my hands up in the air while saying, louder each time, "FINALLY!". This was the first time that either one of my children have seen Michigan win The Game. But I already expressed all my joy with my family and friends that are fans as well. We all shared that experience together. It was a great day to be a Wolverines fan. They still have work to do, but that win on Saturday was pretty great.

The big win is not the main point of my piece today. While basking in the glow, the college football world was hit with some big time news yesterday. And yes, I am still in a good mood today from the win. But Lincoln Riley, after getting beat in Bedlam, decided to leave Oklahoma for USC. When I first saw that he was a candidate I pushed it aside. But no more than about an hour later he was accepted the head coaching job at USC. He told his team, told the university and was on his way out the door of Oklahoma.

Again, I was stunned. He had something special going on at OU I thought. He has coached two Heisman winners. He has been to the CFP three times. He, until this season, has owned the Big 12. He is an ace recruiter and was luring some top level talent to come to Norman. But just like that, he is gone for what some consider greener pastures at USC.

California is a recruiting hot bed, that is for sure. The Pac 12 has an easier path to the CFP. No one other than Oregon has much top level talent. Riley is young and now about to live in LA. And apparently he is going to get PAID. I read that Oklahoma could not match what USC was offering, and that was one of the main reasons he decided to take the job. But still I have questions. I am a bit confused.

I do not understand why he would make what I consider a lateral move. The NFL seemed like the next step for him. But I have actually thought a lot about it today. I have had some time while I was grocery shopping and doing some chores to think about Riley's decision. First, the money thing is real. I know OU fans will call him all kinds of names, but any one of them would take a much higher paying job if they had the chance. That is human nature. I used to get mad at athletes and coaches when they would leave one job for another because it was paying them 2-5 million more dollars. Now I have no problem with it. Get paid. Take the money and run. If someone is going to give you all that guaranteed money, take it.

Then we have the Pac 12. That is an easier path to the playoff for sure. Who, outside of Oregon, is going to really challenge them? UCLA was better this year, but with Riley at USC, and his recruiting and offensive coaching prowess, they do not really stand a chance. Arizona State is okay, but they have some off field issues, and I could see Herm Edwards leaving sooner rather than later. Arizona has one win in their last 20 plus games. Washington was really down this year and they need to find a new head coach. Washington State had a decent year for them at 7-5. Oregon State is better, but they are still years away from truly competing. Stanford really took a nosedive this season. They will be better, but not at USC or Oregon's level. Colorado has been down for a few years. Utah is solid and could contend, but they are not very good offensively. And Cal is stuck in neutral. The move to the Pac 12 makes sense.

Riley also gets to live in LA now. No disrespect to Norman, Oklahoma, but LA is a lot of people's dream destination. It isn't for me, but I am in the minority. The weather is beautiful and it never really gets cold there.

I think the biggest reason for the move, something I forgot until a ton of people brought it up yesterday, Oklahoma is about to move to the SEC. If Riley thought the Big 12 was tough, he was in for a rude awakening in the SEC. He was going to have to compete for recruits, and on the field, with teams like Texas A&M, Alabama, LSU, Auburn, Kentucky, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, Ole Miss, Arkansas, Mississippi State, and on and on. That is no joke. I may not be a fan of the SEC, and the sports media is totally biased for the SEC, but that is one hell of a battle on and off the field. The Big 12 was easy, but the Pac 12 is even easier. I do think Riley saw the writing on the wall, especially after a "letdown" of a year for him at Oklahoma. They went 10-2. They will not be a playoff team. They had to switch QB's midway through the season. I was way off on that team. They had so many problems, and I think Riley figured, if they cannot win the Big 12 this season, how on Earth was he going to compete at the highest level in the SEC. The Pac 12 was much more intriguing to him. I think that is the main reason why he chose USC over LSU or staying at Oklahoma. He did not want to fight to compete in the SEC. It was too daunting a task for him. I agree with him taking the money and living in LA, but I also think he was very afraid of having to face tough competition week in and week out, and on the recruiting trail. That is why he picked USC.

I will be interested to see how many more changes come, but this one was a big, big deal. This changes a lot of things in college football, and I am very curious to see how Riley does in a new conference with a storied program.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Who Will Be the Next USC Football Coach?

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I knew Clay Helton was not going to last past this year unless USC won the title. Well, he only lasted two weeks. USC got absolutely crushed, at home, by Stanford. The Cardinal football team just crushed them early and rode that momentum to an easy two touchdown win. It was a solid win for David Shaw and Stanford. It cost Helton his job. He was not long for USC's head coaching job pretty much from the moment he was hired.

Truth is that Helton was not the first choice, and USC's much praised alumni made that well known. And Helton never did "enough" in the eyes of the school to keep him around. He had a solid record since taking over in 2015 at 46-24. But his best season was in 2017 when they finished 11-3, but got beat in the Cotton Bowl. Every other season was 8-5 or 5-7. He had one ten win season, but he was much more inline with the seven or eight win seasons. Unfortunately that does not cut it at a school like USC. They have national title aspirations. They are a blue blood team. They were once dominant. They used to get the best of the best recruits. Then Pete Carroll left, the school got disciplined and they have not recovered. Lane Kiffin didn't work. Steve Sarkisian didn't work. And now Clay Helton has not worked.

I have seen the names being mentioned, and it looks like USC is going to shoot for the stars. The first name I saw was Luke Fickell. I do not like that guy at all. He is a total asshole. But he has turned Cincinnati into a real playoff contender. They are a very legit top 10 team. They can play. He has squashed the rumors, but every coach mentioned for this job will say they have no interest.

I saw James Franklin was mentioned. He has built Penn State back into a perennial top 20 team. Again, I do not care for Franklin as a person, but he has won everywhere he has coached. He did it at Vanderbilt, but left them a total mess from which they have not recovered. And now he has Penn State back in the national conversation after a very odd season last year. Franklin to USC actually makes a ton of sense to me, but I do not know if he will leave Penn State just yet.

Whenever a major head coaching job opens, or is even talked about possibly being opened, Matt Campbell's name comes up. Campbell has turned Iowa State into a good team, but they seem to fall flat in big time games. Iowa State was supposed to beat Iowa this year. It was their time. Iowa beat them pretty handily. They also lost some odd games last year. Campbell will get his shot eventually, but USC would be trading Helton for a slightly better version of Helton if they hire Campbell.

PJ Fleck is another name I see and this one makes zero sense to me. Fleck did turn Western Michigan into a very good team, but he has only had one good season with Minnesota. He can coach the kids up, but Minnesota is not as dominant as I think they hoped when they hired him a few years back.

Mario Cristobol was mentioned, but I do not see him leaving Oregon any time soon. He is building something good in Eugene. And as it does any time a big job is opened you get the former star coaches or former/current pro coaches.

Bill O'Brien has come up on lists. I'd say no thank you.

Bob Stoops has been out of the game way too long. He is no Mack Brown. I also do not think he wants to come out of retirement.

Tony Elliot, Clemson's offensive coordinator, is on a few lists, but he seems rather comfortable where his is right now.

Of course, Urban Meyer is being mentioned, especially since the Jags got bombarded by the Texans in his first game as a NFL head coach. If Meyer were to leave the Jags for this job, he is no better than Bobby Petrino. In fact that would be worse. Not only would is prove that he couldn't cut it at the highest level, but that he was not prepared to do it at the highest level.

Looking at this list I think the job comes down to three guys, Fickell, Franklin or Campbell. If I were a betting man I bet Franklin leaves PSU for this job. That makes the most sense to me. He is a proven winner, can recruit and would fit it very well in Southern California.

That is how I see this whole USC coaching search ending, but it will take some time, all season long in fact, before they eventually try and lure Franklin away from his current job. And I bet he takes it. It is too good a job not to.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Is Urban Meyer Looking for a New Miracle Cure at USC?

Here we go again

I had another piece I wanted to write about today, another sports piece, but that will have to wait because of a text I got from my dad this morning.

I was driving my son to school, and my dad sent me a story from 247 Sports with the title, "Former Stars will Recruit Meyer to USC". I immediately started to crack up. I have written and said, to anyone that will listen to me, or read my stuff, that Urban Meyer's "health issues" are all very, very phony. I have also stated that, since he left The University of Ohio State, if USC didn't get back to being a title contender, he would find his way to becoming their head coach. It's not that far fetched, he has done it before.

Remember when he left Florida because of "heart concerns"? He left Florida with an "illness", but was that really the real reason? I mean, Florida football is just now getting back to being a perennial top 15 team. They had to go through a couple guys before finally getting Dan Mullen to come back. But, I feel like Meyer was starting to see the writing on the wall. Alabama was coming for him. Georgia was getting better. Auburn had solid teams. Even Arkansas, back then, was an eight or nine win team. And let us not forget about the recruiting violations and sanctions that were about to come to light. Also, he vouched for a guy like Aaron Hernandez. All the major journalist forgave him because he coached Tim Tebow, who is so awful on TV by the way. But, I'm pretty sure everyone knew that, not only was Florida not the cream of the crop in the SEC anymore, but their program, and Meyer himself, were doing some shady stuff.

So, he made up some health excuse, ESPN bought it, and he was able to walk away unscathed. ESPN bought his "health" issue so hard in fact, they hired him to call games that same season he stepped away. He was not very good at this, but the whole Jim Tressel and tattoo stuff, and years upon years of cheating, opened up the University of Ohio State job. Meyer openly talked about how he still had "health" issues, but this was his dream job. He is from Ohio, so he would love to finish his coaching career in Columbus. Of course he was cleared by doctors to coach, after only taking a year off because of his "heart" condition, and he accepted the job only one short year after leaving Florida.

After one down year, and only minor sanctions from the Jim Tressel era, the University of Ohio State went undefeated in Meyer's first year. They then went on to win a title, win the Big Ten a few times, win most of their bowl games and beat my team, Michigan. But, this most recent season, Meyer started to complain about "terrible headaches". I wrote about how insane the coverage of all this stuff was during games. It is also very fitting that these "headaches" started to come right after it was found out that Meyer had been lying to cover up for a former coach that physically abused his ex wife and did cocaine in the White House. After all of that was released, Meyer started to suffer "headaches". He would clutch his head on the sidelines of close games. The cameras would zoom in on his face to show him in "excruciating pain". The announcers would cover for him and call him "courageous". It was all so ridiculous. Meyer then announced, after missing out on the playoff, that he would be stepping away again because the "headaches" were too much, and he needed to get healthy for his family. Again, I think he saw the writing on the wall. The University of Ohio State was losing a ton of players to the draft. The stories and whispers of him covering up for this former coach got louder. Some journalists said he should have been fired. Some people didn't believe his headaches. It was all eerily similar to his departure form Florida.

Now, not even 4 months into his "retirement", former USC players, guys like Reggie Bush, according to this 247 Sports story, are saying they will "recruit" Meyer to USC if they don't improve this season. This was absurdly predictable. Their were only 2 jobs that I thought he would take after taking a year off, Notre Dame or USC. And surprise surprise, USC is struggling, and their former famous alumni are aching for a big name coach. I wouldn't be shocked either, if/when he gets the job, if he says that USC is his "dream job". Meyer is a compulsive liar that constantly looks for sympathy from the major media. When things start to get tough for him, he makes up an excuse so it is easier for him to quit. He is also a sanction just waiting to happen. Utah dealt with it, Florida dealt with it and I'm sure the University of Ohio State will get some kind of violations notice.

I hope USC makes the mistake of hiring him because that would be fitting. They did the same thing with Pete Carroll, and he left that program in shambles. Meyer will leave it in even worse shape when he gets some other "ailment" in 6 or 7 years. This is so stupid. I wish colleges and alumni would learn some kind of lesson. But, all some colleges care about is winning football games, and that is the most disturbing thing. Urban Meyer is a liar and a coward. We will have to see how all this plays out.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He has to deal with an “Urban Meyer” headache everytime he listens to the sports media cover for the guy. It is quite debilitating.

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A Few Thoughts on the Winners, and Whiners, of the College Football Playoff

The College Football Playoff is set. From 1 to 4 the teams are Clemson, Oklahoma, Georgia and Alabama.

Now, before I get into my predictions, let us first talk about Alabama getting in over the University of Ohio State and USC. I'll touch on USC first. USC made a late season push. They proved that they are the best team in the Pac 12 by winning the title game, and closing the season pretty strong. Sam Darnold looks the part that many hoped he would when the season started, they have a tremendous run game and their defense has been pretty solid. But, early season losses to Washington State, and a blowout loss to Notre Dame doomed them. They also struggled with Texas earlier this year, in California. But, they smashed Stanford early on, and then beat them again in the Pac 12 title game. They also beat UCLA, albeit in a close game, and smashed a bunch of teams people thought would give them a game. But, in the end, the damage early in the year was too much to overcome. They had a great season, and they play in a pretty good bowl game, but they just couldn't sneak into the playoff.

As for the University of Ohio State debate. Before I get into this, I'm not going to trash them because I'm a Michigan fan. I'm going to trash them because of their ignorance and complaining. Last season the University of Ohio State got into the playoff, even though they lost at Penn State on a blocked field goal return for a TD. They did not play in the Big Ten title game, but they claimed that a conference championship game didn't matter. They finished the year 11-1. and they felt they had a better resume than Penn State, who beat them and won the conference title game. I HATE Penn State as well, so I am not making excuses for them. But, when the University of Ohio State plays in a conference title game this year, win it, but don't make the playoff and complain, you should see why I have a problem with their whining. They are hypocrites. They only want stuff good to happen for them when it benefits them. Look, they got crushed, at home, early in the season against Oklahoma, a playoff team. Oklahoma went to Columbus and trashed them. Then, later on in the year they went to Iowa and lost by 31 points. They gave up 55 points to that "dynamic" Iowa offense. This is exactly what happened to Penn State last year. They lost an early season game at Pitt, and then got smashed the very next week at Michigan. The committee has stated that big losses, no matter when they occur, matter in the end. I've read all the social media heat. People are pissed that a conference champ from a power 5 conference didn't get in. But, the same exact thing happened last year, and no one batted an eye when the University of Ohio State got in over Penn State. So, for all you University of Ohio State fans, it doesn't feel good to be on the opposite end of some bull shit, does it? But, do not bitch and moan, you guys got in last year on the same merit that Alabama got in on this year.

Alabama getting in over Ohio State and USC, I'd have no problem with it, but Nick Saban went on ESPN Saturday night and cried and whined his way into the playoff. Based on their last 2 games, they are not a playoff team. Now, give me a neutral site, and have Alabama play either school, I'd probably pick Alabama. But, it is not as clear cut as it was earlier in the season. Also, Alabama's best win is probably over LSU, but they are not the LSU of old. I know that the FSU game on the opening weekend was a big time matchup at the time, but it has looked worse and worse every week. And Saban's complaints about injuries and the like, shut up with that nonsense. Every team suffers injuries. Michigan played 3 different QB's this year. Auburn's star running back is currently hurt. Wisconsin lost their best linebacker before the year started. The University of Ohio State had to go to a backup QB in the Michigan game. Stanford dealt with Bryce Love injuries all year. Miami lost their best running back early in the season. FSU lost their star QB in the first game. Every team has to deal with injuries. Injuries are not why Auburn beat Alabama. Auburn was a much better coached and more physical team that day. That is why they beat you.

But, Alabama whined your way into a first round matchup with the clear cut number one team in the nation. Which, is my segue into my playoff predictions. So, the 1-4 matchup is Clemson-Alabama. This is part three of the series. The first 2 matchups have been great, and I think the same thing will happen in this game. Clemson is the best overall team in the country. Their defense is ferocious. They can attack you from so many different angles. Brent Venables may be the best defensive coordinator in the country. Their offense may not be as good as last year, but losing a Deshaun Watson type player would do that to any team. That being said, Kelly Bryant is legit. Clemson has a great running game. They have solid receivers. They have a pretty decent offensive line. They are just an overall solid team. Alabama has a great defense that will get some of those injured players Saban was whining about on ESPN the other night. They have a great defensive line, pretty good linebackers and a solid secondary. Where Alabama gets tripped up is their offense. They are predictable, which is fine when you face FSU or Mercer or Tennessee. But, Clemson will shut them down. Alabama thrives on their run game, but Clemson will stop that and force them to pass. And, as long as Clemson can limit Calvin Ridley, they should win the game. Jalen Hurts has proven he cannot beat you through the air. Clemson is a better team, and they should win by at least a touchdown. I think getting the line backers back at Alabama will make this game closer than it should be, but I have Clemson in a relatively low scoring game.

The other match-up of Oklahoma and Georgia, the 2-3 game, these  teams couldn't be more different. Oklahoma is very mediocre on defense, but they have the best offense, by far, in all of college football. They want to get in a track meet. They can run the ball and they can sure as hell throw the ball. Baker Mayfield, much credit to RD here, is going to win the Heisman, and that dude can sling the ball. I may not like him as a person, he is way too arrogant, but that dude is a great college football player. Oklahoma wants the ball and they want to score and score and score as much as possible. Georgia is an old fashioned team. They want to run the ball, kill clock and throw 5 yard outs to their tight ends. They are not an explosive offensive team, but they have the best backfield in all of college football. Sony Michel and Nick Chubb are amazing. They also have some stud freshman that steps in from time to time. Jake Fromm is not an all world QB yet, but he can manage a game. Georgia is stout on defense. They have shut down every team, with the first Auburn game being the lone exception. They are legit. This game is going to go one of two ways. Either Oklahoma gets the track meet they want and blows Georgia away late, or Georgia is able to stop one aspect of the Oklahoma offense and win an ugly, low scoring slugfest. I think it will be the track meet. I think Oklahoma's offense is way too good to stop. And say Georgia does somehow stop the passing offense, Oklahoma can run the ball extremely effectively as well. I say Oklahoma wins this game with a late 4th quarter run by about 2 scores.

That gives us 1 versus 2 in the title game. I am going to take Clemson to repeat. They will stop Oklahoma. Oklahoma will play in this game like they did the second half of the Iowa State game. Clemson is so fast, disciplined and awesome on defense. Kelly Bryant will also catapult himself as the 2018 Heisman front runner in this game because Oklahoma will not be able to stop him. I have Clemson winning this game fairly comfortably. They are the better, more seasoned team and their coaching staff has been here before. It is going to be a repeat and get used to Clemson being in the playoff. Maybe they are the new Alabama.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. No talk of UCF Ty? He is not interested in seeing another overrated feel good college football story get beat by 40 points by a real team. The truth hurts.

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There are Only Four Rivalry Games in All of College Football

Any backyard Nerf football game is the fifth biggest rivalry.

I was out to lunch today with my daughter and my folks and the topic of college football came up between my father and I, as it almost always does this time of year. We were talking about the Purdue-Michigan game this Saturday and then moved on to some other matchups that intrigued us. I said to my dad that a big rivalry game was on tomorrow night. He asked me which game, and I told him that Notre Dame and Michigan State were playing. He kind of shook his head and asked me why I thought that was a rivalry game. I told him that ESPN, Bleacher Report, Sports Illustrated, pretty much every sports media site and publication always says this is a rivalry game. What he said next was pretty profound, and really speaks to the current state of college football.

My dad said that when he was a kid, and even in his early adult life, Notre Dame and MSU was not a rivalry game. He said that the 2 teams barely played each other until fairly recently. He seemed to think that the media has this hyped as a rivalry game, but in actuality, it is just another game.

We spoke more about what we each consider to be relevant rivalry games in college football. We are both big time Michigan fans, obviously. So, he asked me who I considered was Michigan's biggest rival. Without hesitation I said the University of Ohio State. They always have been and always will be Michigan's chief rival. He was happy with my answer, but asked me about teams like Notre Dame, Minnesota, MSU, and I kind of shrugged them off. Don't get me wrong, those are big games, but not as big as the University of Ohio State. They don't play Notre Dame or Minnesota every year anymore and, while the MSU game can be big, it doesn't hold the same magnitude for me as a Michigan fan. We started to look at other games that are considered "rivalry" games by some places. We both agreed that Auburn-Alabama and Army-Navy are legit, big time games. Those games are almost always as important as the University of Ohio State-Michigan game. I was even quick to say the Egg Cup, Washington and Washington State, is a big time rivalry game too.

Outside of some in state stuff, we couldn't come up with many other true rivalry games, what with all the realignment, and the state of some teams currently in college football. Take a game like Iowa-Iowa State for example. Who, outside of alumni and people that live in Iowa, really care about this "rivalry"? I know I wasn't watching, or paying that much attention to this game when it was played a few weeks ago. Sure, they have some trophy, but who really cares besides the players and coaches. My dad informed me that some people consider Minnesota-Wisconsin a rivalry game. I thought they just played each other to get some big ass axe. I didn't realize until today that this was a rivalry trophy. Some people still consider UCLA-USC a rivalry game. Not me. For my generation, Notre Dame is a much bigger rival to USC than UCLA is. Oklahoma and Oklahoma State fans might take me to task because I don't really think Bedlam is a legit rivalry game. It's a battle for Oklahoma, but it usually doesn't have the big time stakes of true rivalry games. I remember asking RD's wife, who went to Purdue, who their biggest rival was and she told me Indiana. I would not have known that in a million years. I guess it makes sense because they are both in Indiana, but a rivalry game, I don't think so.

Then I thought about some old time rivalry games that are now gone due to conference realignment. We don't get to see Texas-Texas A&M every year anymore. That's a drag. That was always a fun game to watch on Thanksgiving weekend, no matter how good or bad the teams were. Colorado-Colorado State has fallen into that Iowa-Iowa State role for me now that Colorado is in the Pac-12. Who cares about that game, including people that live in Colorado. Missouri and Kansas not only stopped playing football against each other, but they don't even play basketball against each other anymore. That is a damn shame as someone from Missouri that roots for Kansas. The used to have some great matchups back when the Big 12 had 12 teams. Penn State and Pitt only recently renewed their rivalry, but both those schools aren't what they used to be when that game would have truly mattered.

I guess when I look at the new landscape of college football, it is hard for me to see a true rivalry outside of some in state nonsense, or some made up stuff by people that just want others to pay attention to their schools. Outside of University of Ohio State-Michigan, Alabama-Auburn, Army-Navy and Notre Dame-USC, what are the big "rivalry" games? Who is Florida's rival? Is it Florida State or Miami? Same for Miami. Is it Florida State or Florida? Who is Georgia's rival? Is it Georgia Tech, or some random SEC school? Who's Texas main rival now? Oklahoma? Aren't they supposed to be Oklahoma State's biggest rival? What about KU or Missouri? Who are their chief rivals? How about Stanford? Do they consider Notre Dame or USC their biggest rival? Who is LSU's most hated team? Is it Alabama? Maybe Auburn? What about Clemson? Has Louisville jumped older teams, or is it still another team from the Carolina's? It is all very muddy now in college football.

I love to watch all these games, but I want people to temper what they consider a "rivalry game". I will still tune into Notre Dame-Michigan State, but only because Michigan's game should be over by then, and the only other intriguing night game matchup to me is TCU-Oklahoma State. No other reason. I don't know, I just feel like people are making up new rivalry games just to make them up. Tell me why I'm wrong. Let me know how much the Georgia-Georgia Tech game means, or why Miami is a bigger rival to Florida than Florida State. Because where I sit now, there are only 4 true rivalry games. All that other stuff is pure nonsense.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He is on the wrong side of our world's greatest rivalry, yellow or red Gatorade. We all know the true answer.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

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The SeedSing 2017 College Football Preview

Before I get into my 2017 NCAA football preview, please try and do anything and everything you can to help out the people in Houston. What is going on there right now is horrifying and terrible and the people of that city need our help. You can donate at many websites, text 90999 and write HARVEY or, if you are in the area and safe, try and help others. I hope this all ends soon because this is catastrophic. No one deserves what is happening in Houston now. Go out and do whatever you can to help.

Okay, now lets get to my preview.

My 2017 NCAA football preview is going to be like my other ones. I will break down the "power 5" schools, mention some non "power 5" schools, pick the playoff, the championship and the Heisman winner. I'll pick the winner of each conference too. Okay, here goes.

I'm going to start with the Big 12. The Big 12 is about the 2 Oklahoma schools. Oklahoma is going to be good. They still have Baker Mayfield, and they recruit with the best schools in the country, and they get some of the best players. However, they lost Dede Westbrook and Semajie Perine. Those departures will be enormous. Baker Mayfield is a legit Heisman contender, but he has an entire new crew of skill players. They also lost Bob Stoops to retirement. That was bizarre. I wrote about how weird his retirement was about 2 months ago, and I am still confused as to why he walked away this year. But, Oklahoma doesn't rebuild, they reload. They will still be very good. Oklahoma State is going to be absolutely lethal on offense. Mason Rudolph is going to put up incredible numbers. This year will be Oklahoma State's best chance to knock off Oklahoma. They have a stacked offense. Their defense is kind of suspect, but in the Big 12, defense is sometimes optional. I have seen some websites and other publications say that maybe TCU can compete, but that all depends on Kenny Hill. If he looks good, they could be a 10 win team. If he falters, they will be lucky to be .500. They also have a very shoddy defense, which used to be their calling card. Texas is welcoming Tom Hermann as their new head coach, and I think some people have a bit too much optimism. I'm a little more pessimistic. They have a lot of newer starters that need to learn an entire new offense. I don't doubt that Hermann can turn it around, I just think it may take 2 or 3 years to get his type player. Their defense is atrocious too. Baylor is about to get hammered, as they should, with NCAA sanctions. That school's football program is filled with scumbags. They deserve all the bad things that are coming their way. Kansas may win 4 games this year, which would be a massive improvement, but they are a basketball school. That much is obvious. Iowa State is very mediocre. Texas Tech will score a lot of points, but they will give up more. I think that the honeymoon with Kliff Kingsbury is over. He is firmly on the hot seat. Kansas State will play hard, but they just don't have the talent to be hyper competitive. West Virginia may surprise some teams, but they are the epitome of a 7-5 team. They always start out hot too, but flame out. Expect that this year too. I'm going to go ahead and give Oklahoma State the nod in the Big 12 this year. Oklahoma has too much to replace, and they play a few good teams outside of their conference schedule. They also, inexplicably, lost their head coach. This is Oklahoma State's best shot to win the Big 12.

Lets now move to the very overrated SEC. As long as Alabama is in this conference, and they keep getting the best recruits, I'm going to go with them. They are the preseason number one. I know that they lost some guys on offense and defense, but they always do. They always have some blue chippers ready to take over for some first round draft pick. They lost that monster D-lineman to the draft, they have D'Shawn Hand to replace him. They lost OJ Howard, but they have Steven Ridley and some 5 stars ready to step in at tight end. They also get Jalen Hurts back. That kid was great last year as a true freshman. He looked so poised and composed. He is going to make a tremendous leap. Look, I hate Alabama, but I cannot deny their greatness. LSU should be good, but this is the first full year under Ed Orgeron. I now they looked different at the end of last year when he took over for Les Miles, but teams now have an entire offseason to prepare for him. They do have Derius Guice, and he looked awesome in his playing time behind Leonard Fournette last year. He filled in great for him when he got hurt. LSU also has a very stout defense, as always. The question marks for them are all the same. How will their QB play? Can they utilize their receivers properly? Will they choke in big games? Time will tell. I think they will be better than last year, but I still think Alabama is better. Auburn is back to being an 8 or 9 win team. They run the ball exceptionally, but they have no passing game whatsoever. Their defense is fine, but just fine. Gus Malzahn may not be the great head coach that they thought they got a few years back at Auburn. Georgia has some great running backs, mainly Nick Chubb, but their QB situation is not ideal. They had a 5 star kid start last year, and he looked like a freshman more than a star. They signed some other 5 star kid this offseason, and they are in a battle still to see who is going to be the starter. I'd stick with the kid from last year, but the fact that he is in a battle is a bad sign. They do have a decent defense, and Kirby Smart will turn them into a top 15 overall defense soon. Georgia may be looking at another 8 win year, but look out for them in a year or 2. Ole Miss is a mess due to their creep of a former head coach. They are going to get crushed by the NCAA. I'm sick of all the Tennessee hype every year. I do not believe one thing I hear from that team during the offseason anymore. Their coach should have been let go last year. Florida has a great defense, but that offense leaves a ton to be desired. They did get Malik Zaire to transfer there, and he could help them a lot, but he hasn't had a ton of time on campus. Their defense will keep them in every game, but they need that offense to get up to speed. Arkansas will be highly pumped up during the offseason, blow some games and finish 7-5 or 6-6 again. That is the Bret Biliema way. Texas A&M is wildly inconsistent, and they just lost Myles Garrett. They will most likely win 7 games again. Then there are the mid level to bottom feeders. The Missouri's, Vanderbilt's, Mississippi State's, South Carolina's and Kentucky's of the SEC. They may all be .500, but that is because they will schedule 3 cupcakes, and then beat up on each other. The upper tier SEC teams will hammer these teams. Obviously I have Alabama, no matter who they play in the SEC title game, to win the SEC.

