Thought I’d start this off while everybody still has an unblemished record, and a shot at the BCS and NC…
My California Golden Bears are #9/#12, and the thin air up here has me giddy. Personally, I think we’re overrated.
The cool thing, though, is that I’m taking the ultimate college road trip, and going to the opening game 9/2 against Tennessee. It should be awesome, to experience College Game Day in an environment that **really ** cares about its football. I can’t wait.
Michigan Wolverine checking in. I don’t like our chances against Notre Dame, especially since we invariably lose an early road game every season.
I’m hoping to make it to Columbus for the big game in November. I think (read: hope) that Ohio State’s defense will be vulnerable this year. Everybody keeps saying they’ve reloaded, but there’s no replacing guys like Hawk, Carpenter and Schlegel (sp?) at LB.
There seems to be no clear frontrunner to win it all this year, IMHO. If I had to choose, I’d probably pick the Irish. I can’t think of any other school that matches their experience on defense and the key offensive spots. Not that their D was anything to write home about last year, but expereience counts for a lot at any level of play.
Texas - Vince Young last year, unproven QB this year. That’s a big swing.
USC - Ditto the QB thing, plus they lost arguably the two best RBs in the nation.
So, if I’m gonna try to be objective about it, I think the hierarchy goes:
I admit I don’t know much at all about the rest of the contenders to comment.
Now, allowing an element of bias to influence my picks, I’ll go with:
You’ll have a good time in Knoxville. It’s very easy to find a place to tailgate, and you definitely want to get in place as early as possible. I go to almost every UGA game (home or away) throughout the season, so I think we have the very best gameday atmosphere. However, it can be a bit more difficult to find a great tailgating spot in Athens. We work hard at getting set up on Saturdays.
As an SEC fan, I would recommend home games at Ole Miss (the Grove is absolutely unreal), LSU (ditto Red Stick), Auburn, and Alabama in addition to the two schools already mentioned. Those 6 are really the best of the best.
Get there Thursday.
ToS – does Michigan play Notre Dame this year (as usual)?
Swan – nice to hear you speak well of Knoxville; the Tennessee fans I’ve “met” on the message boards don’t speak as well of you, sorry to say. 
I doubt I’ll get much chance to tailgate – we’re flying in on Friday (leaving California at o-dark-100) and spending most of our time with fellow Cal alums.
Of course they don’t - we can claim 5 of the last 6. Most UGA fans wouldn’t speak well of UT either. I just happen to be a little more rational than 99% of internet football fans (most of the time).
Seriously, there is way too much hyperbole on the interenet. One fan will tell you 100 horror stories about their trip to Sanford, while another has just as many bad stories about Neyland.
One thing there is very little dispute about: Neyland Stadium is one of the single most uncomfortable stadiums in the US. They re-numbered the seats about a decade ago in an attempt to fit more people into the stands. Many UT fans would even agree.
Bama girl checking in here. My favorite times were when my brother had an apartment across from Bryant Denney Stadium and we could sit on the balcony and drink and watch everyone file into the stadium, pass ribs back and forth with other balcony people and tailgaters and go in 20 minutes before kick off.
I will be front and center in my living room, cold beer in hand and football jersey on, on Sept. 2.
I’m not even going to go into rankings. I wouldn’t expect many Bama fans to at this point. Now I’m sad. Beer me!
That’s an imaginative solution…don’t add seats, just renumber. :rolleyes:
Oh boy…looking forward to squeezing my middle-aged butt in with 107,000 humidity-oppressed fans.
Yep. I’m ready for it.
Got fresh batteries in the remote so I can change channels as soon as it comes on.
Thanks for stopping by. We really appreciate your useless input.
Yeah. In South Bend. 
It looks like that Cal-Tennessee game is the only interesting one on the first Saturday. At least it’s a later game on ESPN, so I’ll get to see it. I really wish they wouldn’t move the FSU-Miami game to Monday night on the first weekend.
At least Week 2 is going to be very interesting with Ohio State-Texas and Penn State-Notre Dame.
I think my favorite part of the season is when the SEC powerhouses start facing off in night games. Always makes for a great atmosphere.
Clothahump, did you mean so that you can change to ABC or ESPN once the games start?
Fear the thumb! 
It’s supposed to be another great year for Auburn. I’m worried about the season opener with Washington State. My Tigers haven’t done too well in season openers lately, and WSU should be a capable opponent.
The other big worry I see for this season is Georgia. The game’s being played in Auburn and for some odd reason, the visitor wins this game about 70% of the time.
WAR EAGLE! Lets kick 'er off!
I knew I heard the cry. Back atcha!
WAR EAGLE!
