2019-20 Season: #NationalChampionship picks and predictions! #LSUvsClemson

It is time for the annual championship game megapost.  I will be posting all of the picks and predictions on tonight’s championship game in this single thread.  I will be updating throughout the day and posting on Twitter as well so follow along and check back for the latest.

Emmanuel Acho:
LSU over Clemson

Steve Coughlin:
LSU over Clemson straight up
Clemson+6 vs LSU
Clyde Edwards-Helaire under 99.5 rushing yards

Tim Cowlishaw:
LSU-5.5 vs Clemson

Heather Dinich:
LSU over Clemson

Chris Doering:
LSU over Clemson

Dusty Dvoracek:
Clemson+5.5 vs LSU

Chris Fallica:
LEAN Clemson+ the points, waiting to see if it goes to 6.5

Bruce Feldman:
LSU over Clemson

Paul Finebaum:
LSU over Clemson

Pat Forde:
Clemson over LSU

Todd Fuhrman:
Clemson+5.5 vs LSU

Joey Galloway:
LSU/Clemson over 69.5
LSU-6 vs Clemson

@GamedayJen:
Clemson over LSU

Mike Golic:
LSU over Clemson

Mike Greenberg:
LSU over Clemson

Lou Holtz:
LSU over Clemson

Dan Katz:
LSU-5.5 vs Clemson

Doug Kezirian:
Clemson/LSU over 69.5

Joel Klatt:
LSU over Clemson

Matt Leinart:
Clemson over LSU

Tom Lugibill:
Clemson over LSU

Ivan Maisel:
LSU over Clemson

Mark May:
LSU over Clemson

Greg McElroy:
LSU over Clemson

Booger McFarland:
LSU over Clemson

Ryan McGee:
LSU over Clemson

Todd McShay:
LSU over Clemson

Urban Meyer:
LSU over Clemson

Jim Mora Jr.:
LSU over Clemson

Dari Nowkhah:
LSU over Clemson

Jesse Palmer:
LSU/Clemson over 69.5
LSU-6 vs Clemson

Dave Portnoy:
LSU-5.5 vs Clemson

Ryen Russillo:
LSU over Clemson

Mark Schlabach:
LSU over Clemson

Stephen A. Smith:
Clemson over LSU

Marcus Spears:
LSU over Clemson

Pete Thamel:
LSU over Clemson

Clay Travis:
Clemson+6 vs LSU

Dan Wetzel:
LSU over Clemson

Scott Van Pelt:
LSU over Clemson

Jonathan Vilma:
LSU over Clemson

Trey Wingo:
Clemson over LSU

Matt Youmans:
Clemson+6.5/7 vs LSU

2017-18 Season final standings & champion!

Welcome back everyone.  We have been hard at work grading picks and running numbers to come up with the 2017-18 college football season final standings here at GamedayCole.com.  As always, things are subjective when our selection committee makes its final decisions.  We take into account strength of schedule, body of work, the eye test, computer rankings, and various generic metrics when deciding which of our reporters, analysts, pundits and talking heads takes the championship.  Below you will find the full ranking of everyone from this season for your review.

Amongst all of the competitors below, I generally only include those who picked at least 100 games in the running for our championship.  Sorry to those of you who picked less games, but next year maybe try a little harder to get your hot sports takes out there on every game.  I also take into account that some of the competitors below aren’t picking a broad selection of games each week.  I’d like to congratulate Andrea Adelson, who is consistently one of our top competitors, on an outstanding season at 90-30 on the year (75% right).  She is on top of all competitors with at least 100 picks.  However, her weekly picks only involve the ACC conference, so I cannot in good conscience crown her this year’s champion.  I have heard rumblings she may be claiming this championship, and may be planning a parade through her neighborhood, and if so then I will not oppose it.

However, it is with great pleasure (or maybe great pain for a lot of you reading this) that I am proud to announce Kirk Herbstreit as our 2017-18 college football picking champion at 117-49 (70.48% right).  I’m sure this will drive all of you haters crazy, because Kirk probably hates your school the most, but the man put up a great record picking the biggest games of the week each week.  I would also like to recognize Stanford Steve Coughlin for winning our top gambler of the year for picking 54.82% against the spread this year.  He consistently ranks amongst the best when it comes to gambling, so next year make sure to pay attention if you need to pad your wallet.

With all of this now complete, we are going into hibernation for now.  We may be back with some opinion pieces in the offseason, or we may not.  Just make sure you are back next August because we vow to be here rain, sleet or snow to track the best, the worst, the most loved, and most hated personalities when it comes to picking college football games.  Thanks for reading this year.

