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For the first time since back-to-back Holiday Bowl appearances in 1987 and 1988, and only the third time in program history, the Wyoming Cowboys played in consecutive bowl games, capturing the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl last season with a win over Central Michigan. Reaching a third straight bowl game for the first time might be a little more difficult without first-round NFL draft pick Josh Allen. But the Cowboys weren’t as productive as they should’ve been with the strong-armed quarterback. A num... 

Week one actually opens on Saturday with what has become known and celebrated as “Week Zero” which is a series of games that serve as an appetizer before action fully kicks off next Thursday. Featured Saturday is the Mountain West Conference opener between the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors and the Colorado State Rams. For Hawaii they have been in a continuous uphill battle since their epic and Cinderella run to the Sugar Bowl in the 2007 season under June Jones. For Colorado State they have been stuck... 

There is a great irony about the defending National Champion and SEC Heavyweight Alabama Crimson Tide. Despite winning the national title game in overtime over the actual SEC Champion Georgia Bulldogs the Tide was not even the winner of its own West Division. That honor went to the Auburn Tigers after Bama’s hated arch rival defeated them in the Iron Bowl earlier that season. Furthermore, the Crimson Tide has twice won the national championship without even winning the SEC. Which leads into this year’s evaluation. Alabama is certainly the best team in the West. While Georgia has emerged as the power of the East. And the Bulldogs are doing it Alabama Style! ... 

The great irony of the Pac 12 Conference when it comes to football is that the USC Trojans are the marquee brand and historic traditional power. And certainly, the Men of Troy established supremacy last year with a 31-28 win over the Stanford Cardinal in the Pac 12 Championship Game. Yet Stanford remains the all-time winner of the Pac 12 in its current format. The Cardinal has compiled a total of four appearances in the Pac 12 Title Game and three wins. Furthermore, last year was USC’s first ever appearance in the event. All of which begs the question as to whether or not they are back on their way as the traditional marquee and standard of the league or were merely one hit wonders. The Washington Huskies join Stanford and USC as favorites to win the league. ... 

The Mountain West Conference has become the territory of the San Diego State Aztecs and Boise State Broncos. Since 2014 they have each won two Mountain West Conference Championships. Furthermore, they are the two favorites to again meet in the Mountain West Conference Championship Game for the first time ever. That has been the great irony of their respective success stories. Each time San Diego State or Boise State made the MWC title game the other team would fail to qualify. For example, last year the upstart Fresno State Bulldogs made the MWC title tilt before going down to a tough 17-14 loss to Boise State. ... 

It was a banner year for Central Florida in 2017, winning the American Athletic Conference title, reaching a New Year’s Six bowl and finishing undefeated. But the Knights paid the price for their success with head coach Scott Frost pilfered by Power 5 Nebraska. New coach Josh Huepel looks to pick up where Frost left off and the Knights opened as the favorite to win the league, though they will be tested by South Florida and Temple in the East Division. ... 

The consensus of college football experts and fans is that Oklahoma is the team to beat in the Big 12 Conference. That is despite the fact that record setting Heisman Trophy winner Baker Mayfield is gone to the riches of the NFL and that the defense is not of top shelf caliber. Then again, the word “defense” and Big 12 is something of an oxymoron. Indeed, the Big 12 is basketball on grass with fast break offenses and an afterthought for defense. And this is the philosophy that got Oklahoma into the College Football Playoff last season and ultimately what brought the Sooners down in their loss to a Georgia team that the simply couldn’t hold off. ... 

With less than three weeks to go before the 2018 college football season kicks off there are still teams not fully committed to their starting quarterback as of yet. While most teams have strong favorites and fairly obvious choices there are other teams where its all up in the air. The UCLA Bruins in particular have three bona fide candidates to stand under center in week one. Adding to the intrigue is new head coach Chip Kelly, who is charged with making the underachieving UCLA program an updated version of Kelly’s X-Box offense from his days at Oregon. ... 

The Clemson Tigers are odds-on favorites to win the ACC this season. The Tigers bring back a lot of talent on both sides of the ball, but they do have a battle at quarterback between starter Kelly Bryant and freshman Trevor Lawrence. The Tigers are considered national title contenders, so if they don’t win the ACC it would be a major surprise. Three teams are considered darkhorses, as Miami, Florida State and Virginia Tech are all listed at odds of less than 10-1. All of the other teams are longshots. Let’s look at the odds, teams and predictions. ... 

Stanford’s Bryce Love is a slight favorite to win the Heisman Trophy this season at odds of +655. Love is considered the top running back in the country, but he will have some definitely competition for the award, as Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is the second choice at odds of +694, while Wisconsin running back Jonathan Taylor is listed at odds of +735. Let’s look at the odds, the top contender and make a prediction. ... 

The Alabama Crimson Tide are solid favorites to win the 2018 NCAA Football National Championship, but Alabama is not the only team getting good action on the odds board. The Clemson Tigers are a close second choice in the betting and Ohio State and Georgia are also listed at single-digit odds. Eight teams are listed at odds of less than +2000. Let’s look at the odds to win the title this season, some top contenders and a few other things to watch.... 

For the first time ever, we will have two teams from the same conference square off in the College Football Playoff National Championship.The Alabama Crimson Tide made it here with a dominating defensive effort. They put the clamps on Clemson’s offense in the Sugar Bowl, cruising to a 24-6 victory over the Tigers.... 

