AAC expert picks 2023: Projected order of finish, bold predictions, championship favorites

[Tommy Gadberry]

• Dennis Dodd: UTSA coach Jeff Traylor will win 12 games (again), win a conference title (again), all while riding star quarterback Frank Harris to a New Year's Six bowl. To make it symmetrical, the Roadrunners will beat defending conference champ Tulane and then face 2021 AAC champ Cincinnati -- now in the Big 12 -- in that New Year's Six game. Traylor will then depart to become the next coach at Texas A&M after Jimbo Fisher is fired following a 7-5 season.
• Tom Fornelli: SMU will win one of its two road games against Oklahoma or TCU as the Mustangs will appear in a New Year's Six bowl.
   
• read more: https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/aac-expert-picks-2023-projected-order-of-finish-bold-predictions-championship-favorites/amp/

[untphd]

I don't see this happening, but they have to write about something.

[Tommy Gadberry]

The SMU praise is making me 🤮

[UNTLifer]

smu will lose both of those road games, utsa will not win twelve and I hope Traylor goes to A&M. 

[untphd]

26 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

smu will lose both of those road games, utsa will not win twelve and I hope Traylor goes to A&M. 

What he said.

[UNTcrazy727]

38 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

smu will lose both of those road games, utsa will not win twelve and I hope Traylor goes to A&M. 

SMU might lose both those games but win everything else. 

Agree that UTSA has no chance at winning 12. Playing in CUSA has made people think they’re better than they really are. They are 4-4 vs FBS competition outside CUSA the last 2 years. 

[RBP79]

I want what he's smokin or drinking!

[GrayEagle]

1 hour ago, UNTLifer said:

smu will lose both of those road games, utsa will not win twelve and I hope Traylor goes to A&M. 

I think/hope that you're right on SMU.  UTSA could win twelve as long as Lewis is the quarterback (which thankfully this is his final collegiate year.)  They only lost three offense and three defense.  As for Traylor going to A$M...good luck and good riddance!  I hope that you are right.

[NorthTexasWeLove]

2 minutes ago, GrayEagle said:

I think/hope that you're right on SMU.  UTSA could win twelve as long as Lewis is the quarterback (which thankfully this is his final collegiate year.)  They only lost three offense and three defense.  As for Traylor going to A$M...good luck and good riddance!  I hope that you are right.

We shouldn't want Traylor to leave. We should want utsa to snuggle up even closer to him financially for several reasons. 1. High tide lifts all boats 2. UNT and its peers would have to elevate their games. 3. Iron sharpens iron. 4. They'll suck in everything else. 

[Glory to the Green]

20 minutes ago, NorthTexasWeLove said:

We shouldn't want Traylor to leave. We should want utsa to snuggle up even closer to him financially for several reasons. 1. High tide lifts all boats 2. UNT and its peers would have to elevate their games. 3. Iron sharpens iron. 4. They'll suck in everything else. 

I’m alright with UTSA and SMU winning games, I just want to win more than them and I want to beat them in head to head. 

[outoftown]

If you go by these "experts", then UNT has caught a pretty maximally tough AAC schedule this year (which itself is not that unreasonable to suggest). It misses the bottom two teams and  3 of the 5 teams generally considered worst (USF, Charlotte, Rice, only playing Tulsa/Temple), plus ECU which is considered in the middle, while playing all 3 teams generally considered at the top (SMU, Tulane, UTSA). The closest thing to a break appears to be missing FAU (which folks have ranked as high as 2nd and as low as 11th)

Also, for some reason only Tulane has lower variability in how it is assessed, which is fairly surprising given that UNT is generally thought to be in the middle (betwenn 6 and 9) and has a new coach (although that is true for a lot of temas this year). I gues it means people look at Morris and see someone in a similar mold to SL and think things will continue on a similar track as before, while they have very differing opinions on how folks like Dilfer or Herman a FAU wil do.

[dodgefan]

16 hours ago, Tommy Gadberry said:

• Dennis Dodd: UTSA coach Jeff Traylor will win 12 games (again), win a conference title (again), all while riding star quarterback Frank Harris to a New Year's Six bowl. To make it symmetrical, the Roadrunners will beat defending conference champ Tulane and then face 2021 AAC champ Cincinnati -- now in the Big 12 -- in that New Year's Six game. Traylor will then depart to become the next coach at Texas A&M after Jimbo Fisher is fired following a 7-5 season.
• Tom Fornelli: SMU will win one of its two road games against Oklahoma or TCU as the Mustangs will appear in a New Year's Six bowl.
   
• read more: https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/aac-expert-picks-2023-projected-order-of-finish-bold-predictions-championship-favorites/amp/

Will UTSA match the hype? Not many teams win in Norman and TCU was in the National Championship last season. I can't see SMU winning either of those games on the road, if they did win one of them, this board would melt down.

Edited August 21, 2023 by dodgefan

[untjim1995]

Fisher isn't getting fired at A&M any time soon. That buyout is $77 Million if they fired him after this season and $68 million after next season. Nobody is firing someone for that kind of buyout/bailout...

[cousin oliver]

2 minutes ago, untjim1995 said:

Fisher isn't getting fired at A&M any time soon. That buyout is $77 Million if they fired him after this season and $68 million after next season. Nobody is firing someone for that kind of buyout/bailout...

Agree with you.  The only exception would be if he goes 0-8 or something which won't happen.

[southsideguy]

The question is if Traylor takes Harris to A&M for his final two years of eligibility 😉.  Shouldn't we be calling him Dr Harris by now?