Straight up Straight up % ATS ATS %
Brett McMurphy 2-0 100.00% 1-2-2 40.00%
Matt Stinchcomb 12-1 92.31%
Dave Wannstedt 12-2 85.71%
Trevor Matich 6-1 85.71%
Dusty Dvoracek 34-6 85.00% 30-26-1 53.51%
Rece Davis 34-6 85.00%
Gene Chizik 40-13 80.00%
Mel Kiper Jr. 4-1 80.00%
Ryen Russillo 8-2 80.00% 21-19-2 52.38%
Robert Smith 10-3 76.92%
Matt Leinart 16-5 76.19%
Andrea Adelson 90-30 75.00%
Jordan Rodgers 12-4 75.00%
Chris Doering 67-23 74.44%
Les Miles 35-13 72.92%
Tim Tebow 59-23 71.95%
Marcus Spears 62-25 71.26%
Kirk Herbstreit 117-49 70.48% 4-13-0 23.53%
Phil Steele 166-70 70.34% 136-160-7 46.04%
David Pollack 47-20 70.15%
Celebrity Guests 99-46 68.28%
Jennifer’s Picks 148-71 67.58%
Paul Finebaum 55-28 66.27%
Jesse Palmer 60-31 65.93%
Lee Corso 118-63 65.19% 11-7-0 61.11%
Stanford Steve Coughlin 58-31 65.17% 61-50-3 54.82%
Chris Fallica 93-52 64.14% 83-83-6 50.00%
Bruce Feldman 128-72 64.00%
Desmond Howard 121-70 63.35% 9-8-0 52.94%
Pat Forde 62-37 62.63%
Colin Cowherd 20-12 62.50% 4-3-1 56.25%
Greg McElroy 35-22 61.40%
Mack Brown 6-4 60.00%
Joey Galloway 53-36 59.55%
Booger McFarland 16-11 59.26%
Mark Schlabach 34-24 58.62%
Dari Nowkhah 17-14 54.84%  13-12  52.00%
Joel Klatt 35-36 49.30%
Danny Kanell 28-34 45.16% 12-10-0 54.55%
Scott Van Pelt 56-47-2 54.29%
Rufus Peabody 29-27-1 51.75%
Season totals 2019-991 67.08% 457-455-25 50.11%

Week 14 2017: #ChampionshipWeek picks are graded; results are in!

Well ladies and gentlemen, the regular season of our 2017 college football year is in the books (unless you’re like me and know the REAL season ends after Army/Navy).  I don’t know how we got here so fast, but bowl bids are out and it is the most wonderful time of the year.  We will be doing extensive bowl coverage this year as always, but let’s wrap up the regular season first.

Winners in week 14 included Kirk Herbstreit (6-2), David Pollack (4-1), Pat Forde (8-2), Joey Galloway (5-1), Les Miles (4-1), Jesse Palmer (4-2), and Dave Wannstedt (4-0).  Nobody jumped off the page with a big win this week, so we’ll give the official win to one Joseph Galloway at 5-1 on the championship games.

Losers this week included Desmond Howard (4-5), Stanford Steve (1-5 ATS, and his win wasn’t really an official pick he gave out), Danny Kanell (1-4 ATS), Brent Musburger (1-2 ATS), and your boy SVP (2-3 ATS).  We’ll give the loss to Stanford Steve this week on a tough slate of picks, which is a couple of bad weeks in a row after a red hot season.

Coach Corso went 7-2 on the week including his headgear pick Clemson over Miami FL.  Special guest celebrity Luther Campbell had a so-so week at 5-4.  @GamedayJen booked a winner at 6-3.  Everyone else was somewhere in between so check out the full slate below to see how your favorite (or most hated) personality did this week.

Lee Corso: 7-2
RIGHT Clemson over Miami FL (headgear pick)
WRONG Arkansas St over Troy
RIGHT FAU over UNT
RIGHT UCF over Memphis
RIGHT Boise St over Fresno St
RIGHT Toledo over Akron
RIGHT OU over TCU
WRONG Wisconsin over Ohio St
RIGHT Georgia over Auburn

Kirk Herbstreit: 6-2
WRONG Arkansas St over Troy
RIGHT FAU over UNT
RIGHT Boise St over Fresno St
RIGHT Toledo over Akron
RIGHT UCF over Memphis
RIGHT OU over TCU
RIGHT Ohio St over Wisconsin
WRONG Auburn over Georgia

