My Way-Too-Early 2018 College Football Playoff Predictions

With a relatively underwhelming College Football Playoff semifinal last season, it's hard not to look ahead to the four teams who will make it to the 2018 College Football Playoff. After Ohio State got drubbed by the eventual champion in Clemson, the most underappreciated and fourth seeded Washington Huskies team hung around with big, bad Alabama, but Nick Saban's Crimson Tide were too much for Chris Peterson and his Huskies. 

So, that takes us to the question we all want to know, who gets in this season? The common trend for the three College Football Playoffs so far is that the committee wants to take the conference champion from four of the five Power Five conferences, with one conference being left out, the Big 12, who have failed to adapt like every other conference and install a conference championship at the end of the year. This year, however, we saw an exception with Ohio State. Penn State beat Ohio State earlier in the year and then went on to win the Big Ten championship against Wisconsin. Ohio State, however, with their lone loss against the Lions, was viewed by the comittee as a better overall team than Penn State, and leapfrogged James Franklin's Lions to make it to the their second playoff trip in three years. 

Alabama: 
This team has been to all three playoffs so far, and there's not much doubt that they will find themselves there against this year. With some key departures to the NFL Draft, Alabama may not be as invincible as in previous years, but until another SEC team challenges them, their fourth straight College Football Playoff birth is Nick Saban and co's to lose. 

http://fansided.com/2016/12/31/reuben-foster-washington-cheap-shots/





Florida State:

With Clemson coming off their national title run last season in their second straight championship appearance, people are wondering how the Tigers will fare without the best player in Clemson history and two time Heisman runner-up quarterback in Deshaun Watson. Florida State loses their star tailback Dalvin Cook, but Cam Akers, the top running back in the 2017 class is poised to step up for the Noles. Clemson loses some pivotal pieces on both sides of the ball to the NFL Draft, whereas the Seminoles lose Cook, and defensive end DeMarcus Walker. They are bringing back a bulk of their defense, including one of the nation's top corners in Derwin James, after he missed most of last season when he suffered a broken leg back in the opening month of the year. The winner of this game has gone on to win the ACC every year since 2011-- and has been in the playoff each of the past three seasons.


http://www.tomahawknation.com/2017/3/14/14918106/money-finances-2017-ncaa-tournament-basketball

Ohio State:
Ohio State, Michigan, and Penn State all finished in the top 10 of the final rankings last season and it seems that one of the three will find themselves in the playoffs again this season. While Jim Harbaugh has brought Michigan back into the national spotlight quicker than expected, he loses a lot of talent to the NFL Draft, especially on the defensive side of the ball. The Wolverines lost too much talent and the turnaround is too quick for them to retool in Harbaugh's third season and find themselves in the final four this season, but their time is very near. Penn State and Ohio State both return a sizeable amount of talent and seem like the two favorites from the Big Ten East to make it to the playoff. The two teams clash in Columbus this season, and I expect a bit of a drop off from the Lions, a team who broke through into the national spotlight just a season ago. I'll take Heisman candidate J.T. Barrett and the Buckeyes to go to their third final four in four years. 


https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/26/sports/ncaafootball/ohio-state-buckeyes-michigan-wolverines-overtime.html

USC:
The Trojans are coming off a great season last year and a thrilling Rose Bowl victory over Penn State.  After a fantastic freshman campaign, especially towards the latter part of the season, and Rose Bowl especially, rising sophomore quarterback Sam Darnold seems to be the preseason Heisman trophy favorite. Losing the Trojans top two targets - Juju Smith-Schuster and Darreus Rogers, they have some promising young receivers led by Deontay Burnett who will be looking to shine right away. SC has five straight games on the slate starting in September, with home games against Stanford, and a Texas Longhorn team looking to return to the spotlight under new coach Tom Herman. With no Oregon or Washington on their regular season schedule, as long as the Trojans handle their business in the first month, there's no reason they can't find themselves in the playoff picture. 



http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-usc-rose-bowl-plaschke-20170102-story.html

Westbrook vs. Harden, Who Wins MVP?

Case for the Brodie:

For this year's NBA Regular season MVP race, it's as close as ever. It seems like at this point in the season, with only four games remaining on team's schedules, Russell Westbrook and James Harden have separated themselves from the pack. Westbrook seems eager to play with a certain all-out mentality every night out in his first season without Kevin Durant by his side. While Durant and his new team Golden State Warriors sit atop the Western conference in first place, Westbrook is doing everything he can to will his team into the playoffs for a chance at a deep postseason push. When it is all said and done, Westbrook is likely going to finish the regular season averaging a triple double and is just one game shy of passing Oscar Robertson's record of triple doubles in a single season with 41. He's on a team solely designed for Westbrook to be the focal point of the offense. He is on a team where 7-foot-1 Turkish center Enes Kanter is the team's next best scoring option, and occasionally Indiana standout Victor Oladipo who only sometimes decides when he wants to show up offensively. If we're talking sheer value to a team, I know awarding the Most Valuable Player award to a player on the twelfth best team in the league, but without Russell's performance this year, Oklahoma City and general manager Sam Presti would be looking where they'll land in this year's lottery pick in the NBA Draft. 

Case for The Beard:

Shifting gears to other MVP finalist James Harden, there really is no case to be made for why Harden shouldn't be the MVP of the league. Both of these players have very similar cases: they've had incredible box scores on for the majority very good teams, and they've both been fantastic this season. If you're basing this voting on which player has a better team, you'll tend to want to vote for Harden, since it seems Oklahoma City will have at least ten fewer wins when the regular season wraps up. Now if we're talking records here, are we solely taking into account Wesbrook vs. Harden? Or are we looking past that, giving reason that Houston has more weapons surrounded around The Beard, hence the better record at the end of the season? When it comes to Harden, you're talking about a guy putting up nearly just as good stats on the year, and like mentioned previously, is on a much better basketball team. 

And the winner is... 

What this MVP race really comes down to is personal preference for voters and fans. At this point, it's apples to oranges, are fans in awe over Westbrook's historic season filled with triple doubles, or are they looking at a team's overall success, with Houston a mere ten games better than Oklahoma City? I think Wesbtrook's season is too impressive to overlook. Westbrook would and should feel robbed and unappreciated if his resiliant nightly efforts weren't rewarded at the end of the season with his first Most Valuable Player award. 

James Harden vs. Russell Westbrook: Triple-Doubles and the MVP. 2016. James Harden vs. Russell Westbrook: Triple-Doubles and the MVP. Web. 5 Apr. 2017.