The Pac 12 is down. The Pac 12 may be worse than the ACC now. Sure, Washington, USC and Stanford are highly rated. Hell, I have seen some people pick USC to win it all. But, I remember the last time USC had all this hype. They finished 7-6. This USC team will be better though. Sam Darnold is legit. He is very, very good. He is all around solid, even exceptional. They have some good skill guys too, and a pretty good defense. But, I'm always wary of a team that was going to fire their coach early during the last season, then playing really well down the stretch, then getting all the offseason accolades. Those teams never seem to live up to the hype. Washington was in the playoff, but we all saw what they looked liked against real competition. Alabama destroyed them. That game wasn't even close. They have an incredibly easy out of conference schedule, and they will win double digit wins, but when they have to face the big teams, they just can't match up. Their QB is back, and he will put numbers, but not against the top teams. I really like Stanford, and they completely dominated a much worse Rice team this past Saturday. They ran up and down the field on them and they stopped everything Rice tried to do. Stanford is going to be very good, but when will they have that one game when they blow it? It has happened for the past couple years. But, David Shaw might be one of the most underrated coaches in football. He is great. I do not know what happened to Oregon last year. They cleaned house, and I do like the hiring of Willie Taggert, but this team is playing a ton of new players. They might not be the hyper fast offense that we have all become accustomed to. And their defense might be worse than most of the defenses in the Big 12. Utah is solid, but they will only win 7 or 8 games. They have to replace a lot. They are kind of like the Kansas State of the Pac 12. They play hard, but they just aren't as talented as the upper echelon teams in their conference. UCLA is average. Josh Rosen is not the next great QB. They don't really have hyper athletic skilled players. Their defense is average. This is a 7 win team at best. Jim Mora Jr may be gone after this year. California is the Texas Tech of the Pac 12, but they give up more points. Arizona is learning that Rich Rod may not be the great coach he was when he was at West Virginia. This team has really faded in the last 2 years after climbing into the top 15 in Rich Rod's first year. Washington State might surprise some people. They have a tremendous offense, and their defense, if they need to, can make plays. Mike Leach is an odd dude, but he is an offensive mastermind. Washington State could win double digit game this year. And if they don't, they will be in every game. Colorado played very well last year, making it to the Pac 12 title game, and I expect them to continue being a competitive team in the Pac 12. They are on the up swing, but they need to break in a new QB and other new skill players. Arizona State's time as a "perennial top 25 team" never really came, and they are just a run of the mill team that has some wild uniforms. They will continue to be a 6 or 7 win team. I also despise their coach. Oregon State has gotten better the past 2 years, but they are still a ways away from being at the top of the conference. USC will get all the talk, but I like Stanford to win the Pac 12 this year. They need to replace a guy like McCaffery, but that should benefit them, as they won't be so reliant on one player. They will be a full team, as opposed to one guy being the focal point. I also really like David Shaw. He is, by far, the best coach in the conference.

The ACC is going to be much better than it has been in a long time. Clemson will take a step back, but they are the defending national champs. They have to replace a ton of production, but they have some good players ready to step in. They will not win the national title again, let alone the ACC. But, they will compete. Florida State looks like the team to beat. They have so much talent coming back. Sure, the lost Dalvin Cook, but they have Deondre Francois back, and that kid is amazing. They also have some pretty great skill guys. FSU is also stacked on defense. On paper, this team looks incredible. We will find out a lot about them this Saturday night when they open the season against Alabama. That is going to be an epic game. At least it should be. Miami is another team I like in the ACC. Mark Richt is a good head coach, and he is turning that program back to being relevant. They won't be the Miami from the early 2000's, but they are going to be very good this year. I could definitely see them win double digit games this year, and be a force in the ACC. Virginia Tech is another team on the up swing. They have a very good defense, and I know they lost their QB, but they will be able to plug and play some new kid, as long as he can manage a game. This team wins by stopping the other guys and ball control. And they have the talent to do that this year. Louisville returns Heisman winner Lamar Jackson, so you cannot count them out. Jackson kind of fell off at the end of last year, but he still won the Heisman as a 19 year old. He is a very good QB. They don't have a ton of talent on defense, but they can still manage to get stops. This team is all about Lamar Jackson, and in college football, that is just fine. Georgia Tech will be a headache, they run that triple option, and I could see them winning a few games they shouldn't. Pitt is atrocious on defense, and they lost their excellent running back, James Connor, to the NFL. They might take a step back this year. Duke is fun to watch at times, but they don't have the guys to make any real noise. Same thing with UNC. They play a fun style of offense, but they just can't matchup with the top 25 teams. NC State, Wake Forest, Boston College and Syracuse are also rans. NC State may win a game they shouldn't here and there, but they will not matter in the end. Boston College will have a very stout defense, but they will lose so many games with scores like 7-0, 10-7 or 6-3. They just can't score. FSU is the clear favorite to win the ACC, and I am not going against the pack on this one. FSU will win the ACC.

The last of the "power 5" conferences is the Big 10. I am a Michigan fan. Duh. I'm very curious/excited/nervous to see what this team will look like in 5 days. A BUNCH of people are expecting them to take a major step back. They have to replace 17 starters. That is a lot. But, all the kids there now are Harbaugh's recruits. These are the type of players he wants at Michigan. I want to see how they perform. I want to see if Harbaugh is the great coach that he has been ordained to be. Most publications pick them to finish fourth overall in the Big 10 and third in their division. I have seen their win totals range from 8-11. I would be very disappointed if they only won 8 games and finished third in their division. I think they will be better than most people are saying. I think they can win double digit games. I love that they open with Florida and that they have a tough conference schedule. But, they get Ohio State at home this year and Florida has suspended, the last I checked, 7 players for this opener. I think Michigan will be better than 8 wins. I think they should win at least 10 games. Most of the hype in the Big 10 is being placed on the University of Ohio State and Penn State, and rightfully so. Both these teams appear to be loaded. Both these teams ended the regular season strong. But, both lost their bowl games. I have much more faith in the University of Ohio State living up to the expectations than Penn State because they always have high expectations. The University of Ohio State will be fine, if they beat Oklahoma at the beginning of the year. Penn State hasn't been in the spotlight, at least not for something good, and neither has James Franklin, in a very long time. The way they ended last year seemed very, very fluky to me. Like I said, they have a very talented team, but this is a team that got scored on a ton against a very mediocre Pitt team last year. This is a team that was floating in obscurity until the University of Ohio State played their worst game all year. This was a team that got Wisconsin on their worst defensive performance of the year in the Big 10 title last year. They got a lot of breaks last year. Let's see how they do with the bulls eye on them now. Wisconsin will be very good once again. They will run the ball a ton, control the clock and let their stacked defense get stops for them when they need to. They will most definitely be a major factor in the Big 10 all year long. After those teams, it gets very murky. Who knows how good Minnesota will be with PJ Fleck as the head guy. They could be very good, they have a good run game, but how will their passing offense look and how will that defense play? Don't forget, they let Rutgers stay in, and almost win, the game they played last year. Northwestern is on a lot of "sleepers" lists, but aren't they every year? They have a good run game, but I do not buy Clayton Thorson as a legit QB threat. They also have a very mediocre defense. Pat Fitzgerald might be the most overrated coach in all of college sports. But, people seem to think this Northwestern team can make noise. I am not one of those people. Maryland has a good defense, but their offense is abysmal. They have zero play makers and they will struggle with the top teams in the Big 10. Indiana is going through a coaching change, and they need to break in a new QB. But, they always have a very good run game, and they need one because that defense cannot stop anyone ever. Nebraska is okay, but I cannot figure out what to make of this team and Mike Riley. Does he want to run the ball like he did at Oregon State, or is he going to use the spread game? Who is going to be his QB? Who is going to be their bell cow running back? How is their defense going to look? This team is a mystery. Iowa will always be one of the tougher teams to play at home. But, they have no real QB or receiver threat. They do have some good running backs, but with teams loading the box, that won't matter. Their defense will be good though because it always is. This team has 7 wins written all over them. Michigan State will not be as bad as they were last year, but they won't be much better. They do not have that crushing defense from a few years back and they have no real identity on offense. Mark Dantonio may be coaching for his job this year. If they get 7 wins, which I think they can, he should be fine, but if they slip to 5 or 4 wins, he may be looking elsewhere for work next season. Then we have Purdue, Illinois and Rutgers. This is the bottom of the barrel in the Big 10. Rutgers will be lucky to win 2 games. Purdue is going through yet another coaching change. And poor Lovie Smith, Illinois is bad. As much as I loathe and am disgusted by this team, god damn University of Ohio State will probably win the conference. JT Barrett is a really good college QB and their defense is stout. Penn State may make it tough on them, so will Wisconsin, and Michigan, while young, should be in the race all season long.

As far as non "power 5" teams, South Florida and Boise State are about the only ones worth talking about. Notre Dame also bears mentioning, but they need to fire Brian Kelly right away, especially if that team comes out the way they did last year. They only won 4 games last year. That is unacceptable. Boise State bears a mention because they have earned it. They are always playing tough teams, beating them sometimes, and then running away with their conference. And South Florida is the Western Michigan of this year. They may go undefeated, but playing in such a poor conference and playing a weak out of conference schedule will leave them outside the top 10 all year. They are a very, very good football team though. But, no one outside of the "power 5" will make the playoff.

Which leads me to the playoff. My four teams, in order are FSU, the University of Ohio State, Alabama and USC. I think FSU will beat Alabama this weekend, take over the one spot and never relinquish it. The University of Ohio State will get in by beating Oklahoma early in the season and winning every game from there on out. I already have 2 undefeated teams in my playoff. Alabama will lose to FSU then crush everyone else on their way to another SEC title on a revenge style run. And even though I'm pessimistic about teams getting major accolades after starting out a season very bad, then finishing hot, and even though I picked Stanford to win the Pac 12, I think USC will get the nod with only one loss, where I think Stanford could have 2 losses, but still be in, and win, the Pac 12 title game. That would match up FSU and USC and Alabama and the University of Ohio State. I have FSU in a walk over USC and I have Alabama going to their second straight title game in a very close game over the University of Ohio State. And in the rematch I have FSU coming out on top once again. FSU is so very, very talented, and I think they will be your 2017-18 NCAA football champs. As far as the Heisman goes, I have Deondre Francois winning it. He will have his signature game this Saturday, and he will continue to play better and better every week of the year and run away with the Heisman.

I'll do a mid season check up, but this is what I see heading into the real opening week of college football. I cannot wait.

Ty

Editor's Thoughts - I am no where near the college football expert that Ty is, but I am still going to give my thoughts. The SEC, Pac 12, and Big 12 are very bad conferences with one or two very good teams. That means Alabama, USC, and Oklahoma will easily get into the playoff because they will bowl through their conferences and have one loss each at the very most. The fourth team should come from the Big 10, the best conference in college football, but eventual champ Wisconsin will have two or more losses. Urban Meyer will "suffer" through a 10 win season, lose to Michigan, and then retire due to "health concerns". Urban wants to run far away from Michigan in 2018 when they become an Alabama type power. That leaves the fourth playoff spot to a two loss FSU team (Alabama and a random conference game will be losses). #4 FSU will play #1 Alabama in the first round, the real national championship game. FSU will get revenge, then they will crush USC in the National Championship.

Baker Mayfield of Oklahoma will win the Heisman. Great name, premier program, and he will put up sick numbers in a the defense desert of the Big 12.

RD

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He is a big man to not talk up his favorite team like he should. The Head Editor is not a big man, he will talk up the Wolverines for Ty.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

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The Falcons Continue to Make Bad Decisions with the Steve Sarkisian Hire.

Steve Sarkisian was just named Kyle Shanahan's replacement as offensive coordinator of the Atlanta Falcons. You read that right. The Falcons, who were just in the Super Bowl, replaced their offensive coordinator who left to be the head coach for the 49ers with Steve Sarkisian.

I think this is absolute waste of a hire. They could have went out and got somebody who is much, much more experienced and already a professional coach. Besides one year as the Raiders QB coach in 2004, everything Sarkisian has done has been at the college level, and he was not that great when coaching college players. Now, he is taking over a Falcons offense that has the MVP, Matt Ryan, 2 great, young running backs in Tevin Coleman and Devonta Freeman, and probably the best receiver in the NFL right now in Julio Jones.

I ask, what makes Sarkisian the better, and more qualified, person to take this job over some available coaches? Like I said, he had very minimal success at the college level. He was part of Pete Carroll's staff at USC, first as the QB coach in 2005-06, then as the assistant head coach/QB coach/offensive coordinator from 2007 to 2008. That was where he found his most success, but looking back, I think I could have coached those 5 star athletes just as well as he did. With talent like that, it is not that hard to tell them to go out and play hard.

Then, for some inexplicable reason, the University of Washington gave him the head coaching job after the 2008 season. Washington was supposed to be the up and coming program, and Sarkisian was going to be the guy to return them to their glory days of the early 90's. Well, that did not happen. Washington was very mediocre during his tenure. They were always just on the cusp, and people always said that, "this was going to be the year for the Huskies", but they never panned out. Sarkisian was the same guy that brought a live tiger, in a cage, to a practice to prepare for an early season game against LSU. I guess he thought it would fire up his guys, but they got absolutely destroyed by LSU on that particular Saturday. It was embarrassing. In fact, besides a couple of wins against top tier opponents in his first season, in which Washington finished 5-7, his best record in the four seasons he coached there was 7-6. Not that great.

But, in what was a great fail upwards, after the Lane Kiffin debacle at USC, the Trojans decided to hire Sarkisian away from Washington in 2013. I was puzzled by this hire at the time. I figured they were getting an almost identical coach, but they claimed they were trying to get away from Lane Kiffin. Kiffin and Sarkisian are 2 great examples of guys that continue to fail up somehow. But, Sakisian was retuning home, and he was going to make USC relevant again. USC was in a rut since Pete Carroll bolted for the NFL, and I guess the higher ups figured Sarkisian would return them to glory. Well, that did not happen. He was a total disaster while the head man at USC. His life fell apart coaching there. They had the whole Josh Shaw incident, look it up, and the whole Stanford game where officials may or mat not have been contacted prior to a game to make some calls that would give USC an advantage. Then, I was actually watching this game, he was accused of being intoxicated during a game against Arizona State. I remember vividly watching and thinking to myself, he does not seem right on the sideline. He looked like, at any moment, he was going to barf all over the field, then the next second, he looked to be slurring words when speaking to his players. It was a mess. It was revealed later that he was going to take a leave of absence right after the ASU game, and check himself into rehab for alcohol abuse. During this time, Clay Helton was named interim head coach. Sarkisian was quickly fired after players and assistant coaches said that they could smell alcohol on his breath during practices.

I thought this was going to be the nail in the coffin as far as Sarkisian being a coach for any big time school, but after only one year away, Alabama hired him as an analyst for their football team. Saban was stocking his coaching staff with big names basically. Recruits love this, and Saban is no dummy. Sarkisian was basically an assistant offensive coordinator for the majority of the 2016 season. Kiffin called the plays, yes he was the offensive coordinator at Alabama, and Sarkisian gave his input. Then, as only someone like Lane Kiffin could do, he got fired after already accepting a job at Florida Atlantic, and Sarkisian was called on to be the new offensive coordinator for the national title game. I wrote about that game and how stagnant Alabama seemed on offense, and Sarkisian was the play caller. It was assumed that he would slide into Kiffin's spot, but surprisingly to me, and I bet a lot of other people, when the Falcons offensive coordinator job opened, they wasted little time hiring Sarkisian to the same position.

I do not get this hire, as I have stated throughout. I do not know what they saw in him that made them think he could lead the number one offense in football. His play calling in the title game was predictable and dreadful. How will that translate to the NFL? Not well, in my opinion. I feel like the Falcons are going to waste at least one year of 4 great offensive players in their prime. The only "sense" I can make of them picking Sarkisian to be the new offensive coordinator is that the head coach, Dan Quinn, was also a Pete Carroll guy at Seattle, and maybe they have a relationship since they both worked for him. I personally think Sarkisian is going to be very, very bad as the head play caller for the Falcons. I already thought that the Falcons would take a tiny step back after blowing the Super Bowl, but now that they hired Sarkisian, I think they will be lucky to got 9-7 next year. I mean, Julio Jones is incredible, and I love the running backs, but I think Matt Ryan played the best he will ever play, and with Sarkisian calling the plays, I think his inevitable fall back to Earth will be a fiery crash back to Earth now. This puzzled me, and I think it will, in the long run, end up hurting the Falcons.

