http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/rankingsindex

AP Poll came out this morning.
It is pretty similar to the Coaches Poll.
A little less love for Penn State and LSU. A little more love for the Big 12, the state of Utah and Ole Miss.

1. Florida (58) 0-0 1,498
2. Texas (2) 0-0 1,424
3. Oklahoma 0-0 1,370
4. USC 0-0 1,313
5. Alabama 0-0 1,156
6. Ohio State 0-0 1,113
7. Virginia Tech 0-0 1,054
8. Mississippi 0-0 1,047
9. Oklahoma State 0-0 989
9. Penn State 0-0 989
11. LSU 0-0 914
12. California 0-0 746
13. Georgia 0-0 714
14. Boise State 0-0 659
15. Georgia Tech 0-0 593
16. Oregon 0-0 587
17. TCU 0-0 521
18. Florida State 0-0 307
19. Utah 0-0 289
20. Brigham Young 0-0 267
21. North Carolina 0-0 261
22. Iowa 0-0 229
23. Notre Dame 0-0 225
24. Nebraska 0-0 207
25. Kansas 0-0 134
Others Receiving Votes
Oregon State 122, Illinois 105, Pittsburgh 103, Michigan State 100, Rutgers 83, Texas Tech 76, West Virginia 57, Cincinnati 44, Clemson 42, Miami (FL) 40, East Carolina 30, Tennessee 15, Arizona 13, North Carolina State 10, Boston College 9, CENTRAL MICHIGAN 7, Auburn 7, UCLA 7, Northwestern 5, South Florida 3, Southern Miss 3, Vanderbilt 3, Missouri 3, South Carolina 2, Nevada 1, Arkansas 1, Houston 1, TROY 1, Tulsa 1.

Ole Miss will not be as good as expected. Houston Nutt will only let you down in the end. Bama either.

I watched the HBO doc on Wooden and it was truly facinating.

Agreed. It's one thing to sneak up on people and another to have huge expectations. Although, I was just checking their schedule and they get Bama, LSU, Ark, and UT at home.

The toughest road games they face are South Cack and Auburn.

Pretty favorable.

I really can't wait for Florida to choke a game this year. All of the experts expecting them to go wire to wire number one and repeat, despite the fact teams rarely repeat and the Gators have never won a title when starting the year number one.
Tim Tebow's back troubles really brought out some glee in me, but that was all tempered when Nebraska kicked off their back-up running back this weekend.
I wish somebody besides a shitty Sports Center anchor would have been sitting next to Lou Holtz when he predicted Notre Dame to play Florida in the national title game. I would have loved to see some douchebag like Mark May bitch slap him and then cut a promo on his ass.

Sadly, Lou is right. Looking at ND's schedule, they should end up at 9-2. & since it's Notre Dame, that might be enough. Certainly, a one-loss Irish team -- with say that one loss against 'SC -- would get the benefit of the doubt & end up no. 2 in most polling & the BCS aggregate.

That's it, you have to wear the stupid helmet.
A one loss Big 12 team will forever remain ahead of ND, especially if they get lambasted by USC again. Even a one loss Ohio State/Penn State would remain ahead of them. The Irish are sitting at #23 right now. They would need to blow out every team on their schedule besides a close loss to USC and then hope every mid-major ahead of them has a loss and every BCS conference team currently ahead of them has at least two.
If USC happens to slip up in the Pac-10 against either Oregon team or Cal, that diminishes ND's SOS.
9-2 will be enough to get them a BCS game, but touchdown Jesus would have to come down to earth and personally anoint them as a BCS title team to get past everyone ahead of them.

