Does each BCS conference have a legitimate BCS contender? Are there legit championship contenders in the non-BCS conferences like the Mountain West and the Western Athletic Conference?
Though they are the cream of the crop in the Big East, Dion Lewis and Pittsburgh are not legit contenders in the BCS conference and though Oregon is the class of the Pac-10, and likely to stay ranked in or around the top 10 all year because they will win most of their games, I don't think the Ducks are a legit contender.
The MWC and the WAC clearly have one legit BCS buster and those are TCU and Boise State, respectively.
Conference USA has a dangerous team in Houston. They are nearly ranked (a good pre-season spot for them) and if they get past UCLA in week three, they'll be ranked...
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ACC
Atlantic
1. Florida State
2. Boston College
3. Clemson
4. North Carolina State
5. Wake Forest
6. Maryland
Coastal
1. Georgia Tech
2. Virginia Tech
3. North Carolina
4. Miami
5. Duke
6. Virginia
The champ will come out of the Coastal side. The four best teams are there, and I think it will be a battle. Virginia Tech is the better team on paper right now, but I'm going to give Paul Johnson, Josh Nesbitt and the Rambling Wreck the edge for one more year. The ACC should be pretty entertaining in terms of teams beating each other all year long. A Florida State resurgence should take the other side of the division pretty easily.
Big 12
North
1. Nebraska
2. Missouri
3. Kansas
4. Colorado
5. Kansas State
6. Colorado State
South
1. Oklahoma
2. Texas
3. Texas Tech
4. Texas A&M
5. Oklahoma State
6. Baylor
Same old song and dance. The winner of the Red River Shootout wins the South and probably goes to the National Title game. Nebraska will pose much more of a threat this year.
Big East
1. Pittsburgh
2. West Virginia
3. Cincinnati
4. Rutgers
5. Connecticut
6. South Florida
7. Louisville
8. Syracuse
Pittsburgh should win this conference pretty easily. Of course, the Backyard Brawl will be the biggest game and probably one that decides who goes to the Sugar Bowl. Cincinnati will be decent just based on what's left, while the rest of the conference is a mess.
Big Ten
1. Ohio State
2. Iowa
3. Wisconsin
4. Penn State
5. Michigan State
6. Purdue
7. Northwestern
8. Illinois
9. Michigan
10. Minnesota
11. Indiana
It's Ohio State and everyone else. An early showdown at home with Miami will be a good indicator. It's hard to go against Iowa, but maybe last year was a charmed season. Wisconsin and Penn State will be tough. Five through nine could go in any order. I think it will be another long year for Michigan and then Rich Rodriguez is gone.
Pac-10
1. Oregon
2. USC
3. Oregon State
4. California
5. Washington
6. UCLA
7. Stanford
8. Arizona
9. Arizona State
10. Washington State
Sorry, you're going to have to forgive me, I'm not drinking the Arizona Kool-Aid. They lost seven starters on defense, so that's enough for me. Every other team in the conference returns a lot of starters on both sides of the ball. The team to watch out for is Washington (17 total starters back) but we'll see if they can handle being hyped, and if Jake Locker is for real. I think it could be very easy for USC to lay down and finish in the bottom five or six. I also think Cal could finish as high as third, or as low as eighth. I like Shane Vereen. I think we're going to see just how much Toby Gerhardt meant to Stanford. They have 15 starters back, but lost the best player in the country, in my opinion. Oregon State will be fiesty as usual, and this is a big year for UCLA. If they're going to make a move, this is the year.
SEC
West
1. Alabama
2. LSU
3. Arkansas
4. Auburn
5. Mississippi
6. Mississippi State
East
1. Florida
2. Georgia
3. South Carolina
4. Tennessee
5. Kentucky
6. Vanderbilt
If Florida and Alabama weren't in this conference, it would be a wild time. Everyone beating everyone and it would be super competitive, blah, blah, blah... But, Florida will crush teams by 40 points week in and week out and Bama will wear down the will of their opponents. They clearly, clearly outclass the rest of this conference. The winner of the SEC title game plays for the National Title barring anything unforeseen.
NON-BCS
Boise State, if they beat Virginia Tech in week one, will not lose, and will win the WAC easily. TCU is the clear cut favorite in the MWC, but even though BYU and Utah are a little down, don't count them out. They are good, good football teams. Houston has a chance to make noise because they should easily win C-USA, and they have games against UCLA and Texas Tech to prove they are real. Notre Dame will go 6-6. Nobody else is worth talking about.
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