2024? Yeah right.
32 predictions:
1. Texas will make the NIT. Shaka Smart won’t.
2. Indiana will make the NIT Final Four.
3. Indiana State will win the NIT.
4. The NIT’s survival into 2025 and 2026 will be announced.
5. Texas will beat Washington tomorrow and then lose next Monday. Both games will be decided by eight or more points.
6. Jim Harbaugh won’t take an NFL job, but Ryan Day will.
7. The SEC will put five teams into next year’s 12-team playoff. Four of them will make the quarterfinals. People will respond to this by suggesting expansion. (Who are the five? Let’s say Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Texas, and Auburn.)
8. South Dakota State won’t lose a game, including the one next weekend in Frisco and the one in August in Stillwater.
9. Brock Purdy will win the Super Bowl MVP.
10. The Lions will win the NFC North again next year (but not in 2025). The Bears will not post a winning record in the 2024 regular season.
11. Hunter Luepke will have a three-touchdown game.
12. Aaron Rodgers will flirt with retirement, to the degree that at least one McAfee Show is billed as the day we find out if Rodgers is coming back.
13. Joe Kelly will strike out 75 batters in a season for the first time since he was a starter. He will also be the NLCS MVP.
14. The Braves will have a better regular season record than the Dodgers.
15. The Cardinals will win the NL Central, but the Cubs will win 88 games and last just as long as St. Louis in the playoffs.
16. The Texas Rangers will miss the playoffs.
17. The Bulls will fire Artūras Karnišovas and replace him with a terrible option. That option will keep Zach LaVine.
18. The Nuggets will win the Western Conference again.
19. Erik Spoelstra will move to a front-office role.
20. Andy Enfield will take an NBA assistant role and Mike Brey will replace him at USC.
21. The Sens will miss the playoffs, but by four points or fewer.
22. The Bruins will win the Stanley Cup and will sweep two of the four postseason series.
23. The Arizona Coyotes won’t relocate, but they also won’t lock in their long-term arena situation.
24. A Russian NHL player will be outed as a spy.
25. Burnley will be relegated and Vincent Kompany will switch jobs.
26. The Premier League will penalize Man City 50 points and Chelsea 25. As of next New Year’s, Man City’s relegation odds will still be longer than +100.
27. The U-23 USMNT will play in the bronze medal game at the Paris Olympics but will lose it by three or more goals.
28. AC Milan will win the European NIT and I will make a halfhearted attempt to watch the championship with the staff from the Milanese restaurant in downtown Austin.
29. Barbie will win best picture.
30. Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce will become engaged.
31. There will only be one presidential debate between the Republican and Democratic nominees, but there will be one.
32. There won’t be a single major hurricane in the Atlantic (Category 3 or above), but the New Madrid Seismic Zone will produce an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.5 or greater.
