On3 picks Clemson and LSU to win conference titles

 

Griffin McVeigh of On3 predicted all conference matchups and winners in an article titled "College Football Predictions: Projecting Conference Championship finalists, winners".

Not surprisingly, Clemson was chosen to be the ACC conference champion this year.  McVeigh believes that with the addition of Carson Beck at quarterback, Miami will be the runner up in the ACC. That is not surprising either.  Miami was bumped out of the ACC championship and a likely playoff spot last year on a lost fumble to Georgia Tech that ultimately decided the game. At the time Miami was undefeated and ranked #4. While officially it was a loss two games later to Syracuse that setup a Miami absent ACC championship between SMU and Clemson, the "unforgivable mistake" late in the Georgia Tech game signaled the end of what was a storybook season for Miami.

McVeigh picking LSU to win the SEC championship is bit more surprising. It is no secret that I am an LSU homer but it is hard for me to say this early that Texas or Georgia or even Alabama are not more obvious choices for non-LSU homers. McVeigh predicts that LSU will beat Texas in the SEC championship game. Considering that I attended LSU and then Texas A&M, for graduate work, I couldn't be happier for Mr. Griffin McVeigh to make such a prediction. Now I am going to have to think long and hard about whether I think McVeigh is my favorite sports reporter or Conner O'Gara of Saturday Down South, who predicted that LSU would beat Georgia for the SEC championship and then win the National Championship this year! 

Even if neither Clemson nor LSU live up to the lofty predictions that are being thrown their way during preseason, the opening game where LSU travels to Death Valley Jr. to face Clemson is a must see game.

While we are focused on the LSU-Clemson game there is one more thing that may give some pause for thought.  I asked Grok, on one of my other blogs College Football's Big Game, to pick first week games that had a line of 6-points or less and Grok said take LSU and the points.