After a long wait (and yes I realize there were a couple games last weekend), the wait for REAL college football is over with EVERYONE returning to the field this weekend.

And we at HOTSPROTSTAKES.com are weighing in with our predictions for our favorite teams, the College Football Playoff, and who with think will be crowned National Champion when the season ends in January.

Here are our picks:

@Rovitz

Favorite Team’s Record: Central Michigan, 5-7
Four Playoff Teams: Alabama, Ohio State, USC, Oklahoma
National Title Game: Alabama vs Ohio State
National Champion: Alabama
Favorite team to watch that isn’t yours: Navy

My favorite school plays only five home games this year and is breaking in a new starting quarterback, whom they haven’t decided on yet, and are dangerously thin in the secondary, which seems bad in the world of #MACtion. It could be a long season for CMU, and for a team that will never win a National Title, it’ll be hard to care after a while. That said, I will still enjoy watching Navy grind out 8-ish wins thanks to the best offense in the world, the triple-option. It’s rather amazing watching a college football team with 250 pound lineman win games in a convincing way. And as for the College Football Playoff, it’ll be another ho-hum year of football royalty in it with the expected Alabama win. No drama at all.

@KedgeOnline

Favorite Team(s) Record: North Texas, 7-5; LSU 9-3
Four Playoff Teams: Alabama, Ohio State, Oklahoma, USC
National Title Game: Alabama vs. Ohio State
National Champion: Alabama
Favorite team to watch that isn’t yours: Michigan

Michigan are great because when they lose it’s an absolute disaster, they don’t lose like normal teams do. The double overtime loss to Ohio State, the wacky punt thing against Michigan State, losing to Appalachian State after they came back from 28 points down, hell, just last year they lost 3 games by a combined FIVE points. There is no program more exciting for worse reasons than the Wolverines. They have had horrible quarterbacks over the last 10 years but you remember all of them, Devin Gardner, Denard Robinson, Tate Forcier, all of them are so fun! Michigan is the NBA Street gamebreaker of college football except they don’t actually win. Also, Jim Harbaugh doesn’t own any other clothes. If you see him at any point in time, in any scenario, he’s wearing the $7 khakis & a Michigan sweatshirt. He’s going to be buried in that outfit.

@AVKingJames

Favorite Team’s Record: Central Michigan, 5-7
Four Playoff Teams: Alabama, Ohio State, Florida State, Oklahoma
National Title Game: Alabama vs Oklahoma
National Champion: Alabama
Favorite team to watch that isn’t yours: Kansas

CMU is in the midst of a rebuilding year and will be bringing in a lot of youth in the rotation to give them reps in the new spread offense. That’ll take time to implement. These four are the likeliest conference champs, in my estimation. I think USC flames out at some point and Oklahoma gets in on the merit of the new Big 12 championship game. If you don’t have Alabama here, you’re a dope. They’re way too good on a consistent basis to not include and I respect that. Ohio State has the pieces together to make a deep run and all they really need to do is beat Michigan and win the Big Ten to make the Playoff. They have lots of brand recognition. But Alabama will be seeking revenge and no one can stop that. Yes, I willingly chose Kansas football. It’s perhaps a homage to the year Kansas basketball won the national title and Kansas football was extremely successful when I started watching college football in 2006 and 2007. Lot of it has to do with the aesthetics. But I’m also curious as to how the program exists despite their seeming to be no real support. The talent level is akin to a mid-tier G5 team in one of the tougher P5 conferences. It’s fascinating to watch.

@BrianoMobile

Favorite Team’s Record: Alabama, 14-1
Four Playoff Teams: Alabama, Ohio State, Florida State, USC
National Title Game: Alabama vs USC
National Champion: Alabama
Favorite team to watch that isn’t yours: Whoever is playing mid-week MACtion

A cursory look at the past decade or so of college football reveals a major trend, and ample evidence for Nick Saban’s claim as the best college football coach ever. He’s only gone 2 consecutive years without a national title once(!) since 2008. 2008, you’ll recall was his second year with the Tide. Which means that once half the class was his recruits, he’s won the national title, on average, every other year. Complete insanity.

Enjoy the season everyone!