I just saw this:

"Nearly a dozen other teams have legitimate national title chances, including Southeastern Conference powers Tennessee, Florida and LSU; Michigan, Ohio State and Iowa of the Big Ten Conference; Miami and Virginia Tech of the Atlantic Coast Conference; Texas in the Big 12 Conference; and new Big East Conference member Louisville."

The writer, Aaron Rennie of SportsTicker College Football Editor (http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/news?slug=overview&prov=st&type=lgns), seems to have lost his mind.

He acts as if this is his comprehensive set of teams. But how could he put Miami ahead of two Big 12 teams that certainly have a shot, albeit an outside one, this year: Texas A&M and Oklahoma. I'd even give Georgia and DJ Shockley more credit than Miami.

He also said this:
"While this means games may take up to four hours on any given Saturday - or in Louisville's case, also on Sunday, Thursday and Friday - it certainly will be worth it if the correct calls are made.
Or merely to spend a few extra minutes each week trying to watch Leinart, Bush and the rest of Carroll's Trojans try to make history. "

This guy makes the obvious pick here, and I'm guessing does every season. But to write the other teams off is ludicrous. Lest we forget, SC only beat Stanford by 3 last year, and UCLA by 5... plus the Cal game came down to a late goalline stand, and we all remember the close game that was the Fog Bowl. They also only beat VTech by 11 to start the season. This year they have to travel to the Tempe to play the second best team in the conference (Arizona State), as well as to Oregon and Washington (you know every team will be gunning for them). And Notre Dame games are historically archaic, as anything can happen when you arrive in South Bend (and we haven't seen just how well Weis will make this team yet). Then there's the final week battle with a possible surprise team in UCLA... and Arkansas, which has had a penchant in the past for making Texas' life horrible. And then there's my dream: Hawaii 42, USC 38. We'll just have to see how that one goes.

To write off Texas A&M (with a great core of returning players, including Reggie McNeal) which gave Oklahoma and Texas heck last year, and Oklahoma, a team that has constantly produced top teams in the past 5 years (they have only lost 7 games in the past 5 seasons; remember that after Heupel and 5 defensive players left in 2000, they came one Thanksgiving travesty from returning to the National Championship game). I see that Paul Thompson has been selected as starter, whereas I would have rather seen Bomar line up, giving them a better deep threat and a great young core, but Bob Stoops has made three different quarterbacks into winners, and although OU has some questions, particularly at WR, on the O-line, and in the secondary, they still have the Heisman runner-up in Peterson and Davin Joseph (the second OU CBS Sportsline preseason All American, with Peterson) manning the offensive line, and a strong defensive core including Rufus Alexander and Dusty Dvoracek, who returns after after missing last season.

To put Miami, who lost their starting quarterback and running back to the draft, and not remember to mention TAMU and OU seems a little stunning to me. But we'll get to more of that in our season previews coming up soon!


One final thing. This article: http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/news?slug=citadel-2_429088_184&prov=citadel&type=story Almost humorous that Scout.com let a fan this biased write an article. There's tales of conspiracies abound in this one. Everyone is out to get South Carolina. I'm surprised myself that USC (the other) fell to such mistakes... that Lou Holtz' was involved in this (I didn't realize that this was why he left... that makes me sad, because he really had built a great team, and he really is one of history's greatest coaches)... that Steve Spurrier now will face three years playing from behind before the season even starts, which will slightly weaken the program for probably 4-5 years. Maybe sometimes the NCAA goes one step too far with its rules and punishments (though the punishment here really isn't that harmful). But to say the NCAA is in the back pockets of both Tennessee and Clemson!?! Fans just never cease to amaze me!