A Look around the country

National Preview:

ACC:
The theme at the beginning of the 2010 season for the ACC will be welcoming the new.
Jimbo Fisher is the new head coach at Florida State. He is charged with returning the ‘Noles to the level of national importance they seemed to own during the 90’s under Bobby Bowden.
There are new expectations at North Carolina. Butch Davis has the Tar Heals garnering some National attention with a defense that will feature multiple first round NFL draft picks and an offense that can’t possibly be as bad as they were last year.
There is a new defensive coordinator at Georgia Tech. Despite winning the ACC last year, Paul Johnson was not happy with his defense, so he brought in Al Groh to be his new coordinator. Early prediction: Al Groh will be the best thing to happen to Georgia Tech since Reggie Ball graduated.
At the end of the season however, it will be all about the old. The same old teams will be in contention in ACC. It is quite possible that the four best teams in this league all play in the same division. Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Miami, and North Carolina will have fun beating each other’s brains in throughout the year, and by rule, one of these teams will make it to Jacksonville (or whatever parking lot they are having the ACC title game in this year). My pick is Virginia Tech. I feel sorry for Frank Beamer. His team could compete for a national title, but the schedule is just too tough. Virginia Tech will have to settle for beating the crap out of one of the also-rans in the ACC Atlantic Division, I’ll take Florida State for no reason what-so-ever.

Big 10:
The Big 11 as it stands now and the future Big 12, which for some unknown reason will still be called the Big 10 next year, will enter its final season before big changes come to this numerical oddity of a conference. The only conference I hate more than the ACC is the Big 10. However, they may be able to manage some decent football this year.
Ohio State is clearly the favorite, but Wisconsin and Iowa should both have a say. Penn State is probably good for an upset of one of the Big 3 at the top of the conference, and Michigan will be looking to hire another coach very soon. Luckily for them, Les Miles will probably be available after this season.
At the end of the day it breaks down like this. If Ohio State loses a game, they better hope there isn’t a 1 or 2 loss SEC Champion out there because they might be settling for Roses rather than playing for crystal come January.

Big 12:
The Big 12, which will be the Big 10 after this season (no word yet if they will have a name that make sense in 2011) will once again come down to Texas and Oklahoma.
Texas flirted with every other conference in America during the summer, but it is still the best team in this conference.
If you are looking for a team that is going to come out of nowhere, keep looking past Texas A&M. All the national guys are picking A&M to be a contender this season, which means they aren’t coming out of nowhere. Besides, we have heard this song before in the Big 12. Remember Oklahoma State last year? They were better, but they still couldn’t crack the Texas/Oklahoma strangle hold on this conference.
Honestly, the thing I’m looking forward to the most in the Big 12 is to see how Tommy Tuberville does at Texas Tech.

Big East:
Do they still play football?

PAC 10:
Top to bottom the Pac 10 should be the second best conference in America this season. Defending champion Oregon should be favorite again, and they should be getting a lot of national attention.
However, there is that semi-pro team that plays in Los Angeles that seems to be making the news a bit these days. USC can’t go to a bowl game this year, they have a coach that would be the National Champion of BS if such a thing existed, and still they will be the center of the Pac 10 universe.
Even if they win the conference the number 2 team would play in the Rose Bowl, so unless they are playing one of the actual contenders in this conference, or unless I want to make fun of them, this blog will be a USC-free zone for the next two seasons.
Arizona, Washington, Stanford, and Oregon State should all have a say in the Pac 10 this year, but at the end of the day, the Ducks might be a national title contender.

Notre Dame:
Notre Dame and A-TRAK’s have two things in common: they were both great in the 70’s and neither are coming back.
Good luck Chip Kelly. In four years you will be able to join Bob Davie, Ty Willingham, and Charlie Weis in the group of men who couldn’t resurrect this buzzard of a program.
Prediction for the Future: The top two candidates for the Notre Dame heading coaching job in 2014 will be Urban Meyer and Pete Carroll.

In all seriousness, there are a handful of teams that could play for the National title in January. Although I won’t give you a Top 10 or Top 25 until these teams play a few games, here are my contenders, pretenders, and programs to keep an eye on.

Contenders:
Alabama
Ohio State
Texas
Oklahoma
Florida
Virginia Tech
Oregon
Iowa
Miami
Pretenders:
Boise State
TCU
BYU
North Carolina
Nebraska

Keep an Eye On:
Georgia
Arizona
Washington
Texas Tech
Clemson
Auburn

Close Both Eyes and run away:
Teams from Mississippi
Teams from Michigan
Teams from Los Angeles
The Big East

Tomorrow: SEC Preview!