Desmond Howard: 4-5
WRONG Memphis over UCF
WRONG Arkansas St over Troy
RIGHT FAU over UNT
RIGHT Boise St over Fresno St
RIGHT Toledo over Akron
WRONG TCU over OU
WRONG Wisconsin over Ohio St
RIGHT Georgia over Auburn
WRONG Miami FL over Clemson

Luther Campbell: 5-4
WRONG Arkansas St over Troy
RIGHT FAU over UNT
WRONG Fresno St over Boise St
RIGHT Toledo over Akron
RIGHT UCF over Memphis
RIGHT OU over TCU
RIGHT Ohio St over Wisconsin
WRONG Auburn over Georgia
WRONG Miami FL over Clemson

@GamedayJen: 6-3
WRONG Arkansas St over Troy
RIGHT FAU over UNT
RIGHT Boise St over Fresno St
RIGHT Toledo over Akron
RIGHT UCF over Memphis
RIGHT OU over TCU
WRONG Wisconsin over Ohio St
WRONG Auburn over Georgia
RIGHT Clemson over Miami FL

David Pollack: 4-1
RIGHT Stanford over USC
RIGHT OU over TCU
WRONG Auburn over Georgia
RIGHT Clemson over Miami FL
RIGHT Ohio St over Wisconsin

Tim Tebow: 0-1
WRONG Auburn over Georgia

Marcus Spears: 2-0
RIGHT Georgia over Auburn
RIGHT Ohio St over Wisconsin

Greg McElroy: 0-1
WRONG Auburn over Georgia

Paul Finebaum: 1-0
RIGHT Georgia over Auburn

Andrea Adelson: 1-0
RIGHT Clemson over Miami FL

Gene Chizik: 1-0
RIGHT Georgia over Auburn

Stanford Steve Coughlin: 3-2 straight up, 1-5 ATS
WRONG Auburn over Georgia
RIGHT Clemson over Miami FL
WRONG TCU over OU
RIGHT USC over Stanford
RIGHT Ohio St over Wisconsin
WRONG Auburn-2.5 vs Georgia
WRONG Miami FL+9.5 vs Clemson
WRONG USC-3.5 vs Stanford
WRONG TCU+7 vs OU (TCU wins outright)
WRONG Ohio St-6.5 vs Wisconsin (if he had to pick it)
RIGHT UCF vs Memphis over 83ish (the winning team puts up at least 50!)

Colin Cowherd: 3-1
WRONG Wisconsin over Ohio St 26-24
RIGHT Clemson over Miami FL (Comfortably)
RIGHT Georgia over Auburn (27-24)
RIGHT OU over TCU

Tim Cowlishaw: 2-1 ATS
RIGHT OU-7 vs TCU
WRONG Miami FL+10 vs Clemson
RIGHT Ohio St-4 vs Wisconsin

Chris Doering: 1-0
RIGHT UGA over Auburn

Chris Fallica: 3-2 straight up, 3-4 ATS
RIGHT FSU over UL-Monroe
WRONG Auburn over Georgia
RIGHT Ohio St over Wisconsin
RIGHT Clemson over Miami FL
WRONG TCU over OU
WRONG Auburn-2.5 vs Georgia
RIGHT Clemson vs Miami FL under 46.5
WRONG UL-Monroe+27 vs FSU
WRONG Ohio St-6.5 vs Wisconsin (if he had to pick it)
WRONG TCU+7 vs OU (Bear’s Bank)
RIGHT Ohio St-4.5 vs Wisconsin (Bear’s Bank)
RIGHT S.Alabama+10.5 vs NM ST (Bear’s Bank)

Christian Fauria: 0-1
WRONG Auburn over Georgia

Bruce Feldman: 5-3
WRONG Stanford over USC
RIGHT UCF over Memphis
RIGHT Toledo over Akron
RIGHT FAU over UNT
WRONG Auburn over Georgia
WRONG Fresno St over Boise St
RIGHT Clemson over Miami FL
RIGHT Ohio St over Wisconsin

Pat Forde: 8-2
RIGHT Clemson over Miami FL
RIGHT Georgia over Auburn
RIGHT Ohio St over Wisconsin
RIGHT OU over TCU
RIGHT USC over Stanford
RIGHT UCF over Memphis
WRONG Fresno St over Boise St
RIGHT Toledo over Akron
RIGHT FAU over UNT
WRONG Troy over Arkansas St

Joey Galloway: 5-1
RIGHT UCF over Memphis
WRONG Auburn over Georgia
RIGHT OU over TCU
RIGHT Clemson over Miami FL
RIGHT Ohio St over Wisconsin
RIGHT USC over Stanford

