The 2022 College Football season kicks off in 17 long agonizing days on August 27, aka Week Zero. The staff writers here at Gamecock Scoop are going on record to give you our best guesses as to what the 2022 season holds. Below, we are revealing our picks for Shane Beamer's second season in Columbia, our projected SEC standings, and a brief overview of how we see things shaking out nationally.

We tallied the individual ballots from GC Scoop publisher Caleb Alexander, GC Scoop beat writer Alan Cole, the guy we keep locked in a film vault, staff writer Perry McCarty, and social media challenged staff writer Stephen Anderson, and formed the Gamecock Scoop aggregate final standings below.

We plan on also giving you our weekly picks once the season starts. Obviously, injuries and other factors that always unfold during the course of a season can alter the outlook for these games. Below, we've given you our predictions as we enter this second week of August.

Perry, being the overachiever that he is, even provided some generalized thoughts as to his 9-3 prediction.

South Carolina will be much improved this year, but the schedule is still daunting.

Georgia State, Charlotte, and SC State should be easy wins. South Carolina has too much talent all over the field and will dominate at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball.

On the road against Arkansas will be a difficult challenge. It is a winnable game, but playing in that rowdy environment may be too big of an obstacle to overcome early in the season.

As long as Carolina puts forth a solid showing at Arkansas, the home crowd environment the following week against Georgia will be electric. Georgia had one of the best all-time defenses in college football last year, maybe even the best all-time. That won’t be the case this year. They will be good, but not at the level they were.

Kentucky will be on par with last year’s team, or if anything will take a step back after losing their offensive coordinator to the NFL.

South Carolina has not matched up well with Texas A&M and I do not think that will change this year. The talent gap has decreased, but TAMU’s power run game has given Carolina fits.

Missouri will probably take a step back from last year. They manhandled Carolina in the trenches, but I have a hard time envisioning that happening again.

Vandy will be the worst team in the SEC.

Florida has talent but will be in year 1 of a new regime and they are still trying to figure out what they do best.

Tennessee’s offense takes advantage of lesser talented teams, but South Carolina should be well prepared this year.

For the first time in years, Clemson will be a winnable game. In fact, I would not be surprised if Carolina won this year, but until proven otherwise, I have to give Clemson the nod.

All four of us agree that Alabama is going to win the National Championship for the seventh time in Nick Saban's tenure.

We also took a stab at predicting the remaining New Year's Six Bowls. This season the Fiesta Bowl and Peach Bowl will serve as College Football Playoff semifinal games. The National Championship is being held at Sofi Stadium in Los Angeles.

Caleb rounded out his NY6 Bowls:

Sugar: Texas A&M vs. Oklahoma State

Rose: Ohio State vs. Utah

Cotton: Notre Dame vs. Cincinnati

Orange: Wisconsin vs. Clemson

Alan's NY6:

Sugar: Oklahoma v. Kentucky

Rose: Oregon vs. Michigan

Cotton: Notre Dame vs. Baylor

Orange: Clemson vs. Coastal Carolina

Perry's NY6:

Sugar: Texas A&M v. Oklahoma State

Rose: Oregon vs. Michigan

Cotton: Arkansas vs. Cincinnati

Orange: NC State vs. South Carolina (sign me up)

Stephen's NY6:

Sugar: Arkansas vs. Oklahoma State

Rose: Southern Cal vs. Wisconsin

Cotton: Oregon vs. Oklahoma

Orange: Houston vs. Michigan

While your mileage on the prestigiousness of this award may vary, it is still the most recognizable award bestowed upon an individual athlete in American sports. The award generally goes to the best quarterback on the best team. Three of the four GC Scoop staff members feel that continues this year and that Bryce Young will join Archie Griffin as the only two-time winner. Alan also thinks this year's award is going to be historical but for a different reason. The last defensive player to hoist the Heisman was Charles Woodson in 1997. Mr. Cole says the voters actually award the trophy to the game's best player, Alabama linebacker Will Anderson Jr.

Where did we get it all wrong? Think you can do better than us? Let's hear your preseason takes and picks on the Insider's Forum. Don't have a premium subscription? Now is a great time to join with live football less than a month away!