If one of these happens, it would be wild. If two happen, that would officially be nuts. If all three or more happen, each and every one of you owes the FootballScoop staff $500.
The FootballScoop staff heralded the arrival of the 2022 college football season with our annual tradition of looking into the future and seeing the unseen. It's our Bold Predictions for the coming campaign.
Scott: Auburn wins 10+ games
The Loveliest Village on the Plains, Auburn University is a truly nice, serene place. Everyone on campus and in town is incredibly polite and aligned in their love of Auburn. So why is it that every few years some people with influence seem to meddle and just make things harder than they should be for Auburn athletics? With last week’s ouster of director of athletics Allen Greene setting up to make for an unsettled season for Auburn football, all eyes will be on Bryan Harsin. Nationwide, most pundits are calling for a challenging season; and potentially an end to Harsin’s run at Auburn following this season once a new AD is identified. The Scoop sees things differently.
Bryan Harsin’s squad is going to make it very hard on the new director of athletics to do anything other than extend him with a 10 win season heading into the Iron Bowl. If Harsin’s squad can muster a win at Bryant Denny, his Tigers might just carry him off the field.
Doug: Nebraska wins out and takes the Big Ten West
We did say BOLD predictions right?
I'm going out on a limb and saying the Huskers knock off Oklahoma the weekend before Frost's buyout drops in half...and then collect back to back ranked wins over Wisconsin and Michigan later in the season and finishes the year among the top 10. Outside of those ranked games, Nebraska's schedule is pretty favorable, with trips to Rutgers, Purdue, Michigan and Iowa, and Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin at home.
I think Frost's ability to get things turned in a year when it's clear he's coaching for his job will spark a reworked (and likely controversial) contract that the Huskers announce before they're eventually blown out in the Big Ten title game by a College Football Playoff bound Ohio State squad.
Zach: Oklahoma State makes the College Football Playoff
A survey of a few dozen so-called experts across the name-brand sites found not one of them picking the Pokes for the Playoff, which is yet another example of a flaw in human thinking. We all know not all the teams we think will be good in August will turn out to actually be good in December, yet 95 percent of all CFP predictions center around the same six or seven teams, all who begin the year in the top 10.
Yet in 2021, Michigan reached the CFP as an unranked team in preseason. In 2018, Notre Dame reached the field after a No. 12 start. In 2017, Georgia climbed from No. 15 to the top four. Washington began 2016 at No. 14, and in 2015 Oklahoma began the year barely in the top 20.
While all of those teams met swift and emphatic demises once in the field, they did reach the field.
After coming painfully close in 2021, I believe Oklahoma State breaks through in 2022. The Cowboys did lose important pieces like receiver Tay Martin, running back Jaylen Warren, four of their five starting DBs and defensive coordinator Jim Knowles, but Mike Gundy's program, in his own words, runs itself at this point. The Cowboys have won 10+ games seven times since 2010.
Many people point to defending champion Baylor as or perennial favorite Oklahoma as "surprise" CFP teams from the Big 12, but Oklahoma State starts 20 upperclassmen among its "starting" 23 (OSU lists 12 'starters' on offense), chief among them fifth-year senior quarterback Spencer Sanders. Six different Cowboy receivers have produced 1,000+ yard seasons since 2010, and six different Cowboys have run for 1,000+ yards since 2009, so I'm not worried about the loss of Martin and Warren, nor am I worried about the loss of four O-line starters.
The Cowboys will sweep through an unchallenging non-conference slate, win back-to-back Bedlams for the first time of the Gundy era, sweep their home schedule and overcome a midseason loss at Kansas State by beating OU a third straight time in the Big 12 Championship to become the sixth team outside the preseason AP Top 10 to reach the final four.
John: Texas wins the Big 12
A year ago, in my debut participation for FootballScoop's esteemed 'Bold Predictions' feature, I very nearly nailed it. I forecasted the Oregon Ducks to go into the Horseshoe in an early-season showdown, knock off high-powered Ohio State and be on their way to the College Football Playoff.
The Ducks did the former but squandered an opportunity at the latter, when they were physically overwhelmed by Utah in the Pac-12 championship.
The Utes wouldn't be a bad pick this year as the program primed to get the Pac-12 back into the CFP.
But, for now, Utah is sticking with the status quo, and I'm going with another transient college football program for my bold prediction in 2022.
I like the University of Texas to win the Big 12 championship. Will that be enough to get the Longhorns into the CFP, if they're a 12-1 team and have only a home loss to Alabama? I'm not going that far.
I'm not even suggesting Texas only loses to the Crimson Tide. But five of Texas's seven losses in Steve Sarkisian's debut campaign atop the 'Horns program were by a combined 31 points. The Horns had a late lead in nearly each of those five contests.
It got ran over at Arkansas on the road in a chaotic early-season scene and bottled up as close losses had mounted later in the year at Iowa State. Texas, otherwise, was in every game it played.
This year, Sark & the Horns hand over the offensive reins to former consensus five-star quarterback Quinn Ewers, and they've got better size in their trenches plus the absolutely best running back in college football in Bijan Robinson.
They won't go unscathed through the Big 12 in what will perhaps be the final seasons in the league for both Texas and Oklahoma, but the Longhorns will clinch a berth in the Big 12 Championship with a regular-season-ending win against Baylor before claiming the conference crown the following week.
Full audio file is here: