The College Football Preview Edition

Posted by Nick Verlaney on Sep 4, 2010 in NCAA Football | 4 comments

Recommended song of the week: “The Fire”, The Roots feat. John Legend

Its the most wonderful time of the year everyone. Without further ado, here goes my magic 8 ball look at the 2010 season.

Here are my Top 5 storylines to watch for this College Football Season:

1. The clear choice at #1 for me is the NCAA and their treatment of agents interfering with student-athletes before they are legally allowed to. This will be a hot-button issue all season and most likely for a year or so. The NCAA needs to do their diligence and crack down on this behavior by agents. I like that Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have taken steps to ensure this doesnt happen to another one of their players. Agents need to be regulated.
2. The Big XII breakup will be covered all season, mainly due to the bad-blood matchups that will occur throughout the season. The Nebraska-Texas game will be highly touted as the crown jewel of these games, but there will be other extremely tough challenges before Nebraska and Colorado leave for the Big 10 and Pac 10 respectively. This should be fun to watch.
3. Injuries should always be a storyline to watch. There have already been key injuries this offseason led by reigning Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram. It doesnt matter what team you are, injuries are bound to happen, which leads to the famous phrase a team is only as good as their backups.
4. U$C. The Trojans are clearly in hot water right now. The interesting storyline for me to watch is how they respond to all the adversity that is coming their way over this year and next. They can either fold under pressure or win at such at high level that Pete Carroll and Reggie Bush are nothing but distant memories. No coach in America needs to prove himself like Lane Kiffin does, on and off the field.  5. Boise St. The Broncos need to beat Virginia Tech in week 1 to have any chance of slipping into a National Title game. How good are they? Will Kellen Moore be considered for Heisman? Will they be challenged in a game after week 1? These are all legitimate questions that Boise St needs to answer in a big way if they want to play the winner of the SEC, Big 10(12), or Big 12(10) for the title.

As I have stated before, Im no fan of pre-season rankings for the sole reason that they become a barometer for everyone and dont usually accurately reflect the real time rankings of the top 25 teams in the country. BUT, for this blogs sake, I will set who I think are the best 25 teams in the country. (This is subject to change week by week.)

1. Alabama. (Champs are #1 until somebody beats them).
2. Ohio State
3. Oklahoma
4. Florida
5. Boise St.
6. TCU
7. Virginia Tech
8. Texas
9. Wisconsin
10. Nebraska
11. Iowa
12. Miami FL
13. Oregon
14. Auburn
15. LSU
16. Arkansas
17. U$C
18. Georgia Tech
19. Georgia
20. Penn St.
21. Florida St
22. West Virginia
23. Oregon St.
24. Utah
25. Stanford

With the immense amount of parody in college football, this season will be as wide open as ever. Here are my ridiculous predictions for the 2010 season.

• Alabama loses not once, but twice in the SEC. Injuries and ineligibility problems riddle the defending champs. The SEC West is easily the toughest division in college football.
• The SEC champion is neither Florida or Alabama as Auburn shocks everyone to win the conference.
• The Heisman Trophy goes to Terrell Pryor as the Buckeyes remain undefeated throughout the entire season. He barely edges out Stanford’s Andrew Luck and West Virginia running back Noel Devine.
• Stanford wins the Pac 10, edging out Oregon. Jim Harbaugh wins coach of the year.
• South Florida QB Matt Groethe wins comeback player of the year, as South Florida markedly improves on last years record, but falls short against Cincinnati to win the Big East.
• Parody reigns supreme in the ACC as 7 teams battle it out for the title. Miami and Florida St. play for the title, and Jacory Harris’ gunslinger play wins out 24-21.
• In the last year of the Big XII, the rivalry that made the conference great will send the Big XII out in style as Nebraska and Oklahoma meet for the crown. OU avenges last years loss in Lincoln by edging Nebraska, 12-9. Nebraska and Oklahoma both go to a BCS bowl game with 12-1 records; Nebraska plays Miami in the Orange Bowl and Oklahoma plays Ohio State for the National Championship.
• Ohio State beats Oklahoma by a last second Terrell Pryor scramble touchdown to win the National Title. Pryor announces that he will enter the NFL draft after the game.
• Army finally beats Navy, but Air Force beats them both.
• Boise St and Utah do make a BCS bowl game and play…………each other.
• Michigan wins 5 games again and Rich Rodriguez is fired. Les Miles gets hired to bring in the new era of Michigan football. LSU hires Mike Reily from Oregon State to take over.
  

  Rich Rod couldn't get the job done

• Steve Spurrier goes 7-5 at South Carolina and promptly retires.
• Notre Dame goes 7-5 in year 1 under Brian Kelly. He is quickly placed on the hot seat for not winning a National Championship.
• Jeremiah Masoli leads Ole Miss to an 8-4 record and a bowl win, a year after his career was almost ended. He goes into the draft as a 3rd round pick.

After all of that, here is how I see the polls at the end of the year:

1. Ohio State
2. Nebraska
3. Oklahoma
4. Auburn
5. Iowa
6. Florida
7. Miami
8. TCU
9. Stanford
10. Cincinnati
11. Alabama
12. Oregon
13. Georgia
14. Boise St.
15. Florida St.
16. Wisconsin
17. Utah
18. Virginia Tech
19. Oregon St.
20. Penn St.
21. Houston
22. Texas A&M
23. LSU
24. Georgia Tech
25. West Virginia

What do you think? Comment below! Stay tuned next week for my recap of the biggest stories in sports and my Top 25 Women edition.