All I can say is it’s going to be a strange season at UT this year. I’m not seeing back to back titles.
You’re referring to Texas?
I am quite happy that the idiots on ESPN and so forth are spreading the gospel about how Texas can’t repeat because Vince Young is gone. When Vince was at Texas the chatter was that he couldn’t throw, made mistakes, etc. It wasn’t until the last game of his career that people outside of Austin realized what a magical player he was.
The truth of the matter is that Texas has every single piece of a team that played only two close games the entire season - sans Young. We have incredible depth at RB and a fleet of receivers. I guarantee Jamaal Charles will be a household name by season’s end. Both lines are potentially in the running for the best in the nation. Colt McCoy looks solid at QB, and as long as he understands that his job isn’t to go out and beat teams by himself, we’ll be just fine. Count on it.
Yeah, I’ll be down in Texas for OU and the subsequent thrashing of Baylor the next week.
The biggest story will likely be how disappointing Notre Dame and USC are going to be. Notre Dame has a good offense but that defense couldn’t stop anybody - Michigan State, anyone? Plus they have a pretty unreal schedule. USC squeaked by in several games and if not for a heroic Bush run they were more or less done - Fresno State, Oregon, and Arizona State were all close games until Bush broke out. With Leinhart, Bush, and White gone, they’ve only got Jarratt and a seriously suspect defense.
I think an SEC team is going to rise up and make noise this year. Could be Georgia. They always run into a conference buzz saw and it’s probably time they got over the hump - kind of like how once Texas was able to beat o.u., a whole new world of possibility existed.
Can’t wait to see t.O.S.U. come to Austin on 9/9, experience that ridiculous heat, and realize our defense practiced for four years against Vince Young. They’ll be ready for Troy Smith. I guarantee the backfield will briing the production in that game, but I see the 'Horns handling business without Vince Young or Limas Sweed heroics… the Texas defense will make it really difficult for the Bucks to put points on the board.
College Game Day had you as the consensus pick to win the Big XII, so it can’t be all bad.
Lee Corso picked my Bears as National Champions…which can only mean (a) it’s time he retired or (b) The End Times are upon us.
John Carter – Wazzoo is getting some buzz as a potential player in the Pac-10. I’ll be watching your game with interest, as they say.
Seriously, I get nervous when the College Game Day crew mention Texas positively. And Corso proves exactly why these guys are a waste of time. I admit to not following Pac-10 football as well as a lot of the other conferences (deleted snarky comment here). But can Cal beat even a diminished USC team?
I would love to find some decent college ball commentators on the tube. I like the Fox Sports Southwest crew, probably because they have Brian Jones, a buddy of mine and unabashed homer for the 'Horns. I like John Saunders, but he mainly just anchors. Fowler, Corso, May, and Herbstreit suck. I loved watching Herbstreit after the Texas-Ohio State game last year. He looked physically ill.
Let’s review recent history…2003 - 2005, SC was co-champs, champs, runner-ups. In that span Cal beat USC (2003), came *that *close (and outplayed SC statistically) (2004), and got blown out (2005). Yeah, I think it’s possible for the Bears to beat SC.
You wish.
I was shocked as anyone to see the Buckeyes rated #1 after losing all the LBs and the DBs. The offense has the potential to be pretty powerful.
We have Penn State and Michigan at home but Texas and Iowa on the road. Should at least be an interesting season.
As far as OSU-Michigan, I would hate for a blowout that gets Lloyd Carr fired. Jimmy Tressel seems to have his number.
I really should get off my butt and pony up to the alumni association for tix. But then I would have to trade in the Eagles tix to pay for it.
As I always have, I’ll be pulling for West Virginia University this year though my alma-mater is University of Kentucky which is rarely a threat to other teams in SEC football.
Pre-season polls hardly ever gauge WVU’s talent. This year, I think the Mountaineers are over-rated though I hope to be wrong. One analyst at CBS Sportline has them at #2 right now while the ESPN/coaches poll has them at #5. Georgia ran the ball at will for the last three quarters of the Sugar Bowl last season, but the Bulldogs were unable to overcome the early WVU lead. The Mountaineers did not improve enough this year to really stop the run against powerhouse teams; their offense will be inconsistent as usual.
With the watered-down schedule, I predict WVU to go undefeated for the regular season and then get pounded in a major bowl possibly in a nat’l championship game.
As for Kentucky, I think they will improve this year and eke out 4 or 5 wins.
I don’t really know enough about most other teams to make predictions, but for the heck of it…I’ll pick USC to be my pre-season choice for nat’l champion.
I think it was last season when he picked WVU pre-season to be national champs. :smack: