College football record projections for each Power Five conference
Georgia, Michigan, Clemson, Southern California and Texas are the forecasted conference champions in USA TODAY Sports' 2023 record projections for the Power Five leagues.
The Bulldogs will chase college football history with a new cast of starters, led by quarterback Carson Beck. They'll once again face stiff competition from Alabama, which looks to take back the SEC West after finishing second in the division last season to LSU.
Michigan will have to fend off Ohio State and Penn State in what is easily the most competitive division in the Bowl Subdivision. Clemson's biggest challenge will come from Florida State. In the Pac-12, USC has the offense to run the table but might be undone by an unpredictable defense.
And while Texas has the pieces to compete for the College Football Playoff, the Longhorns will have to take the Big 12 back from defending champion Kansas State and national runner-up TCU.
Here are our picks and projections for every major conference:
ACC
Buoyed by the offseason addition of former TCU offensive coordinator Garrett Riley, Clemson looks to get back into the playoff after a one-year absence. The Tigers will have their hands full with Florida State, which seems set to skyrocket after last year's breakthrough under Mike Norvell. History is definitely on Clemson's side: FSU hasn't won a game in this series since 2014. This pair leads the way in the ACC by a big margin over North Carolina, Pittsburgh and Miami, with the Hurricanes pegged for noticeable improvement behind second-year coach Mario Cristobal.
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Big 12
Its roster ranks among the best in college football. The quarterback might be a first-round pick. Could Texas put it all together under Steve Sarkisian? The Longhorns have the pieces to make a run at the playoff but will have to defy a generation-long trend of falling short of expectations. A tough non-conference road game at Alabama means they don't finish the regular season with the best overall record in the league but will make the league's championship game and prevail. Tough-as-nails Kansas State and rejuvenated Oklahoma, which will climb back into a national ranking in Brent Venables' second year, should push them all season. While unlikely to match a memorable 2022 season, TCU has the offensive firepower to reach eight or nine wins. Central Florida and BYU are the most likely of the league's four newcomers to get into postseason play.
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Big Ten
Can Ohio State beat Michigan? Can Penn State beat the Buckeyes or Wolverines? These three teams are heads, shoulders, knees and toes above the rest of the Big Ten and rank snugly among the top six or seven teams in the entire FBS. There's little oxygen left for the rest of the East, though Mike Locksley has established a seven-win baseline at Maryland. Iowa and Minnesota are the safest picks in the West as Wisconsin shifts gears and schemes under new coach Luke Fickell. Another newcomer, Nebraska's Matt Rhule, could get to six wins and build some major momentum heading into 2024.
Pac-12
As was the case last season, look for a crowded mess of Top 25 teams near the top of the conference. This depth of competition among the top half of the Pac-12 might leave no team with fewer than two losses – an all-too-fitting result in what may be the conference's final season of existence. USC is the favorite despite continued questions about the Trojans' defense, though Utah, Oregon State and Oregon could easily fill the void. Near the bottom, all eyes will be Deion Sanders and Colorado as he embarks on the most extreme roster rebuild in memory.
SEC
Another unbeaten regular season would extend Georgia's winning streak to 29 games, tying the Bulldogs with 1990-92 Miami, 2012-14 Florida State and 2018-19 Clemson for the seventh-longest such streak in modern FBS history. Division rivals Tennessee and Kentucky are two strong teams that should contend for double-digit wins, but neither seems constructed to take down the two-time defending national champions. Over to the West, the Crimson Tide and LSU will battle for the division crown and a playoff berth while Texas A&M expects to rebound after a dreadful 2022 season.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: College football record projections: Power Five conference predictions
