Faithful readers might remember that we came in at #9 on an earlier list of college football’s best unis. Turns out we’re moving up—the latest list, from Dayn Perry at FOX Sports, has us at #2: Exceptionally cool helmets, colors, striping and cleats. It’s a look that’s also stood the test of time.

The Pac-10 in general makes a strong showing, with ASU, Washington, and UCLA showing up as well. In fact, Washington’s opponent tonight also makes the cut.

Maybe that uniform change back in 2002 made a bigger difference than we thought …

Here are the highlights:

• Tomorrow, ESPN begins to completely whip our ass with the 25-hour pregame nightmare.
• Then we get LSU and Miss St with Fowler, Flutie, and James (are you kidding me that we have to put up with Craig James in the booth now?), and the lovely Erin Andrews.
• On Friday, just watch baseball—Washington at Syracuse might be unlistenable with Colin Cowherd in the booth.
• Best games on Saturday:
  • Georgia Tech at ND
  • Oklahoma St at Georgia
  • UCLA at Stanford (if you can ignore the awful FSN whiteout effect)
  • Tennessee at Cal (BRENT and the Musburger Drinking Game)

P.S. Early Saturday will be very Virginia Tech intensive on the Worldwide Leader.

As the L.A. Daily News’ Scott Wolf reports in his USC blog, there is no bad blood between Pete Carroll and the guy who nearly had Carroll’s job:

Mike Bellotti and Pete Carroll do not hate each other. But there is a spirted rivalry there and it relates as much to USC’s first trip to Eugene in 2001 under Carroll as anything else. So that game will always have a heated atmosphere but the coaches do respect each other and sometimes work together, such as when they agreed last season’s clock rules sucked.

I’m sure another thing they can agree on is that Oregon’s uniforms suck.

Speaking of Oregon, the Ducks are reportedly interested in playing a game against Boise State in China in 2009.

“Quite honestly, it’s very Oregon,” said Jeff Hawkins, UO director of football operations. “You like to be on the edge. You like to be first.”

Embarrassing the Pac-10 on a global scale with those hideous uniforms: yes, that is very Oregon.

And speaking of embarrassments on a global scale…

Former Trojan O.J. Simpson, perhaps most famous for winning the Heisman Trophy in 1968, must give any royalties earned from the new All-Pro Football 2K8 video game to the Goldman family. The game features Simpson suiting up for the Assassins, a team with a knife-wielding mascot. As Johnnie Cochran and EA Sports would have said, “If it’s in the police report, it’s in the game.”

Getting a lot of attention (including on this blog) is the Sports Illustrated poll of starters of all 119 I-A teams. We’re not surprised that Pete Carroll and Urban Meyer were the most popular coaches, but what we want to know is… what about Karl Dorrell? The guy not only beat Carroll last season, but he generously gives known criminals a second chance by putting them on his coaching staff. Now that’s leadership.

Speaking of (alleged) criminals… former Virginia Tech star Michael Vick has the support of fellow QB Donovan McNabb. McNabb says his kinship with Vick dates back to the two of them touring Syracuse together in the mid-1990s. Good thing Vick didn’t go to the ‘Cuse to compete with McNabb: that would have really damaged his pro career.

From the ‘Unspecified reasons’ dept: Pitt’s top recruit, freshman quarterback Pat Bostick, left camp for unspecific personal reasons and it’s not known when he’ll return. And Tennessee tailback LaMarcus Coker, the team’s leading rusher, has been suspended indefinitely for what Phillip Fulmer referred to as an unspecified medical reason. We won’t speculate on those unspecified reasons (cough*homesickness*cough*and*cough*drugsaccordingtothisreport), but we do wish both Bostick and Coker the best, and hope they return to campus soon. Or, if they don’t come back, that at least their reasons are not serious and are very entertaining.

Miami coach Randy Shannon, when asked in a presser about the contributions of Graig Cooper and Javarris James, said this:

“I think Coop did a great job. He brought some some excitement to the team. And he’s a calm guy. He’s not an arrogant or flamboyant guy.” It was going well, then coach goofed. “Believe it or not, he and Javarris James are kind of like butt buddies.”

We knew there was a close-knit family atmosphere at The U, but honestly, that’s a bit much.

We’ll end with cause for optimism: sometimes college football experts actually know what they’re talking about. We know, we’re as surprised as you are. But that’s the only conclusion we can gather after College Football News gathered some of the sport’s truthiest journalists for an expert roundtable.

Among the highlights was Joe Schad discussing the Plus-One:

I understand some of the arguments for leaving the system the way it is. And many of those arguments were laid out for me in a recent conversation with Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany. He notes the importance of preserving the tradition of the Rose Bowl. He notes that with even a four team playoff, up to three teams could be playing up to 14 or 15 games. He notes that even $40 or $50 million split up among the BCS schools does not create the type of financial windfall that make change essential. The bottom line is this: A four team playoff incorporating the current bowls on a rotational basis will appease the appetite of the fans. 1) Ohio State vs. 4) USC and 2) Florida vs. 3) Michigan, quite simply, would have rocked.

And what do you know, Richard Cirminiello concurs:

While the talk of a full-blown, NFL-style playoff is trendy and fun for roundtable discussions, it’s also an overkill remedy for solving the current problems of the BCS. Forget the eight or 16-team playoff, and start dialing your local representatives and college presidents about the plus-one format. The plus-one is so seamless and makes so much sense, it’s absolutely criminal it hasn’t been implemented sooner.

And Dennis Dodd gets right to the point when he discusses what tweaks he’d make to the BCS.

Plus one. See answer number one. Not perfect, but better.

That’s what we say when people ask us why college football is the greatest sport on earth despite its immensely flawed postseason: it’s not perfect, but it’s better.

