Cole Tollison

Wisco Wednesday: Week 1 Preview

Big Fick debuts vs. the Buffalo Bulls in Mad Town. The start of an era.

Not nearly as intimidating as the Bills, the Bulls are a middle of the road team in the Mid-American Conference that also resides in Buffalo, NY. There is a lot of interest in the new offense that Fickell is bringing to Madison. The Bulls should be a nice tune up/pseudo preseason game for the Badgers to work out the kinks of new offensive and defensive schemes.

  • Odds listed were taken from FanDuel at the time of writing.

Game Preview: Buffalo at (19) Wisconsin

Spread: 

Wisconsin -27.5

Over/Under:

54.5

Location:

Camp Randall – Madison, Wisconsin

Kickoff Time:

Saturday – 2:30 PM CT

TV Network:

FS1

Who are the Buffalo Bulls?

2022 Season:

  • Buffalo went 7-6 in 2022
  • They beat Georgia Southern in the Camellia Bowl to end the season.
  • They went 5-3 in the MAC East, taking 2nd in the division.
  • 66th in scoring defense, giving up 26.7 pts per game.
  • 64th in scoring offense, scoring 28.5 pts per game

The defense and offensive rankings can be a bit inflated because they played poor competition for most of the season. They threw the ball a bit …

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CFB is Back Baby – Week 1 Preview

No one knows anything. Everything is possible. It must be week 1.

There’s not much more to say than that, right? We think we know who’s good. But every year top 10 teams finish unranked, and a few unranked teams make their way into the top 15. (Or the all the way to the title game – see 2022 TCU)

Ignoring week 0 for a second. Week 1 is the only week where you look at all 133 teams and can say: Half of you are about to have a losing record. And the other half gets to start 1-0. The math isn’t that perfect though, there are too many games against FCS teams.

Unfortunately, most week 1 games are unwatchable. Tune up games, cupcakes, preseason, etc. Call it whatever you want. There are a lot of 20+ point favorites that will steamroll lesser teams by the middle of the 2nd quarter.

But there are some games I am looking forward to, and others I will keep an eye on if they get interesting. Week 1 spans 5 days, so this will be a little on the long side for a preview piece. 

  • Odds listed refer to spreads taken from

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Tolly Predictions: Playoffs? We talking Playoffs?

Who is making the 2023 CFP? Why I think I just might know.

College football is about Saturdays, it’s about rivalries, it’s a sport where the regular season matters more than the postseason… for now. That said, many of us are still looking forward to the CFP to watch the best teams duke it out on the gridiron in their quest for a natty. And to be fair, I think if you want to call your shot on who’s going to win it all, you should do it before the season starts.

(I’m a little late, I know week 0 already happened. But, I got all of my regular season predictions done before that. So give me a break.)

What I’ve Predicted So Far:

ACC:

My full ACC predictions are here.

ACC Championship Game: Florida State vs. Louisville

ACC Champion: Florida State

Notable Records:

Florida State (11-2) – ACC Champ

Louisville (9-4) – ACC Runner-Up

Clemson (10-2)

Notre Dame (9-3)*

North Carolina (9-3)

*join a conference jerks

Pac-12:

My full Pac-12 predictions are here.

Pac-12 Championship Game: Washington vs. Oregon State

Pac-12 Champion: Washington

Notable Records:

Washington (12-1) – Pac-12 Champ

Oregon State (10-3) – Pac-12 Runner-Up

USC (10-2) 

Oregon …

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Week 0 Just Happened

What the heck was that? Why was there football yesterday? Isn’t week 1 next weekend?

Week 0 is an honored college football tradition dating all the way back to *checks Wikipedia* 2017 or 1983? Like everything involving the NCAA, there are a multitude of complex rules, rule changes, and weird decisions. To play a week 0 game, the game must be approved by the NCAA; that’s the main thing to keep in mind. There were a bunch of week 0 games in 2002. None were played from 2005 to 2015. And 2017, the current set of rules for week 0 was put in place. Since 2017 we’ve consistently had multiple Week 0 games (ignoring 2020 for obvious reasons).

(If you’re trying to win a bar bet, the actual 1st Week 0 game was in 1983 when #1 Nebraska beat #4 Penn State at Giants Stadium in New Jersey)*

Who Would Even Want to Play in Week 0?

Everyone.

Every team would gladly play a week 0 game given the opportunity. 

It gets the kids back for fall camp 1 week sooner, so coaches get more practices.

It adds another weekend of TV inventory for networks and conferences. (i.e. more …

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Tolly Predictions: What to Expect From the Pac-12 (Bottom Half)

Who is at the bottom in the Pac-12? What will the order of finish be? Who is making a bowl game?

These will be my record predictions for the Pac-12. I will list every game for the predictions, but the primary takeaway should be the final record. We will also compare my predictions to the over/under win total for each team to see how the betting public feels about the Pac-12.

Predictions for the top half of the Pac-12 can be found here.

*Odds listed refer to O/U win totals taken from DraftKings at the time of writing

7th – Washington State – O/U win total: 6.5

At Colorado State – W

Wisconsin – L

Northern Colorado – W

Oregon State – W

Bye

At UCLA – L

Arizona – W

At Oregon – L

At Arizona State – W

Stanford – W

At California – L

Colorado (Friday) – W

At Washington – L

I’m actually pretty high on Washington State. The Pac-12 is just tough this year. I could easily see this squad beating UCLA or even upsetting Wisconsin, again. They are going to beat somebody above them in the odds. I have it being Oregon State, but …

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Tolly Predictions: What to Expect From the Pac-12

Who is winning the Pac-12? What will the order of finish be? Who is making a bowl game?

These will be my record predictions for the Pac-12. I will list every game for the predictions, but the primary takeaway should be the final record. We will also compare my predictions to the over/under win total for each team to see how the betting public feels about the Pac-12.

Predictions for the bottom half of the Pac-12 can be found here.

*Odds listed refer to O/U win totals taken from DraftKings at the time of writing

6th – UCLA – O/U win total: 8.5

Coastal Carolina – W

At San Diego State – L

NC Central – W

At Utah – L

Bye

Washington State – W

At Oregon State – L

At Stanford – W

Colorado – W

At Arizona – L

Arizona State – W

USC – L

California – W

I was kind of shocked to see their win total set at 8.5.  They lost a great QB in DTR and a phenomenal RB in Zach Charbonnet; both are in the NFL now. Chip Kelly has made this a transfer portal team, so year to year they are …

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Wisco Wednesday: Post-Realignment Schedule Thoughts

Oregon and Washington are in the B1G (in 2024). Time to rip up the current schedule plans.

I have some thoughts on future B1G schedules I want to touch on with the new additions to the B1G. I don’t think they are very extreme. But, there is likely to be some disagreement. This is a longer article that is a deep dive into schedule making (and how it’s impossible to please everyone). 

Schedule Demands Post Realignment

With Oregon and Washington being added to the B1G the schedule has to be redone, again. I have a couple of demands for the new schedule. They are all common sense, I think, but they should be said.

  1. Stay at 9 conference games. I fear that if the B1G goes to 10 conference games right now, most teams, including Wisconsin, will try to cancel their future, marquee, non-conference matchups. I do not want Wisconsin canceling their home-and-home series vs Alabama for 2024 and 2025. And, I want the B1G to continue playing big non-conference games in the future.
  2. Keep all 11 rivalries highlighted in the previous model, Flex Protect Plus, and keep Oregon vs Washington. This is likely a given, with one

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Tolly Predictions: What to Expect From the SEC West

Who is winning the West? What will the order of finish be? Who is making a bowl game?

These will be my record predictions for the SEC West. I will list every game for the predictions, but the primary takeaway should be the final record. We will also compare my predictions to the over/under win total for each team to see how the betting public feels about the SEC West.

*Odds listed refer to O/U’s taken from DraftKings at the time of writing

7th – Mississippi State – O/U win total: 6.5

Southeastern Louisiana – W

Arizona – W

LSU – L

At South Carolina – L

Alabama – L

Western Michigan – W

Bye

At Arkansas – L

At Auburn – L

Kentucky (HC) – L

At Texas A&M – L

Southern Miss – W

Ole Miss (Thursday) – W

Mississippi State is not a bad team. BUT, when you play in the SEC West, “not bad” is not good enough. I also think this team is still emotionally recovering from the sudden death of beloved HC Mike Leach. 

Unfortunately for them, I see this as a rough year for MS State. I do have them winning the Egg …

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Tolly Predictions: What to Expect From the SEC East

Who is winning the East? What will the order of finish be? Who is making a bowl game?

These will be my record predictions for the SEC East. I will list every game for the predictions, but the primary takeaway should be the final record. We will also compare my predictions to the over/under win total for each team to see how the betting public feels about the SEC East.

*Odds listed refer to O/U’s taken from DraftKings at the time of writing

7th – Florida – O/U win total: 5.5

At Utah (Thursday) – L

McNeese – W

Tennessee – L

Charlotte – W

At Kentucky – L

Vanderbilt (HC) – L

At South Carolina – L

Bye

Vs Georgia (Jacksonville) – L

Arkansas – W

At LSU – L

At Missouri – L

Florida State – L

Florida has named Wisconsin washout Graham Mertz as the starting QB. I think they’ve doomed themselves. I am not a believer in Mertz. I think he makes teams worse, not better.

This is a Florida team that went 5-7 last year… with the #4 overall draft pick at QB. Billy Napier will be on the hot seat going into week 5 …

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Tolly Predictions: What to Expect From the Big 12 (Bottom Half)

Who is at the bottom of the Big 12? What will the order of finish be? Who is making a bowl game?

These will be my record predictions for the Big 12. I will list every game for the predictions, but the primary takeaway should be the final record. We will also compare my predictions to the over/under win total for each team to see how the betting public feels about the Big 12.

Predictions for the top half of the Big 12 can be found here.

*Odds listed refer to O/U win totals taken from DraftKings at the time of writing

8th – Baylor – O/U win total: 7.5

Texas State – W

Utah – L

LIU – W

Texas – W

At UCF – L

Texas Tech – L

Bye

At Cincinnati – W

Iowa State (HC) – W

Houston – W

At Kansas State – L

At TCU – L

West Virginia – W

Baylor is good. Other than that, I don’t have much to say. 

As a middle of the Big 12 team, they can beat anyone they play, and they can lose to anyone they play. Picking this schedule is like throwing darts with …

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