I was looking at my calendar earlier this week and I occurred to me that we are only less than a week away from the beginning of the season.  I have been putting off my preview for a couple of weeks, but there were three angry looks from my loyal readers across the dinner table.  So to appease everyone here is my preview.

 On with the Extravaganza

Big Ten

The best in the Big Ten no question is the Buckeyes from An Ohio State University and they are my prediction for the Big Ten conference champions.  With a great offense and an absolutely loaded defense, they could be looking at a potential third straight National Championship bid. The Bucks will have a large chip on their shoulder after being spanked twice by SEC teams and will very good this year.

 

The team to watch will be the Wisconsin Badgers who have been steadily improving ever since Bret Bielma took over for Barry Alvarez.  They have the potential to challenge the Bucks for the Big Ten title and a chance at a BCS bid.

 

Player to see at least once is the great RB Chris “Beanie” Wells who is a front-runner for the Heisman and could provide a great compliment to the good passing game of Todd Boeckman.  He will be a lot of fun to watch.

 

Big East
The team that will win will be the West Virginia Mountaineers under first year head coach Bill Stewart.  They run the option so well, that teams have difficulty defending it, and now the Stewart says QB Pat White will be throwing the ball much more.  Now teams will have to respect White’s arm as well as his legs with great RB Noel Devine they could be a potential national title contender.

 

A team to watch will be South Florida who will be an excellent team and potentially be undefeated going into their game with West Virginia.  They made improvements last year and will continue to build on that success. 

Player to watch will be South Florida DE George Selvie along with West Virginia QB Pat White.  Both players a freakishly athletic and can make plays at will.  When they line up opposite each other on that Saturday in Morgantown, look for some fireworks.

ACC
My pick to win the ACC goes against what all the experts are saying, I am taking Wake Forest to win a down ACC.  Clemson seems to be the trendy pick, but with senior QB Riley Skinned running the show at Wake, he has the potential to bounce back from a bad year last year and return to his excellent play from two years ago.  Wake looks poised and I think they can prove a lot of people wrong.

The team to watch is Clemson because they are going to be a great running team with their two-headed monster in CJ Spiller and James Davis, who could re-kindle thoughts of the old thunder and lightning combination that USC used a few years ago.  Especially in a game of attrition they will be able to run all over teams when the have two semi-fresh backs late in the game.

Players to watch are the two I mentioned before, the RB’s Spiller and Davis simply because both of them are so good.  In football you have to be able to run the ball, and these two will probably do it better than anyone else in college football, outside of USC.

 Big 12
The conference champions will be the Oklahoma Sooners and the improved Sophomore QB Same Bradford.  Oklahoma was excellent last year and with Bradford learning more of the system in the off-season, he will be a much more polished passer.  I doubt he will come near the TD total he put up last year at 36, but he will come close and that will be good enough to win the Big 12.  Mizzou has the potential to win it but I think Oklahoma is just to good.

The team to watch will be Texas Tech for two words and one letter… Run n Gun.  This team could set records and will be the most entertaining team to watch in all of college football because they rack up points and yards.  The combination of Graham Harell and Michael Crabtree will be the most interesting QB to WR tandem and make for great television.  A great offense but will fall just short of a BCS bid.

 A player to see once is Michael Crabtree, Texas Tech WR because he is probably the best athlete in all of college football.  With his combined speed, jumping and ability to catch the ball will make him a head ache for every corner who tries to line up against him.  He set records as a freshman as has the potential to set a few more.

Pac 10
There is a simple answer for the question of who will win the Pac 10 and it begins and ends with USC.  They have 5 star recruits sitting at third and fourth on their depth chart.  These are players who would start on most college teams and even a few NFL teams.  Their defense is amazing, and quarterback Mark Sanchez has the potential to build on some solid performances from last year.  This team is scary good.

A team to watch will be UCLA under new head coach Rick Neuheisel.  There will be some growing pains as there always is when a new system is installed and a new team philosophy is used, but the fact that UCLA has a good coach leading them could lead to a great end of the season.  The first few weeks, they will struggle, but when they start to get rolling, this team could be dangerous.

There are two players to watch in this conference, USC LB Rey Maualuga and Washington QB Jake Locker.  Maualuga is just a freak of nature and will be an excellent LB at the next level.  Not many LB have to potential to make big plays everytime the ball is snapped.  Maualuga will be the only thing going through opposing QB’s heads when teams play USC, both figuratively and literally.

Locker is an interesting player because he possesses all the talent of Florida’s Tim Tebow, but doesn’t get as much coverage.  I know he doesn’t because he plays on a bad team, but if Washington is playing an early game on the east coast, you may want to check out how good he is.

 

Finally, the SEC
This is probably the strongest conference in the college game.  There are two teams potentially who could win it and the winner of the head-to-head game in Jacksonville will determine the winner of the conference.  I think Florida will win it only because Georgia’s schedule is absolutely brutal.  Every game of theirs is tough after week 3 of the season except for Vandy.  I believe that Georgia will be competitive but will not win the SEC

One team to watch is Georgia simply because of the talent that they have on both sides of the football.  They have an excellent QB in Matthew Stafford, a killer RB with Knowshon Moreno and a very scary defense.  This team has the potential of getting to the BCS Title game as long as they can get by their murder schedule.  I think they have a shot at winning if they do two things. One is stay healthy, but that goes for every team.  The other is keeping their player from going Pac-Man Jones in local scrip clubs.

One player to watch aside from Tim Tebow is going to be the person I mentioned before.  Georgia RB Knowshon Moreno is built in the mold of home run hitter, similar to Darren McFadden who can take the ball to the house any time he touches it, but he can also be the every down back that run between the tackles.  He will be one person to keep your eye on every week.

 So there are my conference picks, let me know what you think.

Tuesday, the EXTRAVAGANZA continues with my selections for Heisman