With universal No. 1 Southern California seemingly certain to reach the national championship game — those Arizona State and Oregon obstacles look smaller and smaller all the time — the real drama lies with the unfolding derby between the Southeastern and Big 12 conferences. Which of these leagues, each stocked with multiple top-10 teams, will supply the Trojans’ competition?

With no offense to the great offenses of Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas, here’s hoping it’s the SEC.

Although we generally agree with the sentiment—in other words, we’d love to play in the title game against an SEC opponent—we always get a little nervous when the Trojans’ appearance in said title game becomes a foregone conclusion. Especially when that happens in September.

3. Pac-10: For years, USC has been king of the mountain with everyone else looking up. However, last year Stanford and Oregon gave them a good shove but could not knock them down as the Trojans were back in the Rose Bowl beating up on another Big Ten team.

This year Arizona State, with Rudy Carpenter at QB are the biggest threat to the Trojan throne and can make some noise on the national scene if they can knock of the Georgia Bulldogs on September 20. Oregon should have the best defense in the conference outside of USC and will be solid again, UCLA will only get better under Rick Neuheisel, and California and Oregon State are tough outs.

In terms of players we see for the combine, the best-conditioned and prepared athletes by conference come in this order: the SEC, the Big 12, the Pac-10 is just a little bit under that, and then the Big Ten brings up the rear.

[Mark Sutton, strength coach at D1 Sports Training] casually framed one of the only rational explanations for the persistent and partially inaccurate perception of the SEC speed myth/Big Ten Sloth Legend: The emphasis on speed training, explosive Olympic-style movements in the weight room, and a noticeable bleedover between the disciplines of track and field and football.

Doesn’t that sort of support the speed myth? And then there’s this:

Bringing us to the thorny point of talent development. Tossing out kooky, unempirical theories such as hot weather making players faster or WOO-WEE DEM SOUTHERN BOYZ KEN RUN, you’re left with what happens to the players after they get to the program. In the SEC, the emphasis will be developing the player’s speed. According to some trainers, the top Big Ten programs focus more on adding muscle.

The difference a training program makes may be marginal when you compare the uniformly elite talent recruited by top college programs, but margins are where smallish teams like West Virginia beat teams like Oklahoma in bowl games, and where Ohio State might lose a crucial step on the edge in high-profile debacles against SEC teams.

So … if the SEC focuses on speed and the Big Ten focuses on strength, then wouldn’t that, well, tend to make the SEC faster? We’re obviously not interested in advocating for the speed myth, but this article seems to explain it, not debunk it.

10. Mark Mangino begins a rigorous pre-season fitness regimen.
9. OU cheerleaders scramble to memorize the words to Boomer Sooner.
8. Nerds across the country prepare for twelve weeks out of the shadows as they don Micheal Jackson-esque pseudo-military uniforms to march in the band.
7. A Northwest Florida cryogenics lab begins de-icing Bobby Bowden.
6. Joe Paterno starts sundowning.
5. BYU embraces its African-American population (may also be an indicator of the start of college basketball, or track, or baseball, or hockey).
4. Los Angeles County Superior Court places priority on the probation hearings of the USC backfield.
3. Schools like Boise State escape safety school obscurity and begin to matter.
2. Perennial powerhouse Notre Dame prepares for a daunting schedule against such formidable opponents as San Diego State, Stanford (err, wait a minute), and Navy.
1. Louisiana increases to the 49th most desirable state as LSU makes a run at another championship.

Alabama is in the post-Major Applewhite era, and seems very happy with the new offense.

Oklahoma is trying to forget their last trip to Arizona. I think they might refuse a Fiesta Bowl bid this year.

Still no offense for the Seminoles. Good luck, Jimbo …

Florida’s spring game highlights Chris Rainey in the backfield, not former USC RB Emmanuel Moody. Anybody still (ever) think this transfer was a good call?

UCLA names Patrick Cowan (aka USC killer in ’06) starting QB.

LSU’s Ryan Perrilloux apparently didn’t need spring practice in order to start for LSU this fall.

USC’s first opponent apparently wants the Trojans to worry about their new passing attack.

Finally, from University Park/Howard Jones Field, Joe McKnight can’t handle 3 classes this semester and Mark “Dirty” Sanchez will be SC’s starting QB unless his arm falls off before August 30th.

This means that Missouri, America’s feel good story for one week, gets relegated to ESPNU on April 19th (same day as SC’s spring game). Also, according to the ESPN release, College Gameday Final will air a show on the 12th at 10pm EDT and the 19th at 7pm EDT (I hope without Lou Holtz) to recap other Spring stories that Gameday does not cover.

More college football on TV is better than less, but the Gators don’t need any extra national coverage. They already play in America’s Most Overrated conference …

First, we have the story of Romeo Miller (Lil’ Romeo) in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal. Apparently the USC basketball program has offered a scholarship to Lil’ Romeo who has played only a third of the games at Beverly Hills High this season, but is one of the best friends of 5-star recruit DeMar DeRozan (who is also coming to USC). Coach Floyd insists that Romeo will bring new fans to SC hoops, but most think that Romeo brought SC DeMar DeRozan.

Second, we have the saga of #1 RB recruit Darell Scott. Darrell had it narrowed down to Texas and Colorado when he decided on signing day to attend Colorado. Apparently, Texas fans have decided that CU had to have paid Scott’s family in order for him to choose the Buffs over the Horns. The Austin Sports Report lays out the rumors that are swirling in Austin and on the ‘net. A job for Scott’s mom and some cash apparently brought Scott to Boulder, and the story about his uncle (who is on the team) was just a nice human interest story.

The recruitment of a big-time college athlete might be the dirtiest business in all of college sports. Forget the agents paying players while they are in college; the lengths that overzealous alumni and coaches trying to save their jobs will go to to get these kids is simply mind-boggling.

Both agree that the best non-conference game is Ohio State vs. USC on September 13th. I would put Georgia’s trip to Tempe on the following weekend at #2, but Fiutak has it at #4—he thinks that the border war in St. Louis between Illinois and Missouri is #2. Now, both of those teams might be good again this year, but it seems more interesting to me that the consensus #1 team isn’t playing four complete pushovers.*

* Though of course any SEC team can get away with non-conference pushovers, right? I mean, conference play is just brutal, so they clearly need a rest. In fact, why don’t we just go ahead and give all of them four non-conference wins?

Oh, and don’t you think that Mack Brown is sad that he spurned the Longhorns (looking at all of the off the field BS he has dealt with in the last 12 months)?