It's a glorious time of year for college football fans. The official return of the game we love comes in Week 1 after months of speculation about how the season will play out.

There's been changes galore with movement in the transfer portal to weigh, plus additions from the high school ranks and potential emergence of players already on the roster. Coaches have been on the move, too, with a new face at North Carolina that made his name in the NFL and a familiar one at West Virginia among the hires.

There's also the matter of unpredictability that makes the sport so great. Last year, nobody was thinking about Indiana or SMU as serious College Football Playoff contenders. Yet, the Hoosiers and Mustangs were in the field when and Mississippi, Alabama and South Carolina were all left out on the final day.

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Put this all together and trying to forecast in August how the season will play out over the next three months can be quite the challenge. But the college football experts at USA TODAY Sports are here to give it their best shot. Our predictions for the biggest questions ahead of the season.