Pre-Season GPR and College Football

One of the wildly popular features of this blog has been my weekly Grandstander Power Rankings for the NFL, wherein I rate the NFL as if it were college football - the Top Four teams only.  I usually begin issuing these after the sixth week of the NFL season in order to give the League (or as Booger McFarland would put it "our League") time to shake off early season kinks and let the dust settle, and that is what I shall do in 2020 as well, but what the hell, here's a pre-season look at the GPR.  Along about Week 6, I'll get serious with this, and we'll see how accurate I might have been.

1. Chiefs
2. Ravens
3. Saints
4. Titans

No real surprises there.

******

Now for college football.

Alabama to defeat Clemson for the National Championship in the CFP.  This comes after hours upon hours of reading voluminous scouting reports and analyzing hundreds of hours of game films of schools throughout the Power Five.  It was tough call, but I figured, BE BOLD in my predictions!

I'm not going to wade into the topics of the decision of the Big Ten and the PAC 12 to postpone their seasons.  That's been discussed and over-discussed, and we can always revisit it later, especially (a) if schools continue to cancel and postpone games, which has already happened with some frequency, and (b) if the Big Ten caves to financial and political pressures and backtracks on their decision not to play.

So the, let's just stick to the local scene and the Pitt Panthers.

Pre-pandemic, all signs pointed to 2020 being the year when all of Pat Narduzzi's building of a program would come to fruition.  The defense would be experienced and very good, and the offense would be led by senior QB Kenny Pickett.  The thought of a possible canceled season was quite frustrating to Pitt fans, because it would be yet another stroke of bad luck for Pitt.  You know, "THIS is the year we were really going to be good, and now we can't play."

Well, Pitt and the ACC are going to play, and it begins in three days against Austin Peay at Heinz Field.  There then follows a revamped ten game ACC schedule, which includes a games against Clemson and its sanctimonious coach and Notre Dame and its grumpy coach.  No divisions in the ACC this year, and the top two teams will meet for the Conference Championship in December.   However, as I alluded to a few paragraphs back, we are already seeing some college games being postponed or cancelled due to COVID concerns, so that while we are pretty sure that Pitt and the ACC and other conferences will begin their seasons, there is no guarantee that they will finish them.

Will Pitt be in the mix?  I have no idea, and the only prediction that I will make is that if Pitt turns in another 6-5 or even a 7-4 season, the heat on HCPN will be turned up considerably.

Sadly, there will be no one in attendance at Heinz Field to see the Panthers this year, at least at the beginning of the season, and even if fans are allowed to gather at some point, it will be without me and my fellow ticket holders in our group.  We have elected to roll our 2020 payment towards our tickets in 2021, hoping that circumstances will once again allow large gatherings in our society.

#H2P