Dusting off the crystal ball for another round of annual predictions. Here goes nothing:
Patriots get back to the Super Bowl – Tom Brady’s window for another championship doesn’t have a ton of time left. The Patriots have a pretty clear path through the AFC and a date with Dallas.
Players will skip White House visit – In protest of President Trump, players in several sports will skip the traditional celebratory trip to the White House, igniting considerable controversy and a Twitter war with Donald Trump.
Tony Romo will be the new Jets quarterback – The Cowboys will remain committed to Dak Prescott, and Tony Romo will be throwing passes elsewhere. The Jets, who are more skilled at earning headlines than victories, jump at the chance to pursue a quarterback with a high Q rating.
Romo will miss at least three games with injury.
Chip Kelly to Notre Dame – The NFL experiment crashed and burned for the former Oregon coach. He’ll go back to college and needs a high profile spot. Brian Kelly’s star has been fading in South Bend. Replacing Coach Kelly with Coach Kelly will be a natural move.
Josh McDaniels to the Los Angeles Rams – The Patriots coordinator is almost certainly heading somewhere, and the Rams would give him a true opportunity to build something.
Claude Julien won’t be the coach of the Bruins by the end of the year– Julien has been a terrific coach for the franchise, but after a while even a good coach’s message stops connecting to the same ears. He might not be alone among the purged as the Bruins have made some personnel mistakes that have led to their recent mediocrity.
UCLA wins NCAA title – The Bruins are as complete an offensive team that the sport has seen in quite some time. With so many of the sports banner-carrying programs playing at an elite level this year, it will be a terrific tournament, but when the dust settles, UCLA will be cutting nets down.
The Celtics will trade their first round pick – But it won’t be for DeMarcus Cousins. Some established star will demand a trade and the Celtics will try to speed up their development fast.
David Price will win more games than Chris Sale – Price becomes the latest Boston player to find himself in season No. 2.
Pablo Sandoval has a bounce back season– Easy to forget he was actually a good player before things went awry in Boston.
Alabama over Clemson again – As good as the Tigers played in throttling Ohio State, the Crimson Tide look pretty unstoppable and will capture their second straight title.
UMass makes the NIT – I think the Minutemen are heading for postseason. Getting in the NIT might be a good launching point for 2017-18.
Victor Cruz has a bounce back season for another team in 2017 – The Giants won’t re-sign him, but he’ll land on his feet and reward whomever does sign him with a strong year.
Curt Schilling will insert himself into another controversy – Once enough time passes and he hasn’t gotten enough media attention, Schilling will say something to make himself newsworthy.
UMass women’s lacrosse wins the Atlantic 10 – I’m really just trying to pad my stats a bit here.
Rex Ryan is excellent on TV for one season before being hired as a college coach after the 2017 season – Ryan is exactly what a middling Power Five program needs to take a step forward. He’s still a great defensive mind and his personality would make him a terrific recruiter.
Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage