As the 2024 college football schedule is about to open with a matchup between the reigning ACC champion Florida State Seminoles and the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, ESPN College Gameday wasted no time in getting their preseason predictions on the air. When you make a declaration on national television, there's no turning back.
Included in their predictions were the Gameday crew's picks for conference champions and the College Football Playoff field.
The crew makes their CFP predictions before the season gets underway 🏆 pic.twitter.com/x39PM7EgkG
— College GameDay (@CollegeGameDay) August 24, 2024
Most conference champion picks were very vanilla, which is to be expected from a show of Gameday's status, with Georgia winning the SEC across the board, and Ohio State dominating the Big 10, but when the crew called their shot on the Big 12, one team made a surprise appearance--multiple times.
For those of you holding your breath, let me ease your anticipatory breath-holding--that surprise team wasn't BYU. Three out of the 5 panel members picked the preseason favorite, Utah, to take the Big 12 Conference crown at the end of the season, but Pat McAfee and legendary coach Nick Saban picked the West Virginia Mountaineers to stand alone the mountaintop at the season's end.
For McAfee, this pick shouldn't be too surprising. After all, West Virginia is his alma mater. For Saban, though, one can't help but wonder what he sees in the team that gives him so much confidence in their chances following a 9-4 2023 campaign.
Whatever the outcome, this season looks to be a highly competitive one for the Big 12. And who knows? Maybe no Gameday jinx is a good sign for the rest of the field.