Here we are at the start of the 2010 Collegiate Football season. Realignment of conferences and rumors of realignments, bust ups and dust ups abounded during the off season. Changes have been made but will not take effect quite yet. Still some teams will be playing their final year in their current conference and may be 1) picked upon by their PO’d conference members or 2) looking to prove how much better they are than their conference members. Either way, it could prove interesting for Nebraska and Boise State.
The Preseason Top 25 Polls are out as well and there’s some interesting things happening there too. So, without any further ado or commentary, I present the “experts’ opinion” as to who should be considered the elite teams here in the early going.
The three polls are the AP Top 25, the Coaches Poll, and the CBSSports.com. If a team is not listed in one or more of the three, I indicate such with an “NR” for “Not Ranked.” I also provide this week’s opponent for each of the ranked teams.
Getting onto this list is usually more difficult than getting into a White House reception without an invite, but this week, the folks at CBSSports must have been looking at unicorns or something. Just look at the number of teams they list in the Top 25 that neither the AP nor the Coaches polls have there. And then the CBSSports guys leave Oklahoma off altogether despite the #7 and #8 ranking by the AP and Coaches? Instead they’ve got Cincinnati up there while the other two do not even put the Bearcats in the Top 25.
Oh well. Once the whistles blows on Thursday night things will get considerably clearer I’m sure. Especially since everyone on the list is playing this weekend. Yeah, a lot of the games are the typical mismatches one usually finds in the first and second week of the season--games that will pad the win column of the teams that are looking toward that high ranking, but there are always the surprises and the upsets. And there are a few games that look to be really competitive (Boise State @ Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh @ Utah, and LSU @ North Carolina, for example) that make you believe the schedule maker fell asleep at the wheel.
1/1/1 Alabama The Tide will host San Jose State on Saturday night.
2/2/5 Ohio State The Buckeyes play host to Marshall on Thursday.
3/5/2 Boise State The Broncos travel to #10 Virginia Tech on Monday night.
4/3/3 Florida The Gators will host Miami (Ohio) on Saturday.
5/4/4 Texas The Longhorns will play at Rice Saturday afternoon.
6/7/6 TCU The Horned frogs host #24 Oregon State Saturday night.
7/8/NR Oklahoma The Sooners will host Utah State Saturday night.
8/9/16 Nebraska The Cornhuskers will host Western Kentucky Saturday night.
9/10/8 Iowa The Hawkeyes will host Eastern Illinois on Saturday afternoon.
10/6/11 Virginia Tech The Hokies will host Boise State on Monday night.
11/11/12 Oregon The Ducks host New Mexico on Saturday.
12/12/14 Wisconsin The Badgers play at UNLV late Saturday night.
13/13/17 Miami (Fla.) The Hurricane will host Florida A & M Thursday.
14/NR/21 Southern California The Trojans travel to Hawaii for a Thursday night game.
15/15/15 Pittsburgh The Panthers will travel west to face Utah Thursday night.
16/17/13 Georgia Tech The Yellow Jackets play host to South Carolina State on Saturday.
17/19/NR Arkansas The Razorbacks host Tennessee Tech Saturday night.
18/18/NR North Carolina The Tarheels will host #21 LSU Saturday night.
19/14/9 Penn State The Nittany Lions host Youngstown State on Saturday.
20/20/NR Florida State The Seminoles will host Samford on Saturday.
21/16/18 LSU The Tigers will play at #18 North Carolina Saturday night.
22/23/NR Auburn The Tigers will host Arkansas State Saturday night.
23/21/NR Georgia The Bulldogs host La.-Lafayette Saturday afternoon.
24/22/NR Oregon State The Beavers will be playing at #6 TCU Saturday night.
25/24/NR West Virginia The Mountaineers will host Coastal Carolina Saturday.
NR/24/19 Utah The Utes host the #15 Pitt Panthers Thursday.
NR/NR/7 Cincinnati The Bearcats will play at Fresno State late Saturday night.
NR/NR/10 Brigham Young The Cougars will host Washington on Saturday night.
NR/NR/20 Central Michigan The Chippewas will host Hampton on Thursday night.
NR/NR/22 Texas Tech The Red Raiders will host SMU Sunday afternoon.
NR/NR/23 Clemson The Tigers will host North Texas on Saturday afternoon.
NR/NR/24 Mississippi The Rebels will host Jacksonville State on Saturday.
NR/NR/25 Navy The Midshipmen play at Maryland on Monday afternoon.
The above list should get shorter as the season progresses. Why CBS Sports has such a divergence from the other two.... It's a mystery to me!
My Rutgers Scarlet Knight will be playing host to Norfolk State on Thursday night.
Let the games begin!
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