In no particular order, these are the five best games that will have the biggest impact on the National Championship, BCS and provide conference bragging rights:

• September 15 – USC at Nebraska: Last year Nebraska’s potent offense was deflated quickly against a swarming Trojan defense. Both units figure to be better again this year and transfer QB Sam Keller knows the Trojans. In a weak Big 12 a huge out of conference victory and clean conference slate could easily spring board the Huskers to the National Championship. Conversely, this game would just be another line on an already impressive USC resume.
• September 8 – Virginia Tech at LSU: The Tigers traveled to Blacksburg in their 2002 opener and were sent home 26-8 losers. This game pits two teams who lack star quality at the quarterback position with fast, athletic and hard hitting defenses. The ACC really needs a Hokie win to bring back some legitimacy to the conference. Both the Hokies and Tigers need a win to stay alive in the National Championship hunt with brutal conference schedules.
• September 1 – Tennessee at California: Last year California got beat like Tommy Lee’s drum. Can California get out of the gate fast and return the favor?
• September 8 – Miami at Oklahoma: Both have something to prove. Oklahoma after losing to Boise State and Miami and (former defensive coordinator \ new head coach) Randy Shannon after going 7-6 last year. Both teams have a slew of talent and great defenses and it should be a great game.
• September 8 – TCU at Texas: If the Horned Frogs can pull this one out a BCS bowl is showing up in the crystal ball.

It seems like the NCAA has proposed to scrap most of the new clock rules put into place last season.  Thank God.  I didn’t like these rules because they shortened the length of the game, by taking away plays and not bantha fodder (eg sell your soul to the Big Ten commercials).  “Last season, the average Division I-A game lasted 3 hours, 7 minutes — 14 minutes shorter than in 2005. In 2006, games averaged 127.5 plays, 14 fewer than a year earlier.”  They are also proposing another new set of rules to speed up the game.  Kicking off from the 30 will force more return action, big hits and keep the clock moving for a few more seconds.  Limiting official review to two minutes is fine by me considering they review every play anyways.  Shortening timeout length to 30 seconds and the play clock after a timeout to 15 will also speed things up a bit.

Out of all the rule changes implemented in 2006 the most assisine one had to be starting the clock on kickoffs when the ball is kicked and not when it is fielded. Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema showed what a joke it was when the Badgers kept intentionally lining up offsides thus re-kicking to force the end of the half.  I am too lazy to check the rules since it is almost midnight, but theoretically if you won the toss, got the ball and then scored first couldn’t you just keep doing what Bielema did and run out the clock?  It would be the cheapest and most boring win ever, but still…

Check out this clip of him going ape shit.  Probably not too happy the Buffs went 2-10.

Recruiting is over with and it looks like USC is going to continue to be a power for years to come and Florida is right on their heels. USC, Texas and Florida, in my opinion, are the top 3 programs in the country and surprise they are the ones hauling in the big time names.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/recruiting/news/story?id=2757802

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/players/rivals.top25/index.html

These programs are naturally big name, attractive places to play college football and it doesn’t hurt they have won the last three National Championships. However, these schools are giving their recruits something other schools are not. A chance to play right away via open competition. USC, Florida and to a lesser extent Texas are embracing college as merely a 3 year pit-stop towards a career in the NFL. If you had top 100 skills would you want to sit on your ass during for a red shirt year, then work up a depth chart? No and neither would I. I would want to get in, learn as much as I could from the coaches and most importantly gain exposure, plaining time and be off to the draft. Ironically, the shorter 3 year careers for top recruits is resulting in a lengthening of dominance over other traditional powerhouses. Even The Zooker is having recruiting success with this approach at dormat Illinois. Perhaps instead of Notre Dame and other Big 10 schools bitching they should realize that times are changing and adapt.

I have decided to give wordpress a try as my blogging software instead of the POS stuff I had wrote. I now only have to worry about writing and not physically uploading files, maintaining a database or worrying about people spamming my forum. Two minutes into using the software I am already impressed by its autosave feature. A couple of new writers will also be contributing to the website: vtbaz, pattitler (as soon as he knows) and st3.

Also I will be trying to code up a much better looking theme at some point over the weekend.