College Football 2014: Oregon, Marcus Mariota and Leonard Fournette to succeed

Before the NFL season starts in all its glory, college football kicks off with some games of its own.

Here, our college-football fanatic Alex Ferguson has some questions about the 2014 season…

1) How will the play-off affect teams?

College football's powers-that-be changed the face of the game when they decided that there will be a four-game college football play-off at the end of the season. To decide it will be a committee of 13 members, which include two fathers of NFL stars (Archie Manning and Oliver Luck), other stars from the college football world, and one Condoleezza Rice, who's presence has been questioned. Anyway, the battle will be to the end, and then we'll see who gets in. You'll see who my tip for the play-offs is at the end of this article.

This kid was the No.1 recruit in the nation, and people are saying he's the new Bo Jackson. Frankly, we'd be happy if he was the next Ricky Williams.

2) Are we going to see an end to the lawsuits?

At the time of writing, college football's governing body, the NCAA, managed to find an end to the concussions scandal by settling out-of-court for hundreds of millions, but we've still got a couple of big ones what with players looking to unionize (colleges, who have been getting services for free for years, don't want that) and the O'Bannon Case vs NCAA case, which wants the NCAA to pay up for using players' likenesses without their permission, something that could cost the defendant billions. Just get on with the football, folks!

3) Who are the rookies to watch out for?

Only one name, for us, really stands out: Leonard Fournette of LSU. This kid was the No.1 recruit in the nation, and people are saying he's the new Bo Jackson. Frankly, we'd be happy if he was the next Ricky Williams. You know, without wanting to walk off his team to discover himself. But, yes, we know there are a ton of others who will open our eyes in 2014.

4) Speaking of Texas, what will the new reign be like?

No school in college football is more successful than Alabama at the moment, but no school's bigger than Texas. This is because Texas not only markets itself heavily, but it also kicked off one of the biggest games of chess in college football when it decided that it was going to have its own TV network in the Longhorn Network (which is actually quite good, we might add), prompting Missouri and Texas A&M to move to the SEC. Last year Texas was awful, and long-time head coach Mack Brown 'retired', and new coach Charlie Strong - after the name 'Nick Saban' was banded around a lot - has walked in. Strong, the first black coach in Texas history – has already been stamping his authority, booting eight players from the Texas team, and he doesn't mince words as to what he expects from his players.

5) Which is the best conference?

It's difficult to say right now, because there's so much quarterbacking talent out West in the Pac-12, but there's so much talent almost everywhere apart from quarterback in the Southeastern Conference, which saw its near-decade National Championship winning streak fall away in the dying seconds when Florida State beat the SEC's very own Auburn. Don't be surprised if the SEC take two to the play-offs, while the Pac-12 – because of a) The time difference and b) The competitiveness that could see no team go unbeaten – may struggle with none. So in our eyes, it's the SEC. But the gap's narrowing.

Watch out for Georgia RB Todd Gurley and Alabama RB Derrick Henry.

6) Who's going to win The Heisman?

A lot of people are talking up Marcus Mariota (QB, Oregon) to get the award for the country's best player. We're going with Bryce Petty (QB, Baylor) because of this equation: High octane offensive scheme = High octane numbers). Watch out for Georgia RB Todd Gurley, Mariota and Alabama RB Derrick Henry, too.

7) How good are Alabama and Florida State?

After losing the SEC West title to a last-second field goal return (known forever as 'Kick Six') and then being outplayed in the Sugar Bowl to Oklahoma, the Crimson Tide are 0-2 in their last two games. They've lost a ton of talent to the NFL. Nick Saban's seething. Alabama's recruitment of talent has been exceptional, and the Crimson Tide are favourites to win again. Look out for Henry. He's exceptional. This team could remain unbeaten this year. Such is the bias in the media towards Alabama this off-season that people have forgotten that the person who lifted the National Championship was Jimbo Fisher, Florida State's head coach, not Saban. There's also the small matter of his QB, Jameis Winston, being arrested for deciding he was a member of 'The Deadliest Catch' by getting arrested for nicking crabs legs, and loss of some talent to the NFL. FSU's lucky that their schedule is pretty light compared to Alabama's, but they are also very talented.

8) What are the games to watch?

We like Clemson's trip to Georgia (Sept 30), Michigan State at Oregon (Sept 6), Georgia's trip to South Carolina (Sept 13), Auburn at Kansas State (Sept 18), Clemson at Florida State (Sept 20), Oregon at UCLA (Oct 11), Stanford at Oregon (Nov 1), Baylor at Oklahoma (Nov. 8), USC vs UCLA (Nov 22), Auburn at Alabama (Nov 29) , and Clemson at South Carolina (Nov. 29. Bettors, we might remind you that the season kicks off on the 28th with Johnny Manziel-less Texas A&M going to National Championship dark horse South Carolina. It's going to be noisy (take South Carolina, btw).

9) Who are our four play-off entrants?

We can't look past Alabama in the SEC (because they'll win it and could well run the table), nor Florida State in the ACC (because they will run the table with ease). And now, this is where it gets hard. Oklahoma are a lot of people's picks to make it, primarily because they beat Alabama in their bowl game. And they like the schedule. But can they beat Baylor? Ohio State will probably run the table in the Big Ten. The Pac-12 has three legit teams in Oregon, Stanford and UCLA. As you can see, this is why we would have rather had eight than four. OK, so we're going with Alabama, Florida State, Oklahoma and… Oregon. And we're going with Oregon because if it gets through Michigan State, UCLA, Stanford and the Pac-12 Championship Game, they'll deserve it.