Steve Sarkisian is not the man for this job. He would not have even been in my top 25 of candidates, but I guess he was the Falcons first, and only, choice to take over for Shanahan. I think it is going to be a nightmare.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He has a bad feeling that the ghost of Bobby Petrino will not be good for Steve Sarkisian in the ATL. Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

The SeedSing 2016 College Football Playoffs, Important Bowls, and Heisman Predictions

The College Football Playoff is set, for better or worse. We have the four teams, counting down from 4 to 1, Washington, The University of Ohio State(I know what I wrote), Clemson and Alabama.

First off, the University of Ohio State does not belong in this field. They got beat by Penn State, who I will talk about later, needed overtime to beat Wisconsin and got a tremendous amount of help from the refs against Michigan, who I will also touch on later. They are strictly there because the playoff committee and the TV stations have a disturbing love affair with Urban Meyer. This University of Ohio State team is not as good as they have been in the past. They are still decent, but not the third best team in the country.

With all that being said, they have a shot to beat Clemson. Clemson does belong in this field. They did everything they needed to do to get in the playoff. They have been incredibly inconsistent all year long, but when they show up, they are very, very hard to beat. They have a great D line, a great defensive coordinator, Brent Venables, they have great skill guys like Wyatt Gallman and Mike Williams, and they have Deshaun Watson. This team is loaded, it is just a matter of them showing up, which they have for important games this year. If the team that showed up against Louisville and FSU shows up, they will blow the doors off the University of Ohio State. But, if the Clemson team that showed up against NC State or Pittsburgh shows up, they will be in trouble. I assume the team that played Louisville and FSU shows up, and Clemson beats the University of Ohio State in a decent game. If I had to pick a score, I'd say Clemson 38, the University of Ohio State 24.

The other matchup is going to look a lot like last year's Alabama-Michigan State game. Good for you Washington. You won the Pac 12 title game convincingly, but your butter soft out of conference schedule is going to rear its ugly head. The only time Washington faced a legit defense all year, USC, they got completely smothered. Alabama is better than USC. Hell, Alabama beat USC by 44 points in the first game of the season. If Washington had a hard time moving the ball on USC, they will not be able to move the ball at all against Alabama. Even their coach seems nervous about this matchup. There was an interview yesterday, and Petersen sounded like he was already preparing for next year. Jake Browning is good, and Washington has good skill players, but they have not faced a team nearly as good as Alabama. Alabama's defense is historically good. They are suffocating. They have stopped everyone that has come their way. Their defense and special teams are so good, they had -7 total offensive yards in the SEC title game after the first quarter, and they were still winning 16-9. Alabama is incredible, even if their offense is not great. Alabama is going to cruise over Washington to the tune of something like 35-7.

That would leave us with a rematch of last year's title game, but this time, it will not be a shootout. Alabama, and their defense, will shut Clemson down. Watson is great, but Alabama's defense is so much better. This is one of the most dominant and clinical teams that I have ever seen on a college football field. They are like a machine. If Alabama does not win the title this year, it will be a bigger upset than Cleveland beating Golden State in the NBA Finals last year. Alabama is clearly the best team in college football, and it is by a wide margin. Those are my predictions for the playoff.

As far as some other bowls go, I do not really care for anything else outside of the playoff and the New Year's 6 Bowl games. I could care less about a Nebraska-Tennessee matchup or a Navy-Louisiana Tech matchup or a Iowa-Florida matchup. None of those sound appealing to me. But, when it comes to the New Year's 6, obviously I have a huge interest in the Orange Bowl. Michigan is playing FSU. If Michigan shows up, and is not deflated by not making the playoff, they should roll. They have a great run defense, and all FSU can do is run. Dalvin Cook is incredible, but if Michigan can slow him down and hold him to below 100 yards, there is not much else FSU can do on offense. Michigan's offense should be able to control the ball as well. Michigan is a better team than FSU, and they should win the Orange Bowl.

The Rose Bowl is going to be a blood bath. Penn State is not the fifth best team in the country. But, before I go on about this game, I need to address what Gus Johnson said about Penn State winning the Big Ten title being a "milestone" in the "healing process" for what happened under Joe Paterno. This was a terrible oversight. What happened for 2 plus decades under Paterno's watch is despicable, disgusting, disturbing and Penn State's football program should have been shut down. The vile and heinous acts committed by the old staff were horrific and upsetting. The fact that the main media wants to gloss over this is troubling. No football win is any kind of "milestone", nor does it help anyone heal from what happened. Those people that were abused have to live with that everyday. Football games do not change what happened to them. Shame on Gus Johnson, Mark May, Kirk Herbstreit and any other media person that tries to shove the terrible tragedy at Penn State aside and only focus on football. Penn State should not have a football team.

With that being said, they will be exposed by a USC team that has only gotten better and better every week. They will shut down anything that Penn State will try and do, and they will move the ball on Penn State with ease. This is a very low level game for the Rose Bowl. We have a 2 and 3 loss teams playing for the Rose Bowl. That is not great. Anyway, USC will win by 10 plus.

The Cotton Bowl is going to expose Western Michigan. Good for them and PJ Fleck. You guys finished the regular season undefeated. Only you and Alabama can say that. But, when your 2 best wins are against a 6-6 Northwestern team and a 3-9 Illinois team, that speaks volumes to the level of competition they faced all year. Wisconsin is going to dismantle Western Michigan. I'd love to be proven wrong, both for my dislike to the Badgers and the fact that I would love to see Western Michigan finish the year undefeated, but it will not happen. WMU is playing a big time team now, and it will show. I would not be surprised if Wisconsin wins by 3 touchdowns or more.

The Sugar Bowl features Oklahoma and Auburn. Oklahoma should win this going away. They play super up-tempo offense and Auburn is decimated by injury. Auburn has a good defense, but Oklahoma's offense is fantastic. Oklahoma does not play defense, but they won't have to play too much defense in this game because Auburn is not nearly as lethal running the ball, due to all the injuries. I say Oklahoma by 2 touchdowns.

I have Alabama winning the title, Michigan winning the Orange Bowl, USC winning the Rose Bowl, Wisconsin winning the Cotton Bowl and Oklahoma winning the Sugar Bowl.

As far as the Heisman goes, first off, the list of players they are sending to New York is a real head scratcher. Obviously Lamar Jackson and Deshaun Watson belong, but Jabrill Peppers, Baker Mayfield and Dede Westbrook? What the hell? I love Jabrill Peppers. He was so much fun to watch this year. I literally thought he could score anytime he had his hands on the ball, but he wasn't even the best defender on his team. That goes to Jourdan Lewis, Taco Charlton and Chris Wormley. Peppers is great, just not Heisman great. Then 2 guys from Oklahoma, give me a break. If you want someone from the Big 12, send D'Onta Foreman. He rushed for over 2,000 yards this year, and that is with every team gearing up to stop him. And if you wanted another QB, send Jake Browning from Washington. He had an incredible year, and it would be a nice consolation for him since his team, and himself, are going to get hammered by Alabama. This is a very odd group of players selected to go to New York. Since it is only a 2 man race, they should have only sent Jackson and Watson.

I'm going to stick with my preseason pick, and say Deshaun Watson wins the Heisman. His last 5 games have been very impressive, and even though his numbers aren't like Jackson's numbers, the lasting impressions should count. Jackson had big time stumbles against Houston and Kentucky, where Watson showed up for the ACC title, and has been unstoppable the last 5 games.

So there you have it, my final predictions for the college football season. I will recap everything after the year is over, but this is what I see happening over the next month or so. Enjoy bowl season everyone. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial man Podcast. He aspires to go to the Rose Bowl one day. Maybe he will be the Grand Marshall. Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

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The Sad and Scary Death of Joe McKinght

I was going to review Childish Gambino's new record today, but that will have to wait until Monday because I need to address the horrible tragedy that happened to former NFL running back Joe McKnight.

I was watching ESPN yesterday, and I saw scrolling on the bottom of my screen, that McKnight had died at the age of 28. I could not believe it when I saw it. I thought it may have been one of those death hoax things, but as I dug deeper, I found out I was very wrong. I needed to know what happened to him.

I remember vividly watching him in college. I am not a USC fan by any means, but when he played there, I found him a joy to watch. He was on their team after the Reggie Bush/Lendale White era, in which their running game was second to none. I never thought they would be as good on the ground as they were with those guys, but Joe McKnight was damn near as good as they were. He was very fast. He burst through holes and kicked into second gear and ran away from defenders. He was patient when waiting for holes to open up. He was a good receiver out of the backfield. Hell, he could even block. He was the total package. He didn't win the Heisman like Bush did, but he was a very good college football player.

McKnight turned his college career into a halfway decent pro career. He was a fourth-round pick by the Jets, and since I followed him in college, I followed his pro career. He wasn't a great pro, but he was pretty decent. He became a key contributor right away, He was a change of pace back for the Jets. They put him in on third downs a lot, especially to run screen plays. He became a key guy on a decent Jets team. His career was cut short due to multiple injuries, but I always remembered him being a joy to watch. Like I said, he had world class speed and vision, and just did the right things on the football field. He was a much better college player, but he was still a decent pro.

So, when this news flashed yesterday, as I said before, I could not believe it. First, he was 6 years younger than me. I am at that point in my life where I am older than the college athletes that I watch, and critique, so when someone this young dies, it literally shakes me to my core. Then, I thought that it was some kind of freak thing. Maybe he had a bad fall, maybe he had an unexplained illness that none of us knew about, maybe he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, I just couldn't figure it out.

But, later in the day, the news reported that the way he died was much, much more gruesome and disturbing than anything that I could ever think of. He was shot and killed by someone with road rage. What the hell? What has this world come to? Why does stuff like this happen so often now? Why are guns so readily available and easy to get? It is so, so sad. I mean, earlier in the week we had the terrible and disturbing situation at Ohio State, and now some gun loon, with a very short fuse, shot someone over something so insignificant. I get road rage, not as bad now because I have kids, but I have never, ever thought that someone that cut me off needed to be physically harmed. What in the hell is the matter with this person that felt they needed to shoot Joe McKnight? I heard that there was a confrontation, but it should never come to something as terrible as this. Why do crazy people get guns? And why do they think that they need to use them when they have any confrontation? Things can be solved so much easier by just using your words. Just talk. Calm the hell down and take a breath.

That is the problem. We have become a culture of people that act without thinking. It is sad. I mean, look at the election results, that was purely based on people not thinking at all. Then, we had the Ohio State incident, and now the tragic death of Joe McKnight. How much worse can 2016 truly get? This monster that took Joe McKnight's life, over some road rage, deserves to be put in jail for the rest of their life. This is a disturbed individual that thinks guns are a way to solve problems. That should terrify people.

This is such a sad and tragic event. Joe McKnight was so young and had a long, long life ahead of him. He seemed like he was a decent person. I do not remember him getting into trouble in college or in the pros. All the news when he was playing all seemed to be good things. He, at least on the surface, seemed to be a decent guy. I am literally scared at the readily availability of crazy people getting guns. Guns are a big, big problem in the world right now. Guns have always scared me, I have never even held one, and the fact that these gun nuts flaunt the fact that they have them is one of the scariest things in the world. Had this person been reasonable and used words instead of violence, Joe McKnight would still be alive today. This is a truly tragic, disturbing and sad thing that happened yesterday.

Stories like this make me scared for humanity, hate the NRA more than I already do and they just make me sad. Joe McKnight had so much ahead of him, but now that is all gone because of a disturbed individual. Rest In Peace Joe McKnight. You did not deserve this, and this is a sad, sad day for society.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

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Will the Latest Trouble at Notre Dame Finally Get Brian Kelly Fired?

Kelly has wrecked the Notre Dame football train

As most of you probably know by now, Notre Dame football has been forced to vacate all their wins from 2012 and 2013 due to academic violations. This should all but assure that Brian Kelly gets fired either this week or this weekend.

First off, Notre Dame is in the midst of one of their worst seasons in about 5 years. They sit at 4-7 as I write this, and unless they somehow find a way to beat USC, they will be staying home during bowl season. You may have read that and thought that with 7 losses, they are ineligible for a bowl bid, but we did have some 5-7 teams make bowls last year because there are way too many bowl games. I don't think they have a chance to beat USC, so this whole point is basically moot, but you never know.

Kelly has thrown people under the bus all season long too, except for himself. This dreadful football year has been everyone's fault but his own. He has complained about his players, he has fired staff members, he has called out fans, as I said, it is everyone else's fault. Well, who is he going to blame now? Academic fraud starts at the top, and the top at Notre Dame is the head coach. He is the one that allowed these staffers to fudge the numbers and give, what he deemed, "important" players the grades they needed to play.

This is going to be a big, big mess for a university that has never really been in trouble like this. Sure, they have had bad seasons, right now as I already stated, but they have never been in this kind of trouble with the NCAA. The NCAA is a very flawed system, but this is one of the easier rules for the teams and players to follow. You need a certain GPA, and if you don't have the numbers, you cannot play. Simple as that. A lot of great players in multiple sports haven't gotten the grades and been forced to sit, or go to community college to get the grades. Well, Brian Kelly and his staff thought that they were above this, and this is going to hurt them very much in the long run. They are going to get sanctioned, there is no doubt in my mind.

I remember when Rich Rodriguez was at Michigan, and they got in trouble for over practicing. ESPN treated that like it was the end of the Michigan football program. They assumed it would be akin to what happened at SMU. I am very anxious to see how they treat this news. Academic fraud is way, way worse than some extra practices, but I feel like ESPN is in bed with Notre Dame, and most of the people there love Brian Kelly. I bet they will find any excuse to try and help Kelly and ND cover this up as best they can, but they won't succeed.

This is a big deal. You cannot give players fake grades. I know that it is a joke, but the student comes before the athlete. It always has, and it always will. The NCAA is definitely flawed in what they expect from "student-athletes", but they have never budged on the grades stuff. And, how hard is it really for these kids to go to class? School is easy, for most students. Hell, I did next to nothing in high school, and I graduated with a 2.6 GPA. All you really have to do is show up, study for the important tests, pass those, and you are good. But, Notre Dame felt they had the importance to not have these kids live up to that small expectation. People will blame the players and the staffers, but I blame Brian Kelly solely for this. He is the one who allowed this happen. He is the one who knew it was happening, didn't think he'd get caught, and let it continue to happen. He is the one that did not hold the accountable parties responsible for what they were doing. The kids are not to blame, and the staff is not to blame, Brian Kelly is to blame.

Notre Dame's season is going to end this Saturday after USC crushes them. Then, they will be investigated, and since they are a blue blood, they will be treated as such. They have already had to vacate the wins, but I see postseason bans possible, scholarships being taken away and a lot of mediocrity for the next 4 or 5 years. A lot of top flight recruits will stay away also because those kids want to play football well into January, and that will not be happening at ND anytime soon.

