Mike Bianchi: Peering into the future for pigskin picks.

Finally, we are about to be set free. We are about to be rescued from the athletic abyss of summer.

We are about to be liberated from the tyranny of non-football season.

We can now quit acting like we actually care about Olympic swimmers vandalizing Brazilian bathrooms.

We can cease and desist with our summertime slog through another arduous season of baseball — the only sport where athletes can play 162 games and gain weight.

We can stop pretending like a 0-0 draw on the soccer pitch is something to celebrate.

It’s football season, my fellow helmetheads! It’s that most wonderful time of the year when American sports fans awaken from their six-month hibernation and forage through the forest looking to feed on anything football — high school football, college football, pro football, fantasy football.

You know what means, right? It means it’s time once again for the studio audience to ask questions and seek answers from the “Oracle of Oblong” — better known as the proficient, profound, prophetic Professor Pigskin.

Studio Audience: Professor, we’re a week away from No. 4-ranked FSU

hosting No. 11 Ole Miss at the Campground. Is this going to be the toughest matchup of the year for Ole Miss?

Professor Pigskin: Are you kidding me? Yes, the ultra-talented Seminoles of Florida State will beat Ole Miss on Labor Day in Orlando, but not nearly as badly as the Fighting Investigators from the NCAA will destroy the Rebels at the NCAA Committee on Infractions meeting later in the season.

SA: Among the in-state college teams you follow the most, what is your matchup of the year — FSU vs. Clemson for the ACC Coastal Division championship or Florida vs. Tennessee for the SEC East?

PP: Neither. The most hotly contested matchup of the year will be UCF vs. Houston (and BYU … and Cincinnati … and Memphis … and UConn … and USF … and Colorado State … and San Diego State … and Pinky’s Cosmetology Institute) for entrance into the Big 12.

SA: So does UCF get into the Big 12 or not?

PP: If the conference presidents decide on adding four teams then, yes, UCF will get in. If they only add two teams, then I am starting to have my doubts. If the conference adds no teams, it should change its name from Big 12 to Big Tease.

SA: How do you think Scott Frost will fare in his first year as UCF’s coach?

PP: Everything about Frost’s approach is fast. That’s why I say he choreographs a quick turnaround, leads UCF to a 7-5 record and a bowl win in his first season and the Knights celebrate as they always do — by raising the studentathletic fee by another $2 a semester hour.

SA: What about Jim McElwain in his second season with the Florida Gators?

PP: I foresee Luke Del Rio being a serviceable quarterback, which is all McElwain needs to improve an offense that was ranked 111th in the country last year with Treon Harris at QB. The Gators don’t have to be great on offense this season; they just have to be not terrible. With apologies to Al Davis, UF’s offensive mantra should be: “Just finish in the top 75 in the country, baby!”

The Gators will win 10 games but lose out on a return trip to Atlanta when Tennessee beats them for the first time in a dozen years. SA: What about FSU? PP: The bad news: The Seminoles will lose again to Clemson. The good news, they’ll run the table in the rest of their games and join Clemson, Oklahoma and Tennessee in the College Football Playoff. And in the championship game in Tampa, Heisman Trophy winner Dalvin Cook will run for 298 yards as the Seminoles rout Tennessee and send Jimbo Fisher off to his new job as the head coach of the Los Angeles Rams with a second national title.

SA: Are you insane? Jimbo’s not going to the NFL! Your predictions are farcical. Didn’t you pick Auburn to win the national title last year? You’re an idiot!

PP: How dare you insult the proficient and profound Professor Piggy. As my revered grandfather, the great Carnac the Magnificent, once said: “May a diseased yak have an accident on your toupee.”

SA: What about the three miserable NFL teams in Florida — the Bucs, Jags and Dolphins: Is this the season one of them finally breaks through and makes the playoffs?

PP: Yes! The Bucs will be slightly better and the Dolphins will be moderately better, but the Jaguars will be monumentally better. In fact, I am predicting our homeboy, Blake Bortles, will lead the Jaguars to a division championship and a 12-4 record, but they will lose to the Bengals in the AFC Championship game.

SA: And who wins the Super Bowl?

PP: The Washington Native-Americans will beat the Bengals 34-31 and Jay Gruden will become the first professional coach in history to ever win an Arena Bowl and a Super Bowl.

SA: Last thing, Professor Piggy. Will you give your Rodney Dangerfield publicservice announcement as you do every year?

PP: Absolutely. This is for all you fans out there: As you’re tailgating this season, don’t overindulge, don’t get too inebriated and don’t drink and drive. Remember the words of Rodney, who, before he died, posed for the cover of the Sentinel football special section.

“I drink way too much,” Rodney told us. “The last time I gave a urine sample, it had an olive in it.”