Phil Steele's toughest schedules of 2009

1 South Carolina
2 Florida St
3 Oklahoma
4 Mississippi St
5 Minnesota
6 Arkansas
7 Georgia
8 Virginia Tech
9 Tennessee
10 Michigan St
11 Oregon
12 Miami, Fl
13 Virginia
14 Oklahoma St
15 Auburn
16 Washington
17 USC
18 Baylor
19 Texas Tech
20 Washington St
21 LSU
22 Stanford
23 Vanderbilt
24 Arizona
25 Maryland
26 Kansas
27 Georgia Tech
28 Iowa
29 Michigan
30 Syracuse
31 Missouri
32 Indiana
33 Purdue
34 Florida
35 Nebraska
36 Notre Dame
37 Wake Forest
38 UCLA
39 Ohio St
40 Texas

Other notable Schools
53 Wisconsin
54 Pittsburgh
55 Oregon State
59 West Virginia
62 NC State
68 Alabama
71 BYU
72 Penn State
77 Mississippi

True. But the Vaught really isn't a tough environment. At least not by SEC standards.

That's also because Ole Miss hasn't been good save 3 or 4 seasons in the last 20 years. When Tuberville was there and the years they had Eli, that place was packed and rowdy.

The teams I'm most anxious to learn about in the SEC are UT, Auburn, and Arkansas. I honestly don't really know what to expect from them outside of UT having another great D.

As much as I loathe Bobby Petrino, I know he can do it at the college level and I expect some frustrating wrinkles in their offense this year.

Who the hell knows at Auburn. They could come out with a new sense of direction or they could average 10 points a game and be an utter disaster.

I would disagree. I was there when Eli was a senior and they were playing LSU for the SEC WEST Championship at home in their best season in recent memory. It was just okay. The fans tried hard, but the stadium just sucks and doesn't lend itself to being hostile. Now, the Grove that day was horrible for us. I've been to almost all of the SEC stadiums (Missing Kentucky and South Carolina) and Ole Miss is near the bottom as far as tough places to play. Vandebilt is clearly the easiest place to play as an opposing team.

Petrino scares me too.

As far as UT and Auburn, I think if they win early, they'll be tough. But if things go South, both seasons will be disasters.

Odds for the first week of games:

Boise State -4.5 against Oregon
Notre Dame -14 against Nevada
Oklahoma -22.5 against BYU
Georgia +6 against Oklahoma State
Nebraska -22.5 against Florida Atlantic
Cal -21.5 against Maryland
UCLA -20 against San Diego State
LSU -17 against Washington
Cincinnati +5..5 against Rutgers
Miami +6 against Florida State

If I was a betting man, I'd take BYU and LSU against the spread and Cincinnati to pull the upset. I'd be tempted to take Oregon, Georgia and Nevada.

I don't know. I think the LSU-Wash game has the makings of a closer-than-expected-contest. On the road, Healthy Jake Locker, first game jitters, new coach with no film, etc.

I'd like to see Miami AND Half Ass Yew lose.

God I hope ND loses.

If I knew just a little more about what Nevada has coming back from last years bowl team I might be inclined to bet on that game and take Nevada.



IT'S GAME WEEK MOTHER TRUCKERS!!

http://cfn.scout.com/2/557866.html

College Football News did pre-season bowl projections, but fucked up the BCS games by placing Penn State in two of them. That's why I don't trust them.

As a UW alum, I hope you're right. Like you suggested, this team is somewhat of an unknown with the new coaching staff and completely new systems. They do have 18 starters coming back, but coming from an 0-12 team, that isn't very encouraging. If Locker remains healthy, I think we might surprise a few teams this year. Not likely LSU, though.

I haven't been following SEC football this off season---what does LSU have coming back from last year?

Derris is singlehandedly bringing down the productivity numbers for the state of Georgia this week.

I have been following. Don't watch man. It ain't gonna be pretty.

No Bama v VaTech? Line Fail.

LSU has 7 starters on Offense and 6 on Defense. They have been projected to go 10-2 with losses to Florida and Georgia, and in a battle with Old Miss for the SEC West.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/preview09 ... dictions09

Nebraska receives some love, but nobody predicts them to beat their Big 12 south foe in the title game.

Florida, Boise State and USC pitch a shut out in their conference predictions, while Virginia Tech and Troy dominate their conferences.

Yeah, I was surprised by the Nebraska love... from all the chatter I was hearing online & off was that Kansas would win the North. I think we're better than Kansas, but I'm a little biased...