The Preseason Top 25 is pretty much in (roundup courtesy of Fanblogs), and it looks to be unanimous: USC is the consensus #1. Here’s one reason why:

After perhaps his best recruiting season yet, Pete Carroll’s eyes have never been so wide, because his pockets have never been so stuffed.

He has built great teams before but never like this.

They’ve never been this fast. They’ve never been this deep.

And — shudder — maybe they’ve never been this good?

“This is the most competitive team we’ve had,” said Carroll, who never says those sorts of things, and certainly never in May.

This depth includes 10 (10!) prep All-American running backs and a defense almost entirely full of returning starters. And then there are the quarterbacks: a Heisman candidate, a couple of prep All-Americans, and a guy—Mitch Mustain—who last year went 8-0 in leading one of the best teams in the country.

In short, we concur with the consensus.

UPDATE: Las Vegas apparently also agrees, setting the odds of USC’s winning the championship at 5-2. (Defending champ Florida is a distant second, coming in at 7-1.) Also, via TrojanWire, it appears that we’ve got more (albeit less proven) transfer talent coming in.