Merriam-Webster, as venerable a dictionary as an autumn tailgate with solo cups and brats, defines bold as an adjective in the following:
a: fearless before danger : INTREPID
Simple enough. Doesn't appear to lend itself to a sideline filled with gray area.
FootballScoop's staff, however, is taking their own measures of bold.
Perhaps Scott Roussel doesn't bump Tay Money on his Spotify list; maybe FootballScoop's venerable president didn't understand the assignment.
The one that he delivered.
Nonetheless, we're here.
It's college football kick-off week -- the full slate, the full stadiums, new eras in Tuscaloosa and Ann Arbor; same dazzling party scenes in The Grove but only Lane Kiffin has dudes up front.
On both sides of the ball.
Not bold.
But what about Oregon winning the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff? What about Dan Lanning, after some interest from Alabama upon the retirement of Nick Saban, staying put as the Head Duck In Charge and guiding Phil Knight U. to its first-ever major-college football national championship?
Vegas oddsmakers, and the national polls -- those of coaches, as well as media -- don't consider that too bold.
After all, Oregon is consensus preseason No. 3 and owns the third-best odds at -300 to win a natty.
So bold indoor sunglasses are required in Roussel World.
Doug Samuels, preparing to chase his own title in the Michigan prep ranks atop his fine Comstock Park High School program, is going bolder but also staying within the Big Ten.
Coach Samz expects a whopping one-third of the 12-team CFP to originate from within the Big Ten's newly expanded 18-team lineup.
Oregon. Ohio State. Penn State. Michigan? Iowa? Nebraska? Which program is the fourth?
Wait, Iowa? A bold prediction there might be the Hawkeyes scoring two or three offensive touchdowns against a quality opponent.
Journey down South, deep down to the edge of America. Zach Barnett is taking up residency on Hurricane Island.
Barnett's proclaiming this season the year of the U, sort of. He's prepping to share holiday plans with Mario Cristobal and that irascible mascot Sebastian the Ibis.
Barnett believes the U is back, and he's singing like a Hangover movie outtake that "We're the three best friends that anyone could have."
He's tagged the Canes to post an undefeated regular season, topple Clemson in the ACC Championship and then earn a bye into the CFP, where eventually Miami's dream return ends at the horns, err hands, of Texas.
Lastly, there's a bold prediction case for Memphis to run the table and secure the first-ever Group of Five CFP berth.
Or that the Tennessee Vols can make their CFP debut, just two years after narrowly missing out.
Marcus Freeman's entering a massive Year 3 at Notre Dame. Can Freeman deliver the Fighting Irish program's 23rd all-time undefeated regular season or an NCAA-best seventh all-time perfect season?
Freeman will deliver an undefeated regular slate for the Irish, who will host a College Football Playoff game in beautiful South Bend, Indiana, in late-December.
That's not bold. That's playing percentages, a favorable schedule that sees its toughest test this week and still doesn't require a conference championship.
No, FootballScoop's final bold prediction is this: Lance Leipold and the Kansas Jayhawks will win the Big 12, toppling Utah in the title game, and advance to the College Football Playoff.
Jalon Daniels stays healthy, and the Jayhawks continue their climb under Leipold.
Watch or listen or do both below as the FootballScoop staff fearlessly -- for some -- and not-so-fearlessly for others deliver the goods.
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