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish were one of the best teams in the country for the first two months of the season. Notre Dame started the season 8-1 and looked set to break into the College Football Playoff for the first time. A loss to Miami derailed those hopes, but it was still a successful year for Notre Dame. Now, the Irish will look to finish the year with 10 wins. However, the LSU Tigers are standing in their way and they are looking to get a big bowl win in Ed Orgeron’s first season as the head coach.... 

The Michigan Wolverines and the South Carolina Gamecocks met in this game five years ago. That game gave us one of the most memorable moments of bowl season as Jadeveon Clowney delivered “The Hit” midway through the fourth quarter. Clowney ran untouched past the line of scrimmage and blew up Vincent Smith in the backfield. The hit knocked Smith’s helmet off and forced a fumble that Clowney picked up with one hand. It was an amazing play that will be shown multiple times during the broadcast of this game.... 

The Memphis Tigers will join the other teams that are fortunate enough to have a virtual home game for their bowl. Memphis won’t be traveling anywhere this holiday season and instead will welcome the Iowa State Cyclones to its place two days before the new year. This will be the first ever meeting between these two schools and it should be a good one. Both teams surpassed expectations and can make their fan bases very happy with a win here.... 

This will probably be the last time we see Lamar Jackson. Jackson has been outright phenomenal in each of these last two seasons. He won the Heisman Trophy after an amazing performance last year, and he was one of the finalists this season even though he arguably had an even better year. He has led the Louisville Cardinals to new heights during his three seasons on campus and will look for one last win when they take on the Mississippi State Bulldogs.... 

The Northwestern Wildcats just got some great news. Clayton Thorson announced that he plans to return for his senior season and will play in the bowl game too. Thorson was considered one of the best quarterback prospects, and there was talk that he could be selected in the first three rounds if he came out this season. Now that he is staying, the Wildcats can get pack to the task at hand, knocking off the Kentucky Wildcats.... 

The New Mexico State Aggies are back in a bowl game for the first time since 1960. It’s been a bittersweet year for the program as this will be its last year in the Sun Belt, but getting to a bowl game for the first time in nearly six decades is a great feeling. Interestingly enough, the last time New Mexico State was in a bowl game it took on its opponent in this game, the Utah State Aggies. Back then, New Mexico State emerged victorious 20-13 in the Sun Bowl, but Utah State is planning on a di... 

No team made a stranger hire than the Arizona State Sun Devils this offseason. Parting ways with Todd Graham after he went 7-5 and beat Washington was curious enough, but hiring Herm Edwards to replace him raised eyebrows throughout the college football world. Edwards is going to have his work cut out for him as he has not been a head coach for a decade and will have to hit the ground running. He will face a tough test in his first game as the North Carolina State Wolfpack have no such turnover to worry about.... 

The Oklahoma State Cowboys are looking to post their third straight 10-3 season. Oklahoma State has been one of the best teams in the Big 12 during the Mike Gundy era and he was able to take the program to new heights after Les Miles left for LSU. Currently, the Cowboys are sitting at 9-3 and need to beat the Virginia Tech Hokies to pick up that 10^th win. They are favored to do so, but the Hokies gave us one of the best comebacks of bowl season last year and have put together a great season of their own.... 

The Texas A&M Aggies made a massive financial commitment last month. Texas A&M had given up on Kevin Sumlin and started to flirt with Jimbo Fisher at the beginning of November. Although some thought that landing Fisher was a pipe dream, a fully guaranteed 10-year $75 million dollar deal was enough to convince Fisher to head to College Station. Now, expectations at Texas A&M are sky high for next season and the Aggies will try to head into the offseason on the right foot with a win over the Wake Forest Demon Deacons.Watch the Belk Bowl live on Friday, December 29, 2017, at 1 p.m. ET at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina. This game will be broadcast on ESPN.... 

The Stanford Cardinal ran into some trouble at the start of the season, but closed out strong. Stanford lost two of its first three games and was considered out of the national title picture pretty early on in the year. The Cardinal finished the year looking like one of the best teams in the country though, beating Washington and Notre Dame on their way to winning the PAC 12 North.The TCU Horned Frogs were seen as one of the teams that could get to the College Football Playoff, but they couldn’t get past the Oklahoma Sooners. They lost twice to Oklahoma and that left them outside the playoff picture.... 

If you can’t get into one of the New Year’s Six bowls, the best place to go for the holidays is the eponymous Holiday Bowl. The Michigan State Spartans are glad to be back in a good bowl game after a disastrous 2016 campaign. Sparty went 3-9 last year and was looking for redemption this season. They found it by going 9-3 and knocking off in-state rival Michigan once again.... 

Since Ken Niumatalolo became the head coach of the Navy Midshipmen a decade ago, the program has had an amazing amount of continued success. Navy has won at least eight games in eight of those 10 seasons and finished tied for first place in the AAC West in 2015 and 2016. Unfortunately, this season Navy had some troubles, but did manage to get to a bowl. Now they need to beat the Virginia Cavaliers to avoid what would be the program’s second losing season during Niumatalolo’s tenure.... 

Early on in the 2017 season, it looked like the Missouri Tigers might miss their second straight bowl game this year. But, after starting the season at 1-5, the Tigers have now won six straight and arrive at the Foster Farms Bowl with lots of momentum....