Former Alabama head football coach Nick Saban watches the Alabama vs. Texas A&M game at Coleman Coliseum on February 17, 2024 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA. Mandatory Credit: Gary Cosby Jr. – USA TODAY Sports ORG XMIT: IMAGN-730227 (via OlyDrop)
College football is officially back, which of course means the return of ESPN's College GameDay, which also made its first international appearance traveling to Dublin, Ireland to broadcast the Week 0 matchup between Florida State and Georgia Tech.
We at For The Win have made our own predictions for Week 0 and the season as a whole, but here's how the GameDay crew predicted the weekend would play out in Dublin.
In addition to the bare-bones Week 0 Saturday schedule, GameDay also provided predictions for Thursday and Friday's Week 1 matchups, including North Carolina vs. Minnesota, Colorado vs. North Dakota State and TCU vs. Stanford.
Nick Saban, who retires at the end of the 2023-24 college football season, made his official debut as part of the College GameDay broadcast team, and naturally, that debut included some predictions and forecasts for the season.
As for upcoming games, Saban predicts North Carolina will beat Minnesota, Colorado will beat North Dakota State, and TCU will beat Stanford. In Dublin, Saban predicts Florida State will beat Georgia Tech.
While predicting how the season will play out overall, Saban offered his predictions for who will be the Power Four conference champions and who will play and win the College Football Playoff National Championship. Saban predicted:
ACC Champion: Florida State
Big Ten Champion: Ohio State
Big 12 Champion: Utah
SEC Champion: Georgia
Saban then predicted Georgia would beat Oregon to win the national championship.
Saban also released his College Football Playoff predictions, predicting that Georgia, Oregon, Florida State, Ohio State and Utah will make the playoffs, as well as Alabama, Notre Dame, Louisiana State, Ole Miss, Penn State, Texas and Liberty.
Guest picker Sheamus, a WWE and Irish wrestling star, predicted Minnesota would beat North Carolina, but he echoed Saban's predictions for the other selected games on Thursday and Friday of Week 1. However, in Dublin, Sheamus predicted Georgia Tech would beat Florida State.
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This article originally appeared on For The Win: College GameDay: Nick Saban's College Football Playoff Predictions and First GameDay Picks Including Florida State vs. Georgia Tech Dublin