This horrible season for them just got a whole lot worse. Brian Kelly was already on the hot seat, but his previous seasons, mainly 2012, were his saving grace. Well, that is not the case anymore, since in the eyes of the NCAA, none of those games actually happened, just like the Fab five never went to the final Four, or Reggie Bush never won the Heisman, that is what Notre Dame's run to get blown out in the title game in 2012 is now, non existent. As I stated at the top, I do not see any way that Brian Kelly keeps this job, and this should be the final nail in his coffin. It is much deserved for that curmudgeon that never takes any responsibility, blames everyone else and thinks he is above the law. You are not above the law Brian Kelly, and you just got caught red handed. See you later.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. The only thing that would make Ty happier right now is for a certain team that rhymes with molverines beats a team that rhymes with duck eyes. Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

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Ty's Midseason College Football Redo

As I did yesterday with the NFL, today I'm going to look at college football at the mid way point. Also, much like the NFL, I got some things right, but more things wrong. That's how it goes when you are in the business of making predictions. No one is perfect, and I'm far from it myself. Anyway, let's get into what I got right and wrong, update my predictions and make some more changes.

First, let's look at the SEC, my least favorite conference. Alabama is the clear cut favorite. I think that everyone expected this. Alabama is clearly the best team in the SEC, and the nation. They have a historically great defense. They have scored 12 non offensive touchdowns, and they have only given up 12 touchdowns all year. They are elite. Their offense is just fine as well. They have a read option style QB, who is not a great passer, but an exceptional runner. He runs the read option to perfection, and, when he has an open man, he usually hits them in stride. Their offense, while not great, is just fine. Alabama is a cut above the rest in the SEC. As far as some teams that may present a "challenge", you have Auburn, Florida and Texas A&M. Some may say, you left out Tennessee, but Alabama recently beat them by 39 points. They also, just last week, beat A&M by 19 points, so they may not be much of a threat. Florida has a very good defense, but they were exposed against Tennessee in the second half of that game. Alabama is much, much better than Tennessee. Auburn may be the only team that can truly threaten Alabama, but their strength is running the ball, and Alabama's strength is stopping the run. Auburn has looked very good since Rhett Lashley took over the offense, but they will run into a buzz saw when they face Alabama's front seven. LSU could possibly pose a threat, the game is at night and in Baton Rouge, but they, much like Auburn, love to run the ball and Alabama is nearly impossible to run against. I will say, I was right about Tennessee. They are paper tigers. They should have been beaten a few times already, pulled some games out of nowhere, but have been brought back down to Earth the last two weeks. Anyway, at the midway point, Alabama is still the team to beat in the SEC.

Let's move to the Pac 12, which has been an absolute disaster thus far, minus one team. I was way, way off about Stanford. I thought that Christian McCaffrey would be dominant and lead this team to the playoff. I thought their defense would be great. I thought the lack of a decent QB would not matter. I was wrong on all three aspects. McCaffrey, while still putting up decent numbers, is literally the only threat they have, and he has missed parts of, or full games. He will not be making a return trip to New York for the Heisman ceremony. Their defense has been fine, but they have been on the field way, way too much. The lack of a good QB has crushed this team. Their passing game is no threat, so teams just load the box to stop the run, and it has worked thus far. UCLA has been incredibly underwhelming and Josh Rosen isn't even playing right now. USC, after getting crushed in their first 2 games, has looked better, but they are still 4-3. Utah is good, they have a great running game and an okay defense. They have a huge matchup this weekend, but I'll get to their opponent in a few. Oregon is atrocious, especially on defense. They cannot stop anyone and they can't settle on a QB. Oregon State is no good, Washington State is fine, but terrible at defense, Arizona State is average, Arizona is mediocre, which leaves us with one good team. That team is Washington. I was wrong about this team. I thought it was all talk, but they have lived up to the hype and then some. They are clearly the best team in the Pac 12. They have an elite offense and a very good defense. Jake Browning is putting up monster numbers, and if they get past Utah this weekend, they should have a clear path to the playoff. They are the Pac 12's only hope.

The Big 12, on the other hand, may not send a single team to the playoff. I was convinced that Oklahoma was going to have a breakthrough this year, but Bob Stoops reared his ugly head during week one. Houston trounced them, then 2 weeks later, in Norman, Ohio State throttled them. They have rebounded a bit, but they are no threat to be in the playoff. Texas started strong, but are limping to the finish line. Charlie Strong is all but done with his tenure there. TCU has been very up and down. Kansas State is in rebuild mode. Baylor is undefeated, but it is all for naught because none of this will matter because of the atrocities that they did off the field. They are going to get the death knell from the NCAA, hopefully. West Virginia, very surprisingly, has been the class of the Big 12. They have a very good offense, and in a league that thinks defense is optional, WVU actually plays really good defense. They have shut down both Texas Tech and TCU in consecutive weeks, and both those teams have great offenses. WVU is the team to beat in the Big 12, at this moment.

The ACC is still Clemson's to lose. Louisville has come out of nowhere, at least to me, but Clemson did beat them already. But, Louisville has been impressive thus far. Lamar Jackson is the front runner for the Heisman. He is putting up video game numbers, and no one, not even Clemson, truly stopped him. Florida State is average, Their QB is too young and inconsistent. Their defense is very mediocre. Dalvin Cook is very good, but he is their only threat. They have a big game against Clemson this weekend, and that game should show their true colors. Miami started out great, but they have fallen back to Earth the last three weeks. As far as some other challengers, there isn't any. NC State is average, and should have beaten Clemson, UNC has a great offense, but a terrible defense, Virginia Tech is fine, but not world beaters. This conference is Clemson's to lose. They are still undefeated, they play excellent defense and they still have Deshaun Watson, who is incredible. Until this team gets beat, I will stick with them. This weekend poses their last real threat, and if they get past FSU, they should roll to the playoff.

Now, for my conference, the Big 10. This is still a 2 team race. Ohio State, coming off their inexplicable loss to Penn State, is still a real playoff possibility. They have looked vulnerable the last 2 weeks, especially on offense, but they can go off at any time. JT Barrett is a very good QB, but he has gotten very little help from the rest of his teammates. The O line is shaky, the running game, outside of him, has been up and down, and they have no go to receiver. Their defense is awesome though. They can shut teams down. Ohio State has no room for error after last week, but if things break their way, they could sneak into the playoff. Michigan is playing incredible defense right now. They have shut down everyone that they have faced. It's hard to run on this team, and even harder to pass on them. Jim Harbaugh, Don Brown and Greg Mattison have a very, very good defense. The offense has been serviceable, but they are going to need to get better when they play better teams. Wilton Speight is still inconsistent with the long ball. Jehu Chesson and Amara Darboh have not had their breakout games yet. Jake Butt has been fine, but not All American level yet. The running game has feasted on lesser opponents, but not so much on the better teams they've faced. I love their defense, but their offense needs to step it up. And, I do not care what their record is, they better be prepared for a very, very tough test this weekend at Michigan State. That team will bring their A game this weekend. As far as the rest of the Big 10, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and more recently, Penn State have looked good. Wisconsin has an incredible defense, but, much like Michigan, their offense leaves a lot to be desired. They also faced Michigan and Ohio State already, and both teams beat them. Nebraska may be the shakiest team in all of the top 10 rankings. They should have lost to Indiana and Oregon, but escaped with wins. They will probably get beat this weekend, when they face Wisconsin, but who knows, they could pull out another amazing win. Penn State has looked a lot better, but their offense is still a work in progress, and I do not trust them to be a real threat. Iowa has been underwhelming. Northwestern has looked good at times, but bad at times. Michigan State cannot seem to put it together. They can't pick a QB, and their defense is not as great as it usually is. Minnesota has 5 wins, but they have not looked impressive, and they tried everything to lose to Rutgers last week. The rest of the conference is below average. This conference is Michigan's to lose now. They have very high expectations for the first time in 10 years, so lets see how they react. This team has not been in this position for a long time, so let's see how these kids respond.

As far as other teams like Notre Dame, Houston, Western Michigan and Navy, only 2 of them have a say in being in a New Years 6 bowl. Notre Dame has been abysmal, and it all starts with their head coach. He has blamed everyone but himself, but he is the reason this team could miss out on a bowl game. They are 2-5 at the moment, so that means they need to finish the year 4-1, just to be considered for a bowl game. That will tough for this team. Houston was riding high with their opening season win at Oklahoma, but they have lost 2 of their last 3, and are out of the rankings. Western Michigan has looked great, owns 2 wins over Big 10 teams, and should rip through the MAC. They could find their way into an important bowl game by seasons end. And then there is Navy. They have played hard and played well pretty much all season long. They run that option to perfection, and they have looked really good all season. They were the first team to beat Houston I might add. I'm a Michigan fan through and through, but I have always liked Navy for some unexplained reason. It's good to see them play well.

As far as playoff teams go, right now for me, I have, from 4-1, Washington, Clemson, Michigan and Alabama. That is the exact order of the AP poll right now. I do not see that changing, unless one of these teams get upset, which could happen as soon as this weekend. So, that would pit Alabama-Washington and Michigan-Clemson in the semifinal games. Alabama will steam roll Washington and, as much as I would love to pick Michigan, Clemson has been there before and Michigan's offense is not nearly as good as Clemson's offense, so I'm going with the rematch. And, just like last season, I think Alabama will repeat. Clemson couldn't beat them last year, and Alabama's defense is way better than last year. I do not want Alabama to win, but they are leaps and bounds above everyone in college football. They are the Patriots of college football. I'm going to stick with Deshaun Watson has my Heisman winner though. He has already beaten Lamar Jackson head to head, and I think he will explode this weekend against FSU, which will solidify his place in New York.

There you have it, my mid season college football redux, redo, whatever you want to call it. College football has been so much better than the pros, so this piece was much easier and more fun to write than yesterday. Go watch some college games, they are way more fun, and quite frankly, better than the NFL, by a wide margin.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Test Ty's predictions by listening to the Mini X Millennial Man all about the upcoming NBA season. Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

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College Football Proved in Week One Why it is the Best

The first weekend of the college football season is officially in the books, and I have some quick thoughts about what we saw this past weekend.

First off, isn't it great to have football to watch again? Look, I like baseball, but nothing, not even basketball, compares to my love for football season. It truly is the most wonderful time of the year. I spent my entire Saturday watching college football games.

My first main takeaway, RD was right and I was way wrong on Oklahoma. I assumed that they had the firepower and talent to overcome their head coach ineptness. Well, Houston made me look stupid, and made RD look right. When they got out to an 11 point lead, Oklahoma that is, I thought that they'd cruise from there. That was not the case. Houston took the first punch, then punched back way more than Oklahoma could handle. The 109 field miss return was the icing on the crap cake that has become Bob Stoops' calling card. Oklahoma could not recover, and they have a big hill to climb if they want in the playoff at the end of the year. They can still do it, but their chances are very, very slim. And how good did Houston and Greg Ward Jr look? They are truly a team worth watching, and they could definitely crash the playoff this year. Their last 2 wins, Florida State last year in the bowl game, and Oklahoma to open this season, are legit, and so is Houston.

The Thursday before, the games were mediocre. The only "marquee" team was Tennessee, and they struggled. Appalachian State is an okay team, and they will forever haunt me for what they did to the Wolverines all those years ago, but Tennessee was supposed to crush them, especially at home. Well, that did not happen. They needed a fourth quarter comeback, and had it not been for a miracle play from their running back, they would have fumbled away their win. Tennessee may not be as good as some thought they would be. But, it is only week one. 

Friday night had some good games, most notably Stanford-Kansas State. This game was closer than I thought, but we still got to see some great running by McCaffery. He made great cuts and zipped through holes and ran over tacklers. That kid is good. Michigan State looked a bit disjointed in their game against Furman on Friday night, but they won. It was sloppy, but it goes down as a W. 

Saturday was the real kickoff. I mentioned the Houston-Oklahoma game, but there were a lot of other things I saw in those early games. The Big Ten, save for Northwestern, looked pretty good. Ohio State and JT Barrett absolutely pummeled Bowling Green. Michigan crushed Hawaii. Iowa ran all over Miami of Ohio. The mid to lower level teams, like Maryland, Illinois, Indiana and Nebraska pummeled their opponents. Nebraska also did a fantastic tribute to their fallen punter. It was moving. Yeah, Northwestern got beat, but don't sleep on Western Michigan. They are a good football team. And as far as Rutgers goes, they stink.

The biggest win for the Big Ten came in the afternoon games, when Wisconsin beat LSU. LSU was supposed to be the second, or first overall team in the SEC. They have a great, great running back that was going to run all over Wisconsin. Wisconsin was also coming off an okay season, but they were breaking in a new QB, and their running back was coming off injury. Well, Wisconsin completely controlled every facet of that game. They "held" Fournette to under 150 yards, and forced LSU's QB to try and win the game, which he did not, throwing one of the most errant interceptions I have ever seen. But, I don't put this loss solely on Brandon Harris, I put it on Les Miles. He has become so vanilla. His offense is so predictable, and when you can get them out of their comfort zone, you have a great chance at beating them. The game was ugly, but it was exactly what Wisconsin wanted it to be, and they won. LSU is still a ways away from competing big time in the SEC.

In some other afternoon games, the competition looked good. UNC-Georgia was a very good game. I think I may have been a little low on Georgia in fact. If Nick Chubb can stay healthy, Georgia can be a very good team. Maybe they become the team that challenges Alabama in the SEC. Washington looked good, absolutely crushing Rutgers, Rutgers is not good. But, Washington looked pretty good. UCLA laid an egg against Texas A&M. They had no flow and Josh Rosen looked like he may have taken a step back. A&M won, but I don't think they are great either. Trevor Knight does not appear to be an elite QB, but that is the best they have. And, as I said, they got the win. Other ranked teams, like TCU, Oregon and Oklahoma State crushed their opponents, but TCU and Oregon both gave up more points than they should have against their opponents.

The night games on Saturday, one was great, the other, not so much. Alabama let USC stay in the game for one quarter, then realized that they are Alabama, and dismantled USC. That was an old fashioned whooping. USC looked like a very overmatched JV team against a very young, inexperienced Alabama team. As much as I loathe Nick Saban and Alabama, that team is great, and he is a great college coach. The Clemson-Auburn game was sloppy, but entertaining. Clemson won, but it was a dogfight, and Auburn had a chance at the end. Deshaun Watson did more than enough, at least in my eyes, to prove why he is the best player in college football. The game was also played at Auburn, which is a tough spot for any team, and Clemson still pulled out the victory.

 Sunday featured one game, Notre Dame-Texas, and that game was incredible. I fervently despise both teams, but that game was great. There was little to no defense played, but it was fun. Brian Kelly lost that game for Notre Dame. And, before you call me out for being a Notre Dame hater they would have won if he kept Deshon Kizer in at QB. But, he kept taking him out, and Kizer was unstoppable. So were the 2 Texas QB's. The freshman was more of a threat to throw, but Swoopes, man did he look good running the ball. And their running game was awesome. The way it ended, in double overtime, was excellent. That was a great, great game.

Last night, FSU came back and beat Ole Miss. For as bad as FSU looked in the first half, they looked great in the second half. The freshman QB calmed down, and the o line started to open holes for Dalvin Cook. Ole Miss is overrated. They came out guns blazing, but after the second quarter, they looked gassed, and it seemed that FSU figured them out. This game went as it was supposed to go.