Twenty two days until it’s MUCH better…

The Jim Harbaugh Quote Machine continues to crank out good copy. The latest?

“The most important goal is to earn the right to show we can beat ‘SC. We need to earn that.”

Well, that and earn the right to not lose to UC-Davis.

Big news from the “other” USC, as Gamecocks coach Steve Spurrier ripped his own university. He even hinted that he may leave Columbia if he encounters any more problems with getting his players admitted.

“As long as I’m the coach here, we’re going to take guys that qualify,” Spurrier said. “If not, then I have to go somewhere else because I can’t tell a young man, ‘You’re coming to school here,’ he qualifies, and not do that. And we did that this year.”

He says he had to apologize to two recruits who signed with South Carolina last winter but were denied academic entry.

“In my opinion, I still believe we made a mistake… Hopefully, I truly believe this is the last year this is going to happen, because I can’t operate like that. I can’t operate misleading young men.”

Well, Ball Coach, you clearly misled them into believing they were signing with an SEC title contender, so why stop now?

And forget USC-Notre Dame, we could have just witnessed the beginning of the new defining intersectional college football rivalry: those natural rivals, Wyoming and Syracuse. Just listen to Wyoming coach Joe Glenn discuss the Orange(men):

“I’ve got a new favorite team this season,” Glenn quipped. “Anybody who beats Syracuse.” Glenn cracked a few jokes at the expense of Syracuse, and he’s anything-but-pleased with the cancellation of the return game in a home-and-home series the Cowboys signed with the Orange. “They leave a hole in our 2009 schedule, so if you want to wish bad luck on somebody this year, wish bad luck on Syracuse,” Glenn said. “They signed a contract to come to Laramie and play, and they didn’t honor it so I’m putting all kinds of voodoo on them.”

If you’re starting a garage band and are looking for a name, you could do a whole lot worse than ‘Joe Glenn’s Voodoo.’

From the ‘He’ll have a busy time at Confession’ department: Notre Dame nose tackle/defensive end Derrell Hand was arrested on Thursday for allegedly propositioning a prostitute. But you can understand how this could happen, considering, as the South Bend Tribune writes, “he had not seen action during his first two seasons at ND.”

Former Buckeyes speedster—and lone BCS title game bright spot—Ted Ginn Jr. hasn’t played a down for the Miami Dolphins, but LeBron James has already signed his buddy to a marketing contract. Ginn said, “To do this, not so much for money but to maybe get on a Sprite commercial with LeBron or anything, that’d be fun.” You know what else would be fun? If you don’t turn out like LeBron’s other Buckeye buddy, Maurice Clarett.

The Sea of Red will be missing a little blue this fall. The Lincoln Police Department is looking at cutting civil services to meet its budget, and that could mean fewer police downtown on Nebraska football game days. It shouldn’t be a big problem, though, considering that Lawrence Phillips hasn’t been in town for several years.

His troubles apparently behind him, former prized QB recruit Ryan Perrilloux has been reinstated by LSU coach Les Miles. And Low-Key Lester sounds thrilled:

“It’s hard for me to represent welcoming him back. It’s tough for me to say.”

Wow, we can feel the love from here. Clearly Miles holds Perrilloux in about as high regard as he holds Nick Saban and USC’s conference schedule. So welcome home, Ryan.

Ohio State offensive tackle Kirk Barton is a character: he wasn’t afraid to say in 2004 that Troy Smith should start over Justin Zwick, or to crack open a bottle of champagne and a victory stogie in the locker room after the Buckeyes beat Michigan. And when he leaves Columbus he’ll be looking to channel that personality into the perfect outlet: sports radio.

“I’ve listened to Jim Rome since I was in seventh grade,” Barton said. “I love sports talk radio. Not to sound too corny, but you know how guys go to fantasy camps? They go to Notre Dame or go be with the Boston Red Sox and pay like five grand to get to be a Red Sox player? That’s kind of what I’m like. Kids were listening to Britney Spears and Puff Daddy growing up. I listened to Dan Patrick and Jim Rome. Then I get in front of you guys, and I have to remember I’m Jim Tressel, not Jim Rome. I have to channel him.”

That’s not to say that Coach Sweatervest isn’t, in his own special way, an entertaining and electrifying persona.

After allegedly wielding an AK-47 following a nightclub scuffle in downtown Gainesville, Florida offensive lineman Ronnie Wilson has been given probation. Probation, huh? Apparently you don’t do jail time in Alachua County unless you’re wielding a shoulder-mounted missile launcher or a hand grenade… or you’re not a football player for the defending national champs.

And speaking of discipline problems… Texas has experienced its own spate of offseason arrests and behavior issues. The comprehensive Longhorn blog Burnt Orange Nation does what so many team- and university-devoted blogs don’t: it actually admits that the school has a problem. The ‘Nation calls for Mack Brown and his staff to exercise tighter discipline and to nip the problem in the (increasingly large) bud. That’s a refreshing and accurate take, and something we could use more of in places like Gainesville and, frankly, central Los Angeles.

But hey, it could be worse: at least you’re not a high profile Catholic university that prides itself on its moral fiber but just saw your defensive end busted for allegedly soliciting a hooker.

We’ll end today’s roundup with another annual sign that college football season is just around the corner: ESPN’s Mark Schlabach just unveiled his “What’s hot (and not) for 2007″ column. At the top of the “Hot” list is USC, and here are Schlabach’s reasons why:

Heisman Trophy candidate John David Booty. Prep All-America running backs stacked up like club sandwiches. The best defense in the country. And of course, the Song Girls. Maybe Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh wasn’t exaggerating when he called the Trojans the best team in college football — ever.

And we’re not exaggering when we say that we can’t wait for the season to get here.

Twenty four days and counting…