It's never too early to start picking the front-runners. 2002 has tons of great matchups. I am proud to say that most of the SEC now has 1 to 2 major out-of-conference games on their schedules. No way anyone can slam the SEC for scheduling ONLY non-conference powderpuffs, not with these matchups:
1. Florida plays both FSU and Miami. And with playing in the SEC East, they have probably the toughest schedule in America.
2. Auburn plays Syracuse and Southern California.
3. Alabama travels to Norman, OK.
4. LSU visits Vagina Tech, errr, Virginia Tech.
5. Georgia plays Clemson, in addition to traditional foe Ga Tech.
6. Mississippi State travels to Oregon.
7. Tennessee plays Miami also!

I am elated that the SEC is making the effort to play these blockbuster games. I'm not sure what the Big-10 has in store. Maybe some one out there knows some other big non-conference matchups.

As far as my preseason predictions....
National Champ - Miami
ACC - the return of FSU
PAC 10 - Stanford or Oregon State
Big 12 - Oklahoma
SEC - Tennessee
Conf USA - Who cares...honestly
Cindarella team - Boise State

[quote]Originally posted by AU Tiger in LA:
It's never too early to start picking the front-runners.

---

Yes it is.

I'm gonna be most curious to see how Maryland does in 2002 (I think they're losing a ton of seniors) -- and Fresno State sans David Carr -- they just scheduled another game at Wisconsin to open the season -- my bet is no repeat upset in Madison!

Ditto on both Maryland and Fresno State. They both made the best of pinnacle years. Without Carr, Fresno will move backwards in 2002. But I look for them to rebound in 2003.
As far as Maryland, they did lose several key position players. They also got outrecruited by Virginia, of all things. I think the big ACC challenge for FSU this year will be NC State, and UVA may creep into 3rd place.
Ga Tech is in retrograde, and Clemson is terribly inconsistent.

As for the big ten out of conference well its widely varying to say the least.

Michigan plays Washington, Utah, @ND which is not an easy schedule
Penn St. matches up with Nebraska, Southern Miss Loui-tech and Virginia for no easy victories.

Ohio St will play Washington St.

Wisc goes to UNLV, gets Arizona and West Virginia at home.

MSU, Purdue have there yearly tussle with the fightin irish.

Iowa, Minny, Indy, NW have again scheduled cupcakes in the beginning of the year and the other schools listed above filled out there OOC slates with lesser major conference teams or MAC teams. The cupcake schedule in the big ten has to go to Minny who plays powerhouses Buffalo, SW Texes St. and Louisianna Lafeyette and rounds out there OOC with a respectable Toledo.


As for who is going to take the conference title this year well IT IS WAY TO EARLY TO DECIDE but my top four in conference would be Penn St., Michigan State, Ohio St., and Michigan.

I wonder how Florida will do without Coach Superior.

As a Stanford alum, I would love to see my Cardinal team go to the Rose Bowl again. I doubt it. The team won a lot of close games last year. I hate to admit this but the University of Second Choice could be the favorite.

You must mean University of Spoiled Children (USC).

Even had Spurrier stuck around, he would have lost 2 games this year...Miami and Tennessee (at ObKnoxville). Without him, the Gators are good for 3 losses (add FSU), and I will go out on an extremely long limb and predict that the gators will lose to second-year Georgia coach Richt.
Yeah...I said it. UF will lose at least 3, very probably 4.

But do not overestimate USC. Your Cardinal may be under new leadership, but there are plenty of Pac NW teams that could fill the void ahead of USC. Even Oregon, sans Joey, has better depth than the Trojans. And my personal pick to finish #2 in the Pac-10 is Oregon State. They have a phat home schedule!
Oh, I almost forgot Washington! So many returning players...it'd be hard to discount them. I could easily see them proving me wrong, and win the Pac-10.