Mike Golic: 2-0
RIGHT Clemson over Miami FL
RIGHT OU over TCU

Mike Greenberg: 2-2
RIGHT OU over TCU
RIGHT Clemson over Miami FL
WRONG Wisconsin over Ohio St
WRONG Auburn over Georgia

Danny Kanell: 2-3 straight up, 1-4 ATS
WRONG Auburn over Georgia (by a touchdown)
WRONG Wisconsin over Ohio St
WRONG Stanford over USC
RIGHT OU over TCU
RIGHT Clemson over Miami FL
RIGHT Stanford+4 vs USC (Stanford outright)
WRONG TCU+7.5 vs OU
WRONG Auburn-2.5 vs Georgia
WRONG Miami FL+9.5 vs Clemson
WRONG Wisconsin+195 vs Ohio St (Moneyline)

Matt Leinart: 2-2
RIGHT Clemson over Miami FL
RIGHT OU over TCU
WRONG Auburn over Georgia
WRONG Wisconsin over Ohio St

Les Miles: 4-1
RIGHT USC over Stanford
RIGHT Georgia over Auburn
RIGHT Clemson over Miami FL
RIGHT OU over TCU
WRONG Wisconsin over Ohio St

Brent Musburger: 1-2 ATS
RIGHT OU-7 vs TCU (OU will LAY THE HAMMER if they get a chance)
WRONG Miami FL+9.5 vs Clemson
WRONG Auburn vs Georgia over 47.5

Jesse Palmer: 4-2
RIGHT UCF over Memphis
RIGHT Clemson over Miami FL
WRONG Wisconsin over Ohio St
RIGHT OU over TCU
WRONG Auburn over Georgia
RIGHT USC over Stanford

Rufus Peabody: 0-0-1 ATS
PUSH Memphis+7 vs UCF

Jordan Rodgers: 0-1
WRONG Wisconsin over Ohio St

Ryen Russillo: 3-3-1 ATS
RIGHT FSU over UL-Monroe
RIGHT Stanford+4 vs USC
WRONG TCU+7 vs OU
RIGHT Georgia+1.5 vs Auburn
WRONG Miami FL+9.5 vs Clemson
WRONG UNT+11.5 vs FAU
PUSH Wisconsin+6 vs Ohio St
RIGHT FSU-26.5 vs UL-Monroe

Robert Smith: 3-1
RIGHT OU over TCU
WRONG Auburn over Georgia
RIGHT Clemson over Miami FL
RIGHT Ohio St over Wisconsin

Scott Spreitzer: 2-0 ATS
RIGHT UCF-6.5 vs Memphis
RIGHT Ohio St vs Wisconsin under 50.5/51

Phil Steele: 10-4 straight up, 6-8 ATS
RIGHT USC over Stanford (by about 10)
RIGHT Toledo over Akron (by 17)
RIGHT OU over TCU (something like 38-27)
WRONG Auburn over Georgia (by a TD)
RIGHT Ohio St over Wisconsin (by 7, no play)
RIGHT FAU over UNT
WRONG Arkansas St over Troy
RIGHT UCF over Memphis (Memphis keeps it closer than expected)
WRONG Georgia Southern over Coastal Carolina (by 3, on the number)
RIGHT NM St over South Alabama
WRONG UMass over FIU
RIGHT Clemson over Miami FL
RIGHT FSU over UL-Monroe
RIGHT App St over Louisiana
WRONG USC-3.5 vs Stanford
RIGHT Akron+21.5 vs Toledo
WRONG Miami FL+9.5 vs Clemson (he said it’ll get to 10, so wait for 10)
RIGHT OU-7 vs TCU
WRONG Auburn-2.5 vs Georgia
RIGHT UCF vs Memphis over 83
RIGHT Memphis+7.5 vs UCF
RIGHT Idaho+6.5 vs Georgia St
WRONG Louisiana+15 vs App St
WRONG UMass+1.5 vs FIU
WRONG UL-Monroe+27 vs FSU
WRONG Auburn-1.5 vs Georgia
WRONG Ark St PK vs Troy
RIGHT Boise St+8.5 vs Fresno St (Phil said Boise St wins by “only 3” but I think he meant Fresno St, either way he’s taking the points)

Scott Van Pelt: 2-3 ATS
WRONG UNT+12.5 vs FAU
WRONG TCU+7 vs OU
RIGHT Georgia+1 vs Auburn
RIGHT S.Alabama+9.5 vs NM State
WRONG UMass-1 vs FIU

Dave Wannstedt: 4-0
RIGHT Clemson over Miami FL
RIGHT Georgia over Auburn
RIGHT OU over TCU
RIGHT Ohio St over Wisconsin