There were a lot of good games, and this was a very good opening week. I don't like that they called the Oklahoma-Houston, Wisconsin-LSU and FSU-Ole Miss games, "neutral" site games. Houston got to play in Houston, Wisconsin got to play in Green Bay and FSU got to play in Orlando. Those are all home games. That was an unfair advantage for Oklahoma, LSU and Ole Miss, but that is just a nit picky thing of mine. Other than that, this season is off to a very promising start. I cannot wait for this Saturday to come so I can watch some more football. The best sport is finally back.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He can breathe easier this weekend because the Wolverines did not have their regular Rodriguez / Hoke bad loss in week one. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Ty's 2016 College Preview and Predicitions

For my final preseason football preview, I'm going to talk about my favorite sport, college football. I love college football. There is nothing better than waking up on Saturday's in the fall and wasting an entire day watching college football. It is my drug of choice. For my preview I will talk about the 5 major conferences, the Big Ten, the SEC, the ACC, the Big 12 and the Pac 12. I will also throw a few independents in there, and I may talk about a few other teams that might strike my fancy. Enough chit chat, let's get to it.

I will start with the SEC, because it is my least favorite conference of all. They get so much deserved, but also undeserved love from all major media outlets. Yeah, I realize the SEC is good because I have eyes of my own and I can see, I don't need Paul Finebaum's punk ass telling me how great it is every god damn week. That guy is a total waste of time. Anyway, it will be much of the same with the SEC this year. It's Alabama, most people's preseason number one pick and defending champs, then everyone else. I know Alabama has lost a lot of players, but Alabama doesn't rebuild, they reload. They will find a serviceable running back, just like they did when Mark Ingram, TJ Yeldon and now Derrick Henry left. They will also find a QB. I'm sure they have a couple of blue chips sitting on the bench, waiting their turn. They will also find some new wideouts. They have all this stuff, and then some, just waiting for their turn. And as far as their o line, they are the best in college football. The coaches, and officers of the law for that matter, don't care if the best lineman in college football steals guns, he won't miss one single second because all the charges were dropped. The rest of the o line is huge and dominant. Their defense is always good. Yeah, Kirby Smart left for Georgia, but that won't matter, they will field 11 blue chip recruits that will play just as good as their predecessors. Alabama is loaded from top to bottom.

A few teams that may challenge are LSU, Georgia, Tennessee and Auburn. I don't buy the hype on Tennessee. They were supposed to be great last year, and I believe they finished with 7 or 8 wins. Butch Jones is also a piece of human garbage. Georgia is good, but they have a lot of holes to fill, and they don't have the roster that Alabama has. I also feel like they let Mark Richt go too soon. I don't think Kirby Smart will consistently lead that team to double digit wins every year. Auburn is fine, but Gus Malzahn is not a top of the line head coach. He has had a ton of problems finding a good QB since Cam Newton left, and he doesn't take enough time working with the defense. Auburn lets much lesser opponents stay in games way too long. LSU has a great running back in Leonard Fournette, and they have a very good defense, but the college game may have passed Les Miles a few years ago, and who will play QB, and who will that QB throw to? This team may be a one trick pony, but that pony is incredible.

I know I didn't mention Florida or Ole Miss. Florida played way out of their heads last year, and they will regress, especially on offense. Ole Miss may have to forfeit a bunch of games for cheating, and they lost almost everyone of importance from that team the last two years. They are on the decline as well. Once again, it is Alabama as your SEC champs. They have the best roster, and their players can get away with anything, as long as they are good.

Next, I will go to the ACC. The ACC has only 2 really good teams, and then a few okay teams, but the bottom half is garbage. The two good teams are Clemson and Florida State. Clemson was in the title game last year, and they had a chance to win it. Deshaun Watson is back, and that team is loaded with players at the skill positions. They will be a very lethal offense. Which is good for their defense, because the defense is very middle of the road. Clemson could, and may well, go undefeated this year, and they could do it while averaging 45 to 50 points a game, but also giving up 25-30. Florida State is due to bounce back from a "down" year, where they only won 10 games. They have a great running back, very good wideouts and they will pick a good QB. They also have a stout defense, even though they lost Jalen Ramsey to the pros. Florida State is incredibly good on both sides of the ball, and they are so balanced, it's hard to pick a good defense to go with when playing them. FSU will be very good this year.

The teams that are lurking, but not there yet, are Miami and Virginia Tech. Frank Beamer left VT after a very stellar career, so it will take time to build that team back up, but they play tough no matter what. Miami hired Mark Richt, which is huge, and I think within a year or two, he will have them highly competitive again. These things just take time and he needs to recruit his type of guys, but he is an excellent coach, and he is back at his alma mater. The days of Duke and Georgia Tech and teams like them being hyper competitive are long gone. The ACC is a two team race, and I like Clemson.

The Pac 12 may be taking the biggest nose dive as a whole conference. This conference was once feared and adored, but they look to have fallen on hard times. Sure, Oregon, UCLA, USC, Stanford and Washington are good, but when was the last time they were great? Oregon was not the same team last year. They played little to no defense, and they never really found a rhythm on offense. The super up tempo play just didn't have its desired effect last year. They will be decent, but they are going the route of transfer QB again, and even though I think Brady Hoke has a good defensive mind, he is not the answer they need to shore up that unit. UCLA has a great QB, but other than that, there is not a ton of weapons. Josh Rosen is also a sophomore, so he is either going to be better, or he will have that slump. He started off last year on fire, but as UCLA played better teams, people figured him and their offense out, and they weren't putting up huge numbers anymore. Their defense is very ho hum. Every year I hear that this is the year USC turns it all around, but they still haven't been that dominant team that they were in the early 21st century. The QB's aren't as good, neither are the backs. They have had some good receivers, but otherwise on offense, they are very average. The defense is fine, but they spend a ton of time on the field, and that is no good for any defense. Washington is another team that people say is "just a year away", but I've been hearing that since Steve Sarkisian was the coach. How many more 7 win seasons will it take before people realize that that is all Washington is, an average college football team.

The cream of the Pac 12 crop is Stanford. They have probably the second best back in all of football in Christian McCaffery, but that is where the threat begins and ends. They need a new QB, some new receivers and some one else to spell McCaffery out of the backfield. They are a lot like LSU, except their coach is better, but their defense isn't as good. Stanford should easily win the Pac 12 this year, regardless of who they put in at QB and receiver.

The Big 12 is another conference that used to be really competitive, but if Oklahoma doesn't cruise, it will de a disappointment. Yeah, TCU is decent and they have a decent transfer QB in Kenny Hill, but they lost Josh Docston and Trevoyne Boykin to the pros. They will have a good defense, but it is not as good as it once was. Who in the hell knows with Oklahoma State. Last year they were supposed to regress, but they played pretty well. I assume they are supposed to be decent this year, but that means they will probably take a step back. West Virginia is not the threat they once were. KU is a laughing stock. Kansas State needs to rebuild. Texas still doesn't have the players they need to compete. And Baylor, with all the problems they have going on right now, they may get the death penalty from the NCAA. Oklahoma has the best players and the best team, by a wide margin, in the Big 12. They will win it with ease.

Finally, as far as major conferences go, I have my favorite, the Big 10. The Big 10 has turned a corner over the past couple of seasons. They aren't as big joke anymore. They field good, high scoring and well defending teams. The Big 10 is good again.

The Big 10 is not all great, they do have teams that are not good and some that sit in the middle. Teams like Maryland, a long way away from competing, Illinois, hired Lovie Smith, but still a VERY long way away from competing, Purdue, who just isn't good and Minnesota, they play tough but blow games, are not great. The middling teams are getting better. As much as I may dislike Northwestern, they are always a tough game for anyone they play. Those kids are smart and they play smart football, for the most part. Indiana, who doesn't play a lick of defense, has a great offense that is capable of putting up 50 points on any given night. Nebraska always fields a very tough team. I know they had a losing record last year, but they got beat in some gut wrenching ways, and they crushed UCLA in their bowl game. Penn State always has a good run game and a decent defense, but their coach is holding them back. And Wisconsin will have a great running game, but not much else. That will still be good enough for 8 wins though.

The upper level of the Big 10 is scary good. Iowa is a very solid football team that plays very well technique football. They do not make mistakes. They are well coached and run their offense and defense as it should be run. Last year was an anomaly, I think they only lost 1 game, but they will still be very good. Michigan State lost a lot of important players from their team, but they are a tough team no matter what. They are also very, very dirty. They will have some rebuilding to do, but East Lansing is a tough place to play, and they will win some games that they shouldn't. Ohio State lost a lot to the draft as well, but JT Barrett is back, and so is Urban Meyer. This team is like Alabama. They don't rebuild, they reload. I'm sure they have some players that have been waiting to bust out, and now is their time. I HATE this team, but you have to give respect where it is due.

Then, there is my Michigan Wolverines. They surprised everyone last year, me included, by winning 10 games, but now, there's expectations. This team returns 14 starters from last year. They have an incredible defense, led by their defensive line. Jabrill Peppers is one of the best playmakers in the game. They have great receivers and tight ends and running backs on offense. But, they need to pick a QB, and the o line still needs some work. They also have to travel to Iowa, Columbus and East Lansing this season. Those will be tough road games. Michigan is better, but I think they are 1 year away from being a playoff threat.

As far as who I think wins the Big 10, I am going to have to pick the much hated Buckeyes once again. JT Barrett is really good, and Michigan is a year away and Iowa played out of their minds last year, and MSU lost too much to the pros.

I can't do a college football preview without mentioning Notre Dame. People seem to think they will be great, but I just think they will be good. They have to settle on a QB, and they lost a lot of skill players to the pros. Their defense is very far from elite too. I could see them winning 9, maybe even 10 games, but they are no threat to make the playoff.

Outside of the major conferences and the big names, the one team to watch out for this year is Houston. They were awesome last year, they beat FSU in a New Year's 6 bowl game, and they have almost everyone back from that team. Houston has a very good football team once again. They are making Rodney Peete proud.

I guess what it all comes down to is, who do I think will be in the playoff and who will face off for the title. Well, I think the 4 playoff teams will be Alabama, Clemson, Oklahoma and Stanford. Alabama will find its way, they always do. Clemson will outscore everyone by 100 points to return. Oklahoma will cruise through the very weak Big 12, and I think an early season victory over Houston will help, and Stanford is going to be so much better than any team in the Pac 12, and I think they can go undefeated this year. My ranking of the teams, from 4 to 1 would be, Stanford, Alabama, Oklahoma and Clemson. So that means Clemson and Stanford would play each other, with Oklahoma and Alabama squaring off in the other matchup. I like Clemson and Oklahoma in those games. And, I'm going to go ahead and pick Clemson to win the 2017 National Title. They had their chance last year, but much like the Panthers in the NFL, I think they got better and will make up for what they missed out on last year.

As far as the Heisman goes, I think names will pop up all year. Guys like McCaffery, Fournette, Baker Mayfield, JT Barrett, Greg Ward, they will all get talked about, but I think Deshaun Watson will win it. He finished third last year, but I think he takes it home this season, both the Heisman and the title.

That does it for all of my football previews. I will check in at midseason on both, but for now, that is how I see things shaping up. Now please, bring on some real football games.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. What happens when Ty and RD stop being polite, and talk about reality television. Listen to the new X Millennial Man Podcast where reality television is given its time to shine. Download for free tomorrow. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik

"OJ: Made in America" is the Best Film of the Year

Being the pop culture expert that I am, I binged watched all of "OJ: Made in America" this past week so I could review it for everyone. That was my thought going into the movie. I figured, since I do write about sports, movies, music, all things pop culture, I would watch this movie that everyone was talking about, just to say that I saw it. Good or bad, I was going to watch the monster film for you.

A funny thin happened when I watched that first hour and a half, I was blown away at how perfect a documentary "OJ: Made in America" truly is. I was fascinated. I couldn't wait to watch all 5, hour and a half parts of the movie. I wished and hoped that nap and quiet time came quickly for my kids so I could get back to this tremendous movie. By the way, I will call it a movie from here on out. I have read, and heard, that in some places it was shown in its entirety, so that qualifies it as a movie for me. Some may call it a mini series, I call it a movie. It was made as a movie, and it unfolded like a movie, so it is a movie.

Anyway, "OJ: Made in America", may be the greatest documentary ever made. It had everything in it that one could want. There was triumph, tragedy, love story, horror, downfalls, everything one could want from your typical movie. The movie started out talking about young OJ, about his childhood. They mentioned that he was a great athlete, but he was also a troublemaker. He did stuff that most kids do, but he would always push a little further. We also came to find out that his mom raised him, and that his father was a homosexual. That really made OJ an angry, rough and tumble kid. He felt he had to overcompensate on a lot of things.

As OJ grew older, he excelled at football. He went to junior college for 2 years, then to USC. We all know about his triumphs at USC. He was unstoppable. He won the Heisman. He made USC great again. But, amidst all this, he seemed to be a fame hungry, angry young man. When his first wife, Margarite, was interviewed, they asked what he was like away from the field and she said he was very intense and focused. How many 20 or 21 year old people are described as intense? That was the first moment I saw during the movie that made my head shake. His first wife looked legitimately scared when she had to answer questions.

After leaving USC, Simpson was drafted by the Bills. He was unhappy. Buffalo was cold, they had a bad team and an even worse coach. But, when a new coach came in, he excelled because this coach featured him. Only his fourth year in the league, but he felt that he needed to be the focal point of the offense. Sure, he rushed for over 2,000 yards,  but the Bills never won a title with him. And while, at least on the surface, he seemed to like all his teammates and coaching staff, that all may have been an act.

One thing I gathered from this movie was, OJ was very good at turning the switch to being a nice guy when he needed to. He was an actor before he became an actor. He eventually left football to pursue said acting career. This is where his life, and his choices, kind of start to go off the rails. He got a lot of jobs because of his name, but he was not a very good actor. He tried too hard. His co stars and directors didn't really like him. He wasn't a real actor, he was a pitchman. It wasn't until the "Naked Gun" movie that he became a "respectable" actor. He was funny on screen, but again, he was a pain to work with. While doing all the Hollywood stuff, that was where he met Nicole Brown. Now, prior to meeting Nicole Brown, Simpson was asked many, many times by leaders of the black community and the NAACP to speak out on all the problems in the 60's and 70's, and OJ would tell them that "I'm not black, I'm OJ". Talk about your classic self inflating asshole. Back to the Hollywood phase. I mentioned the movies and the acting and Nicole Brown. He saw her one night, said he was going to marry her, and he almost immediately started dating her. Mind you, he was still married when he started to date Brown.

The relationship between Nicole and OJ, as we all know now, was torturous. He was abusive. She was scared all the time, but she was hypnotized by him. OJ had a hold on her. He monitored her movement. He made sure she was never very far from him. He became extremely abusive. He started to become the monster that he always had inside of him. When Brown finally got the nerve to actually leave him, that pushed him over the edge. Simpson began to stalk her. He would show up at restaurants and family gatherings that he wasn't invited to. He would watch her when she would be with other men. He would threaten her and the other men. He was getting angrier by the second.

This anger all came to a head the night that he, and yes, I believed he did it when I was 12, so my mind has not changed, decided to end her and Ron Goldman's life. I one hundred percent believe that he acted alone and he, and his knife, took the lives of 2 innocent people. The monster inside finally came out. He couldn't push it down anymore. What he did to Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman is disturbing and scary. OJ Simpson is a murderer, plain and simple. Then, how much more of an admission of guilt can you have than a suicide note and a chase down a huge highway in LA? That should have been more than enough to put him away.

