Jackson Free Press

Each year around this time, I take a look in my cloudy crystal ball and make some predictions about the upcoming college-football season. Some years, I'm in the ballpark, and some years, I'm not even on the same planet.

Last year, my fortune-telling was pretty spot on. I said the University of Mississippi would be a playoff team. The Rebels came incredibly close to that mark, but Bo Wallace's bad throw against Louisiana State University and a very unlucky night for Laquon Treadwell against Auburn University ended any playoff hopes.

My next prediction was that Alcorn State University would win the SWAC championship. The Braves proved me right and took the title. Lastly, I said Delta State University and Millsaps College would make the playoffs. I was right about the Statesmen but wrong about the Majors. So let's see how clear things are this season. Or was last season a miracle of guesswork?

The Rebels will represent the SEC West in the conference title game.

It's bound to happen one year. Excluding Texas A&M University, who joined the SEC in 2011, every SEC West team has played in the championship game at some point. That includes Mississippi State University, I'm sure to the chagrin of UM fans.

The Rebels shared the SEC West title in 2003 with LSU, but the Tigers went on to the SEC title game and the national championship. The Rebels are still looking for their own trip to Atlanta.

The major question facing UM is the quarterback situation. If the Rebels can get that right, then head coach Hugh Freeze has recruited well to match all his returning talent. Just about every team in the SEC West will improve or be just as strong as the year before, but the Rebels are still sitting in Oxford with a bare cupboard. Things will have to go their way, but that isn't impossible.

There is a first time for everything, and I predict that this year will be the first time for the Rebels to make their way to Atlanta in December.

The Alcorn State Braves will be SWAC champs again.

You have to believe that the odds favor Alcorn State this season because quarterback John Gibbs Jr. is returning for the Braves. The star athlete did just about everything for last year's conference-winning ASU team except fill the water bottles before each game.

The core of this team is returning for the 2015 campaign, and Gibbs is leading the way. If Alcorn State can repeat last year, it will be the first team in more than a decade to repeat as champs.

No team has managed repeat championship wins in the SWAC since Grambling State University's back-to-back-to-back victories in the early 2000s. Even reaching the conference championship game is a difficult task, but some teams have managed to do it several times, including Southern University, who has made an appearance in the last two years.

Alcorn State will have its main rival pushing against it this season in Jackson State University. The tigers will be hot on the Braves' heels, ready to take their spot in the title game if ASU slips up.

The University of Southern Mississippi will make it to a bowl game or at least score six wins this season.

College football hasn't seen a team fall as fast and as far as Southern Miss in some time. The Golden Eagles went from conference champions to entirely winless from one season to the next.

The last few years have been a complete fall from grace for one of the most stable programs at the mid-major level of college football. However, there were signs of life in Hattiesburg before injuries hurt the second half of last season.

Year three of the Todd Monken era will be defining whichever way it goes. Either Southern Miss will build on last year's three wins, or Monken will be on the hot seat or looking for a new job. I'm a glass-half-full kind of guy. I think USM is closer to a revival than people think. It has a tough schedule and little room for error, but the team has a shot at six wins.

Delta State plays for the title.

The Statesmen won nine games last season and reached the Division II playoffs. They have plenty of talent back on the roster. A friendly schedule will be Delta State's best friend this season. DSU plays seven home games and also plays Mississippi College to stay in state for one of the team's four road games.

DSU also has returning quarterback Tyler Sullivan, who put up great numbers last year. He should be even better for the Statesmen this season.

Last year, this team was one and done in the playoffs after losing to the University of West Georgia for the second time in the same season. That means this team has something to prove.

If the Statesmen can get that first playoff win, I think they will make a run, which could put them in the title game. Do they win? Who knows. It's a wild prediction just figuring that they will get to the title game.

SPORTS FACT OF THE WEEK

Author Douglas Adams' "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" features a game called Brockian Ultra-Cricket that involves suddenly hitting people for no reason and then apologizing at a safe distance.