When he finally went back to his house, he was taken to jail, but the story did not end there as it should. We all know about the trial. We all know the saying, "if the glove doesn't fit, you must acquit". We all know that the decision to have him try on the glove was a dumb move. We all know that this trial was rigged from the start. Even the jurors they interviewed have admitted that they let a guilty man go free. But, there were a few things I didn't realize from the trial. Johnnie Cochran and his team of lawyers turned this trial into a race war. It wasn't about murder, they made it about race. When the jury went to his house to check stuff out, they defense team changed photos to make it look like OJ only had African American friends. This was not the case, one of his lawyers admitted this. The photos he had hanging were of himself and only white people. Just like before, OJ never said he was black, he said he was OJ. But, when he and his team of lawyers realized they could use race, OJ not only allowed it, he ran with it. Mark Fuhrman, who is a monster himself, became the focal point of a trial that he should have never even been that big a deal of. When that tape surfaced of him using racial epitaphs, people forgot that OJ was on trial for murder. They simply focused on one racist cop in the LAPD. As I said, Fuhrman is a monster, but he should have not been the scapegoat. Johnnie Cochran would have never admitted this, but he completely played, and used the race card to his advantage to get a murderer off. This was all admitted by his team of lawyers during the movie. It was even revealed that after the jury was selected, OJ said to his team of lawyers, and I quote, "if this jury doesn't get me off, maybe I did do it", what a monster. I don't understand how guys like Johnnie Cochran, Rob Shapiro, F Lee Bailey, anyone on his "dream team" of lawyers, could sleep at night, or look at themselves in the mirror without being disgusted. Marcia Clark, and even more so, Christopher Darden, did a much, much better job of prosecuting this murderer, but they will be forgotten because they didn't win the trial. The way OJ's "dream team" attacked Darden was gross and shady. They should be ashamed of themselves. Darden was/is a great lawyer, and he did almost everything correct in the case, with the lone exception of having OJ try on the glove in court. That was a crucial error that cost them the case, in my opinion.

Once OJ was found not guilty, his life spiraled even further. He got custody of his two kids he had with Brown, but he was not a good father. The Goldman family kept bringing cases to court to try and get OJ to admit that he did it. They won the civil suit, but that was just a piece of paper stating they won. They didn't get money or an apology from OJ. He hid things from them. He was ordered to pay 33 million dollars, but he found ways around it. None of that mattered because none of that would bring their son and brother home. The Brown family was still terrified of him. They tried to get him out of their lives but they couldn't because of the kids. As his life got weirder and wilder, OJ started to do cocaine regularly and started to hang out with thugs. He never saw his kids. His friends who believed he was innocent, they changed their minds as time went on. OJ became erratic. He would go on binges. He wasn't getting acting jobs anymore. He was becoming a joke. He even wrote a book entitle, "If I Did It", which was basically an admission of guilt, but he needed the money and the fame.

This disaster of a life came to a head when he tried to get back some memorabilia at a Las Vegas casino hotel. He attacked collectors, stole his stuff back and used force and threats with a firearm. This was what finally put him in jail. He got caught because he is an idiot. The Las Vegas judicial system put him away for 33 years. That seems harsh, but remember, he got away with a double murder. Karma is real people.

I mean, I could go on and on and on about this movie. It is so, so good and I urge everyone to watch it. You don't have to be a sports fan to enjoy it. If you like sports, sure, it makes it that much better, but if you like mysteries and crime dramas, it's right up there with those as well. I do not know if "OJ: Made in America" is eligible for the Oscars, and do not care what the dumb Academy Awards rules are, it should win every single one that it is up for. This is the best movie I have seen in quite some time, and it is the best movie of the year. I know we still have six months left in 2016, but this is the best, hands down. Ezra Edelman has created something that will stand the test of time. Do yourself a favor and watch this movie. I promise you will not be disappointed.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. In his opinion one hour of "American Crime Story: The People vs OJ Simpson" felt ten times longer than the entirety of "OJ: Made in America". Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Ty Makes a Few Updates to his 2015 College Football Preview.

Ty  predicts he could throw this ball over those mountains.

Ty  predicts he could throw this ball over those mountains.

We are a bit more than halfway through the college football season and I wanted to take time today to see what I got right, wrong and what I want to correct in regards to my college football 2015 season preview.

I feel like I've done a pretty good job with my picks and predictions, but there's things I definitely got wrong or need change. I'll go through each conference that I previewed and I'll pick the four playoff teams and who I have for the Heisman. On with the mid season preview.

Let's start with the SEC. I had Alabama winning the SEC, and I still believe they have a good chance to win, but I didn't think that LSU would be their biggest challenger. I thought a team like Georgia or Ole Miss or even Texas A&M would challenge them. But LSU and Florida have been their biggest competition, and I think LSU will beat Alabama in their big game this weekend. Georgia has been plagued with injuries and poor QB play. Ole Miss, who beat Alabama this year, played their best football in my opinion already. And A&M, who was supposed to have a good defense this year, has been inept on offense lately, and Alabama and Ole Miss ran rough shot on their defense, they're not at their level yet. Florida has been surprisingly good this year. Sure, their QB is now suspended for the rest of this season for PEDs, but this team wins with defense and running, and they're doing those things very well. I don't think they'll finish the season as strong as they've started, but had you told me at the beginning of the year they'd be a 9 or 10 win team, I would've called you crazy. But, they're on their way to that number easily. LSU, in my opinion, is the team to beat in the SEC. They need to beat Alabama this weekend, which I already said I think they will, but they've been stout on defense and their running game, behind the new Heisman front runner, Leonard Fournette, makes them the favorite. They don't have a QB that's really division one caliber, but neither does Alabama and while Alabama does have Derrick Henry running the ball, he's no Leonard Fournette and LSU's defense is better. LSU is my new pick to win the SEC.

On to the Pac 12. I was completely wrong about this conference. I assumed that Oregon would continue to dominate as they have for the past couple of years, but then they ran into Utah. Utah destroyed them in Oregon and they haven't been the same team since, switching QB's weekly it seems and opposing teams torching their defense. Oregon took a big step back. Utah, after throttling Oregon, looked like the team to beat, but they got pounded at USC. Utah is still good and a team with one loss, can still win this conference. USC has beaten Utah and California, but lost to Notre Dame and still have to play UCLA. They also fired their coach for being drunk on the sideline, so this team is still a mess. UCLA is good, but they lost Myles Jack for the year, and they are led by a freshman QB, who looks like he's hitting the freshman wall. Then we have Stanford. They shit the bed in their first game at Northwestern, but since then, they've looked completely dominant. This conference is going to come down to Utah and Stanford and I'm going to pick Stanford to win. They just look so good right now.

The Big 12 looks just how I thought it would look. Sure, Oklahoma State and Oklahoma look good, but they aren't on Baylor or TCU's level. Oklahoma State is undefeated, but they just gave up 53 points to Texas Tech and that doesn't bode well for the rest of their season. Oklahoma is okay, but they've blown one game already and given their history under Bob Stoops, they'll do it again. Baylor looked like they were going to give TCU a run for the conference until their QB went down with a broken bone on his neck. Their offense was running like a well oiled machine, but I don't think that will happen with a back up QB. That's unfortunate for them. TCU is winning games with Boykin running their offense to perfection. He's putting up video game numbers and will continue to do that the rest of the year. Baylor was going to challenge, but TCU will win the Big 12.

The Big 10 has been pretty predictable except for one team. Ohio State is still number one, but they've looked unimpressive and now their starting QB has been arrested for drunk driving. Their new back up QB, when he's not busy complaining about losing the starting spot, should have went pro last year because he's looked pretty blah this year. Their coach is also a piece of garbage. He goes on TV and bad mouths the way other teams handle their punishment and then gives a lame punishment to JT Barrett and he also recruited and stood by a convicted murderer while head coach at Florida. Michigan State is undefeated, but had Michigan been able to punt the ball, they wouldn't be a top ten team anymore. Their early season home win over Oregon doesn't look so impressive anymore. Iowa has been the biggest surprise to me. They're undefeated and the rest of their schedule is a cake walk. But, even if they win the Big 10 championship game, they won't, the committee would be hard pressed to put them in the playoff. They're not that impressive and neither is their schedule. Northwestern looked like they may have surprised after a 5-0 start, then Michigan shut them out and Iowa hammered them in Northwestern. They're not that good. Michigan has looked very good on defense, with the Minnesota game being a lone exception, but they are very unimpressive on offense. They'll win 8 or 9 games. Penn State plays good defense, but they can't protect their QB. And Wisconsin has disappointed. The rest of the Big Ten is not good. Unfortunately, the Michigan State-Ohio State game will decide this conference, and I have to begrudgingly pick Ohio State. I hate them so much, but they will win the Big 10 this year.

The ACC is between two teams. Clemson and Florida State are the only teams worth talking about. Duke got screwed, Miami is light years behind, NC State and Georgia Tech are completely disappointing and the rest of the conference doesn't bear mentioning. Clemson is a much better team than Florida State and should win this conference with ease.

The AAC, the conference I gave very little mention to will get the same. Memphis has an impressive win over Ole Miss and are undefeated. Houston has an explosive QB and are also undefeated, and Temple is 7-1 with a pretty stout defense. They all have yet to play each other, but I think Temple will win. They've played the toughest schedule and they have the players on defense to stop both Houston and Memphis.

The two independents I mentioned in my preview, Notre Dame and BYU have had decent seasons. Notre Dame has looked good despite losing Malik Zaire in the first game, but their wins aren't very impressive and the toughest team they played, Clemson, pretty much shut them down. Their coach is also an insane person. BYU started with two very dramatic wins, but when they play upper level division one teams, they don't look so impressive. Boise State suffered an early season loss to BYU, but looked good after that, climbing back into the top 25, then Utah State hammered them. This version of Boise State is not as good as previous Boise State teams.

So, where do we stand today? I think I did a decent job. My original four playoff teams were Ohio State, Alabama, TCU and Michigan State. Today, my final four is, Ohio State, TCU, Clemson and LSU. Two changes, that's it. I think the title game will feature TCU and Clemson, and I still have TCU winning. They're outside the top four right now and they got screwed last season, so I think they will play with a fury unmatched and prove the committee wrong from last season. They're still the best team, in my opinion. As for the Heisman, I'm going to stick with Tevoyne Boykin, but Leonard Fournette has been extremely impressive. If he can do to Alabama what he's done to every other team this year, he will probably win, but Boykin is putting up humongous numbers and he will lead TCU to a title. How do you not award him the Heisman if he does that.

So, there's my corrections from the midway point of the college football season. Tell me why I'm wrong in the comment section, and give me your picks.

Thanks.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. This is his 100th post on SeedSing. Congratulate him by following Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Let Me Respectfully Explain Why Your Team Stinks: Ty's new hatred for the Seattle Seahawks

It is insulting when you call me a Seahawk

It is insulting when you call me a Seahawk

There are some teams I really, really dislike.

Today, I'm going to go back to my irrational hatred for a football team. In two previous blogs, I've written about my irrational hatred for University of Missouri college football and the Los Angeles Clippers from the NBA. Today, I turn my attention to the NFL with the Seattle Seahawks. Good timing to, since the season started last night and truly gets underway on Sunday. The Seahawks are the first team I'll be writing about, under my irrational hatred blogs, that have won a championship. They won the Super Bowl two years ago, and played in the Super Bowl last year. They should've won that game, but I'll get to that later. Missouri football hasn't won anything of importance in over 50 years, and the Clippers have never won anything important ever in their history.

So, let's get to what I hate about the Seahawks. First, there was a time, about 10 years ago, when I actually rooted for the Seahawks in the Super Bowl. They played the Steelers, a team that will be talked about in this discussion at another time. That version of the Seahawks were coached by former Packer coach Mike Holmgren and had Shaun Alexander. I actually, kind of, liked this team. Shaun Alexander was my number one pick in my fantasy draft that year. I also liked the fact that they were a quiet team. No trash talk, no media stuff, they just went out and played football.  By the way, the Seahawks won that Super Bowl. The history books have the Steelers as the champs, but the refs screwed the Seahawks and the NFL and ESPN needed a redemption story for rapist Ben Roethlisberger.

Right after that season, I kind of forgot about the Seahawks. They were mediocre for the next 5 to 7 seasons. Then, they won, what was at the time, the worst division in football, the NFC West with a 7-9 record. This was three or four seasons ago. That was Pete Carroll's first season as head coach. Not only did they win that god awful division, but they went out and beat the New Orleans Saints in the Wild Card game. In typical Saints fashion, they had to go on the road to Seattle, Seattle won the division so they got home field, and the Saints couldn't stop the run. Go back and watch all the missed tackles on what is probably Marshawn Lynch's most famous run.  

It is after this Wild Card win and their subsequent draft  where my hatred for the Seahawks began. They started to pump their chests and say how great they were. Excuse the shit out of me, but you assholes backed your way into the playoffs that season and beat the Saints when everyone expected you to. This attitude is indicative of their head coach. Pete Carroll is a douchebag. This is the same guy who called out Mark Sanchez in front of the media when he declared for the draft. Sanchez was his quarterback at USC, they just came off a Rose Bowl win and he didn't have another decent QB on the roster. So, instead of doing what college coaches are supposed to do, support their players decisions and dreams, he acted like a dumped girlfriend. What makes this even worse, Carroll left USC within a year after Sanchez left for the NFL. Why did he care so much? I'll tell you why, he's a prick that whines like a baby when he doesn't get his way. Let's not forget how much of a cheater at USC he was. He bought Reggie Bush's family a home and a car. He had so many recruiting violations against him that, had he stayed at USC, they could've gotten the death penalty. So, he bolted for the NFL, and you'd think his cheating would stop, but nope. The Seahawks are one of the most suspicious teams in the NFL. Be it fighting between teammates in the locker room or steroids or even players using Ritalin. All these things, with the exception of the fighting, is against the rules. Does the NFL or Pete Carroll or Roger Goodell do anything about it? No, they're all too busy attacking the Patriots for under inflated footballs and stuff that happened almost a decade ago. Pete Carroll also made the worst play call ever during last year's Super Bowl. How do you not hand the ball off to Lynch on the goal line?! That call proves your ignorance and arrogance. I was elated you lost the Super Bowl in crushing fashion. You're an idiot Pete Carroll and  I hate you.

I mentioned the draft also as a reason why I hate this team. They undercut other teams and under pay their rookies. They seem to get pretty good players at a super cheap salary. How on Earth does that happen. Guys like Michael Bennett, Doug Baldwin and the majority of their offensive line are really underpaid. Marshawn Lynch is the best running back in the league right now, and they just gave him a multi million dollar extension last year. Their best secondary player, Kam Chancellor is willing to sit the whole season because, for football players, he's criminally underpaid. Richard Sherman is due for a huge raise, but will he get it? Probably not because they just gave Russell Wilson a HUGE contract.

This brings me to another big, big problem I have with the Seahawks, Russell Wilson. This guy is the most corporate, robotic piece of human trash I could ever imagine. He shows no emotions, unless he's talking about God. Let's get things straight too, he's a mediocre QB at best. This team didn't make it to two consecutive Super Bowls because of Russell Wilson, their defense and Marshawn Lynch carried them. But, you turn on ESPN or the NFL Network, and he's mentioned in the same breath as Aaron Rodgers, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and old timers like Warren Moon and Fran Tarkenton. I'd take all those QB's over Wilson in a second. He's got little to no touch on his throws and he's going to get killed running the read option. He's a tick better than Colin Kaepernick, and that's not a compliment. The fact that the Seahawks gave him Aaron Rodgers money is going to cripple this team in the long run. Instead of paying the players that got them to the highest point in football, they paid a sub par QB a shit ton of money.

All his God talk needs to stop. When he first got in the league, players from other teams, it's been reported, said that he slept with their girlfriends while they were still together. That's not good in God's eye Russell Wilson. Also, if there is a God, he doesn't give a shit about you. You are the least of his problems. He's also totally sleeping with current girlfriend, musician Ciara. Nobody buys your guys bull shit. Russell Wilson is also known for clashing with teammates. He ran Golden Tate and Percy Harvin out of town. He tried to get the front office to trade Lynch in the middle of last season. Screw you Russell Wilson, have fun winning 6 or 7 games for the rest of your career. And, nobody outside of Seattle likes Marshawn Lynch or Richard Sherman. The hatred for Lynch isn't as bad for Sherman, Lynch pokes fun at himself, but his whole attitude towards media and people outside of his circle is stupid. Quit trying to be the Rasheed Wallace of the NFL. You're not as charasmatic as Rasheed Wallace. Richard Sherman on the other hand, boy the hatred is strong. Sherman is the best cover corner in the league, but he needs to stop talking. You went out and got into a fight with Skip Bayless. I can't think of a more douchey fight. You're a Stanford grad Richard Sherman, you don't have to constantly go on TV and tell us how smart you are. We know you're smart. You're also a bad sport. You lose with no dignity, and when you win, I close my ears because I can't deal with your mouth. You're like a conservative republican. You think you're correct because you're the loudest. Just shut the hell up and go out there and play football. You're a good enough football player that you don't need to run your mouth. Also, nothing made me happier than when Russell Wilson threw that pick and your smile turned to a frown. It was euphoric for me to watch you lose.

Seahawks fans are pretty ridiculous too. As I said earlier, you guys just recently became good. Before this success, I didn't know one single Seahawk fan. Now, they're coming out of the woodwork. If that's not a bandwagon fan, I don't know what is. You guys are the 21st century Dallas Cowboys. By this I mean, your fans are bandwagon fans and people that don't like you, HATE you and your fans. I hate all these actors and comedians, that I enjoy, are pounding the drum for you all over social media. Comedian Nick Thune, who I think is great, acts like there's no other team in the NFL. Or, when he does talk about a team not called the Seahawks, that team is a cheater and all their fans suck. Come back to me when the Seahawks are also rans in two years and tell me that you're still a fan. Chris Pratt, the biggest star right now and one of my favorite actors, is all over social media with his Seahawk love. Where were you five years ago?! I didn't hear or see you pumping up the Seahawks. You were like a ghost, but now that they're good, you're all over the place talking about Seahawk love. I bet the two of you couldn't name the starting QB the year before Matt Hasselbeck took over the job. You guys probably loved Hasselbeck when he was your QB, but now, you probably tell other people that he's a joke and shouldn't be in the league. I've got news for you guys, your QB's have never been elite.

So, these and many, many other reasons are why I loathe the Seahawks. It's a new hatred, but it's very strong and will only get stronger. Screw you Seattle Seahawks and screw your "12th" man bull shit. No one cares.  

You will be irrelevant in two years.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and co-host of the X Millennial Man podcast. His love for Michigan Football is much greater than all of his hatred combined (please Jim Harbaugh, start winning soon). Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Ty's College Football Season Preview

Official ball from the 1988 all backyard suburban league championship

Official ball from the 1988 all backyard suburban league championship

Today is August 17th, which means it is only 17 more days until the 2015 college football season kicks off.

This is the biggest "holiday" in my life. I'm as giddy as a kid opening a present when college football season starts. College football is, by far, my favorite sport. It may not be the cleanest, most ethical sport (what NCAA sport is?) yet it's so entertaining. College football, and sports in general, are the only TV show or movie that there's any real drama involved. There's dramatic TV shows and movies, but the outcome, for the most part, is positive. Not the case in sports. Sports can make you extremely happy and can depress you for hours or days, depending on how your team plays that particular day. College football, in my opinion, holds the most drama of all sports. College football also has the best die hard fans. We aren't fans, we are fanatics.

Which brings me to my main reason for my blog today, it's my college football preview. I will make this a yearly thing, so this marks the first annual, "Ty's College Football Season Preview". I'm not going to pick a preseason top 25, because that's stupid and pointless. I'm going to pick my winners of the major conferences, I'll talk about teams that can surprise, I'll give you my favorites for the Heisman and who I think the four playoff teams will be, and who I think will win the whole thing. So let's get started.

First, the Pac 12. You have the usual suspects competing for the Pac 12 title this year in Oregon, USC and UCLA. Of those three teams, I would pick Oregon to, once again, be in contention and most likely win the Pac 12 again. The transfer quarterback from Eastern Washington, Vernon Adams, will somewhat ease the loss of last year's Heisman winner, Marcus Mariota. It's always hard to replace a player like Mariota, but I think that Adams will run this offense very well, and they won't miss Mariota as much as other people think they will. USC returns star quarterback, Cody Kessler, but I don't think that Steve Sarkisian is the answer at head coach. The last time USC had this kind of preseason buzz was the year they started out as preseason number one, lost badly at Arizona State on a late Saturday night game, fired Lane Kiffin when they returned home and finished the year 7-6. I personally don't trust USC. UCLA also has to replace an all Pac 12 QB in Brett Hundley, but they have Myles Jack coming back, and they have a decent defense. They're good for 8 to 10 wins. Teams like Arizona, Arizona State and Washington will be decent too. Arizona won't be as good as last season, they played completely out of their minds, but they have a good young core and are led by the best linebacker in the country in Scooby Wright. Arizona State will be good on offense and sub par on defense, and Washington's opener versus Boise State will tell you everything about their season. If they win or win big, they will be a really good team, and if they lose, it will be a long season for the Huskies. With all that being said, I see Oregon winning the conference again this season.

On to the "powerful" SEC. I'd like to start by saying, I think the SEC is very overrated and I wish companies like ESPN would stop with the constant coverage, it drives me nuts. Anyway, here's another conference with the usual suspects. Alabama, Auburn, Mississippi State, Georgia and Ole Miss are the class of the conference. Alabama is Alabama, they will be good for 10 wins at least, anything less is a failure. They will be good, probably great, all season. It's Alabama after all. Auburn and Ole Miss are very similar in my opinion. They both have decent offenses, Ole Miss is better with LaQuean Treadwell coming back after that horrific injury last season and they both have very good defenses. Auburn got a great hire in Will Muschamp as their new defensive coordinator. He was not a good head coach, but the guy is a defensive genius. They're also helped by the addition of graduate transfer, Blake Countess. That guy is a great cover corner. Ole Miss still has the Nkemdichi brothers, and Robert Nkemdichi is, by far, the best interior defensive lineman since Ndamonkong Suh. The guy is unblockable. Mississippi State has their QB, Dak Prescott, back and he runs Dan Mullen's read option to perfection. I don't think they'll be as good this season as they were last season, but they're still good for 8 or 9 wins. Georgia lost Todd Gurley, but replace him with Nick Chubb. They also have a decent defense. They should win at least 9 games. LSU and Arkansas are kind of a mystery to me. LSU has a lights out defense and probably the best running back in the nation in Leonard Fournette, but they have no QB capable of running an offense. Arkansas has a so so defense, but their running game is legit. Even with the injury to star running back, Jonathan Williams, they have a stable of guys willing to take his place. Missouri and Kentucky are probably your next level of teams. They'll compete, but if either of them wins more than 8 games, I'll be surprised. I'm going to have to go with Alabama to be the champ of the SEC again. Two conferences, two repeat champions.

Next, the Big 12. The Big 12 might be the most explosive offensive collection of teams in the country. First of all, there's Baylor and TCU. Baylor has to replace Bryce Petty, but it seems like anyone can come in there and throw for damn near 4,000 yards. That's how well their offense is coached and run by the players. On defense, they showed flashes, but disappeared late in games last season. Look at the Cotton Bowl loss to Michigan State last season for evidence. They do have a freakish athlete on that side of the ball. Go do a google image of Shawn Oakman and be aghast at how big and quick and nimble he is. The dude is a beast. TCU's offense is led by their explosive QB Trevoyne Boykin. He may be the best QB in the country and he runs their offense to a T. He's crazy accurate, can run if need be and makes the right decision 99% of the time. Their coach, Gary Patterson, is known for his defensive mind, but he will rely heavily on the offense this year. They shouldn't disappoint either. They should be one of the most explosive offenses in college football history. After these two teams, there's a pretty big dip. Oklahoma is Oklahoma. They should be decent, but they could also very well disappoint. That's the bummer of being an Oklahoma fan. They should compete every year, but they are on a down swing for them right now. Texas is still rebuilding, but you have to give them another two to four years before they are making any kind of noise in the national conversation. I do like their coach, Charlie Strong a lot. He doesn't take any crap from anybody. Oklahoma State has all these pending violations and recruiting problems that I think will affect their play on the field this season. Kansas State will be a 7 or 8 win team at best, and the same goes for West Virginia. I think that TCU basically runs away with the Big 12. Baylor will make it interesting, but TCU is going to be really special this season.

Next, the Big Ten. Full disclosure, I'm a die hard Michigan Wolverines fan, but that won't sway me from being biased. That being said, the story of this offseason is the hiring of Jim Harbaugh by Michigan. He's expected to return this team to glory, and with his track record, he should do that. In fairness, this season will be tough for him and my beloved Wolverines. I expect them to make a bowl game and I think they should have, at least, 7 wins, but their schedule is tough and we will see if the running game can finally live up to the hype and see if the defense can be as good, if not better than last season. Okay, I talked about Michigan. The Big Ten will be about two teams this season, Ohio State and Michigan State (ed note: That was the hardest sentence Ty has ever written). Ohio State is the defending national champions. They have three great QB's and one of them is now playing receiver(Braxton Miller). They have one of the best running backs in the country in Ezekial Elliot. But, I don't see many explosive receivers on this team and I think teams will stack the box on them. That doesn't mean they'll stop them, but they will be predictable on offense. I also think that both JT Barrett and Cardale Jones will take a step back. Cardale Jones made a mistake in not turning pro, because his stock will never be as high as it was at the end of last season. Ohio State has a great defense. Nothing more needs to be said. There defense will be hard to get points on. Michigan State has Connor Cook back and a highly aggressive, hard hitting defense. Cook is one of the top QB's in the country. A lot of his top receivers have graduated or are in the NFL, so he will have to find new guys, but he will, he's good. Their running game will be by committee, but that's what works for them. While having a great defense, they play undisciplined and get penalized a ton. They are one of the dirtiest teams I've ever watched, but that gets in other teams heads and takes them off their game. You do what works for you. I feel like this is Michigan State's last, best shot at doing something special. They better take advantage. After that we have, the aforementioned Michigan Wolverines, Penn State, Iowa and Minnesota. Penn State should be good, but they haven't really lived up to any expectations lately and their offensive line has got to play better for them to win. Iowa will be good on the ground, but the QB situation is clearer, with Jake Rudock transferring to Michigan, but we will see how CJ Beathard does as a full time starter. Their defense is in a down swing right now too. Minnesota is a good team. They're predictable, but they have an awesome offensive line and a bunch of good running backs. Mitch Leidner does exactly what the coaching staff asks him to do too. They are not great on defense and that will hold them back. Rutgers, Maryland and Northwestern are teams, like Missouri and Kentucky in the SEC, that will compete, but anything more than 7 wins will shock me. It boils my blood, but I think Ohio State will win the Big 10 once again (ed note: Sorry Ty).

Lots of the same conference champs for me. I'm going to bundle the ACC and the AAC, because these are both jokes of conferences. The ACC has only three teams that are legit. There's Florida State, Georgia Tech and Clemson. Georgia Tech will run the triple option really well and confuse a lot of opponents, but they will take a step back from last season. Florida State is replacing Jameis Winston with Everett Golson, so they will not miss a beat, They'll be good, but blow some games late, like they always do. Clemson should be really good this year and they may make the ACC look like a halfway decent conference. Duke will be decent again, but not as good as last season. I'm going to pick Clemson to win the ACC. I don't watch the AAC at all, but I know that Cincinnati is in the conference. The only other teams I know are UCF, SMU and maybe Temple. I know UCF was good a few years ago with Blake Bortles at QB, but this conference is such a joke, I guess I'll pick SMU to win it this year. That's just a blind guess on my part and for all my AAC fans out there, sorry but your conference stinks.

As far as independent and teams from other conferences go, I'd like to talk about Notre Dame, BYU, Boise State and Marshall. Notre Dame is kind of an enigma to me. At the start of last season they looked like world beaters to me, then they fell on their faces when they played Arizona State, but closed out the season with a bowl win over LSU. They will either be a 10 win team or a 6 win team to me. It all depends on how well new starter Malik Zaire plays. If he plays like he did against LSU, they'll be good, but if he regresses or gets found out, they will be lucky to win 6 games. He has good offensive players around him, but it's always on the QB. BYU gets QB Taysom Hill back, and he's almost unstoppable running the read option. The problem lies with him though, when he got hurt, they were terrible. I believe they lost 4 or 5 straight after he got hurt. That team is completely reliant on the health of their QB and that's a double edged sword. Boise State had a down year for them and they still won 9 games and played Ole Miss tough in the opener. The same goes for them as goes for Washington. It all depends on who wins that game to see who will have the better season. I think Boise State will be good this year. Marshall almost went undefeated last season. They were led by their all world QB, Rakeem Cato, but he's graduated, and I think this marks the end of Marshall winning double digit games. It's not happening.

As far as the Heisman Trophy goes this season, I see it coming down to a lot of running backs and one QB. I think we'll see Ohio State's Ezekial Elliot, Georgia's Nick Chubb, LSU's Leonard Fournette and TCU's QB Trevoyne Boykin get invited to New York. I see Boykin winning the Heisman in an almost landslide vote. He's going to have a special season if he stays healthy.

Now the playoff.  I see the Big 12 being represented by TCU, the SEC sending Alabama and the shocker being the Big 10 getting two teams in, in Ohio State and Michigan State. I think in order of ranking the final four teams, it will be Ohio State 1, Alabama 2, TCU 3 and Michigan State 4. So, we'll get an Ohio State-Michigan State game for the third time this season and I see Ohio State winning this time and we will get Alabama-TCU in the other playoff game and I see TCU pulling away late in that game to advance to the title game. So that leaves us with Ohio State and TCU playing for the championship. I see this game being close for about 2 and a half quarters and then TCU puling away and winning by at least 17 points. So, TCU will be your 2016 NCAA Football National Champions.

Tell me why I'm right or wrong in the comment section and sit back and enjoy watching football. It will be here before we know it.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the co-host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. The editor is eagerly awaiting his NCAA Division 3 football preview. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik