Pryor says he has narrowed the list to two, but is not letting on which ones. Below is the list of the four schools he is still considering, along with my odds.

• Ohio State (3-1)
• Michigan (9-2)
• Penn State (5-1)
• Oregon (10-1)

Tonight: #2 BC at #8 Virginia Tech, Hokie Hokie Hi.

Tomorrow: Boise St at Fresno St, Can Boise win without the marrying man Ian Johnson?

Saturday:

Gameday: at Penn State as the ESPN/ABC corporate plan comes together with Gameday and the ABC national night game at the same place. Note, you will find no college football on ESPN during the day tomorrow as Breeder’s Cup Horse Racing takes over the Worldwide Leader.

This is my schedule and it should be yours:

• USC at Oregon (3:00pm EDT FSN). Will SC step up and take over the Pac-10 again or will Dennis Dixon (Vince Young StarterKit) lead Oregon to the top of the conference and give them a shot at the title game? CBS will be showing you the “World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party” at 3:30pm and I might flip over for the chance at an outstanding crowd shot.
• Kansas at Texas A&M (7:00pm EDT ESPN2). I like this better than UCLA/WSU (6:30pm FSN) and South Carolina at Tennessee (7:45pm ESPN).
• Ohio State at Penn State (8:00pm ABC). Can Ohio State survive the “White Out” and keep its run atop the BCS standings?
• Cal at ASU (10:15pm FSN). ASU has played no one, so let’s find if they are for real or if Tedford’s boys will continue their losing ways.

• Dan Shanoff, formerly of ESPN.com’s Page 2 and now a weekly College Football contributor at Deadspin likes Ohio State over Penn State, Oregon over USC, Cal over ASU, Florida over Georgia at the Cocktail Party, WVU over Rutgers, and Virginia Tech to continue the curse of being #2 by beating BC on Thursday (Something bad needs to happen to Boston sports soon).
• SI.com’s Cory McCartney throws out his take with BC surviving its trip to Blacksburg, Ohio State staying undefeated, Florida continuing to own Georgia, and—in the Pac-10′s big games—SC to upset Oregon and Cal to upset ASU.

Since the multi-color (credited to Jim Rome) keeps paying this guy to make lines (which he steals from LVSC) I will let people see what he has on the big games of the weekend.

• VT -3.5
• Oregon -2.5
• ASU -3.5
• Florida -9.5
• Ohio St -3.5

• The weekend opens with Texas A&M at Miami and Erin Andrews probably in a tank top—YEAH! (Erin will also be in Tampa for South Florida, so it might be a tank top twofer.)
• We’ll see if Coach Fran really has a team that can compete with Texas and Oklahoma.
• The GE/NBC train wreck returns with “Sparty” coming to South Bend. Right now, I think ND needs to worry about positive rushing yards before it worries about points.
• Ron Franklin and Ed Cunningham are following Ohio State around: they get the Buckeyes Big 11 opener at N’western after seeing them throttle the Huskies in Seattle. Michigan gets 4 home games in a row; nice job, Mr. Big 11 Schedule Maker. And we’ll see if Penn State is as good as Herbie says they are.
• CBS brings you to Baton Rouge for the Head Ball Coach and the Gamecocks’ visit. Gameday and the ESPN Primetime game (Mike Patrick shut up) are in Tuscaloosa as Georgia looks to get to 1-1 in conference.
• ABC will show part of the country Wazzu at USC while Brent and Kirk head to Madison for Iowa at Wisconsin.
• Finally, the night ends in Pasadena as UCLA tries to bounce back against Jake Locker and the Huskies.

Virginia Tech looked to be the 2nd most overrated team in the country; however, Pat Forde feels that LSU is #1.

The Ole Ball Coach pulled his magic against Georgia (this time in Athens) to upset the #11 Bulldogs.

Penn State made Casey Clausen wish for the Oaks Christian OL. Ohio State tried to lose its first game to another Ohio college since 1921 (looking ahead to the game in Seattle perhaps) and Wisconsin (25 pt favs) almost lost at UNLV.

The Student Body Right Top 5:

1. SC (homerism rocks)
2. LSU (VT is overrated)
3. Oklahoma (Miami ‘s offense is awful)
4. Florida (heads-up, Tennessee: Tebow looks scary)
5. Wisconsin

What to watch for in Week 3: Tennessee at Florida, Arkansas at Alabama, Ohio State at Washington, and USC at Nebraska.

The honeymoon is over for America’s 2006 darling, as both Mark and Lou like the StevePat SlatonWhite multi-headed monster to win at Rutgers. So, through the games of October 27th, here is the Top 10:

1. USC (8-0)
2. LSU (8-0)
3. Wisconsin (9-0)
4. Oklahoma (8-0)
5. Michigan (9-0)
6. Louisville (9-0)
7. Florida (7-1) lost at LSU on October 6th
8. Texas (8-1) lost to OU on October 6th
9. West Virginia (7-1) Lost to Louisville
10. Ohio State (8-1)

At any rate, in this new installment, Rece, Mark, and Lou go over the big game of October 13th and 20th. On October 13th they’ve chosen the Wisconsin Badgers’ visit to State College to take on Penn St. While Lou thinks Penn St will keep it close, he and Mark like the Badgers to roll on as the Big Eleven frontrunner. Moving to October 20th, we get SC at ND (and, of course, highlights of 4th and 9 and the “Bush Push“). We also get the Leprechaun picking the Irish to upset SC. Mark and Rece, of course, correct the former Irish coach. (Our guess is that he’s still bitter about November 30, 1996.) So after October 20th here is the new ESPN Top 10:

1. USC (7-0)
2. LSU (8-0)
3. Wisconsin (8-0)
4. Oklahoma (8-0)
5. Michigan (8-0)
6. Louisville (8-0)
7. Florida (7-1) lost at LSU on October 6th
8. Texas (7-1) lost to OU on October 6th
9. West Virginia (6-1) Lost to Louisville
10. Ohio State (7-1)

#16- Tennessee at California September 1st
#18- Florida St at Clemson September 3rd
#4-   Virginia Tech at LSU September 8th
#14- TCU at Texas September 8th
#19- Miami at Oklahoma September 8th
#20- Notre Dame at Penn State September 8th
#8-   USC at Nebraska September 15th
#9-   Tennessee at Florida September 15th
#1-   Florida at LSU October 6th
#3-   Texas vs. Oklahoma (Cotton Bowl) October 6th
#10- Nebraska at Texas October 27th
#11- West Virginia at Rutgers October 27th
#13- LSU at Alabama November 3rd
#5-   Louisville at West Virginia  November 8th
#6-   USC at California November 10th
#7-   Michigan at Wisconsin November 10th
#12- Florida St at Virginia Tech November 10th
#2-   Ohio State at Michigan  November 17th
#15- Boise St at Hawaii November 23rd
#17- UCLA at USC December 1st

And here’s a list that tells you which weekends might require a second TV next to the big screen:

• 4 Games on September 8th
• 4 Games Weekend of November 8th-10th (Big East Thursday night special)
• 2 Games September 15th
• 2 Games October 6th (1 &3)
• 2 Games October 27th

If USC isn’t 11-0, then the SC/UCLA is meaningless outside of LA—as are any of the games after October 6th really, unless all of these teams are as good as the pre-season hype.

Most of the major preseason polls have closed, and with 97% of precincts reporting, we can report that USC is getting a little bit of attention. They top both the College Football News poll and the USA Today coaches poll. That should be good news for Trojan fans, but America’s Newspaper puts it into perspective for us.

The last five preseason number one teams in the USA Today poll have made the BCS title game. But their combined record is 1-4, with USC winning in 2004.

In a related story, MSNBC’s Mike Celizic says Pete Carroll could the next Knute Rockne. Jeez, why does Carroll continue to fly under the radar? The sport’s best-kept secret, that guy.

Speaking of legendary coaches who should be mentioned in the same breath as Rockne, the still-fiery Joe Paterno says he has no plans to retire. And who can blame Joe Pa? He’s just discovered how much fun it can be to coach from the press box.

“You can see so much more, you can do things,” he told reporters, according to the Post-Gazette. “I tried not to interfere with the guys upstairs because they know what they’re doing. But, every once in awhile, I’d drop a little note to them and say, ‘Hope to get this,’ or ‘That corner’s playing awfully tight.’

“You’re really a cheerleader most of the time down on the sideline. … I enjoyed being upstairs, I really did. I sat down, had a nice time, had a cup of coffee. I felt like a newspaper guy. I was even able to watch television.”

If Joe Pa’s plan to have his players clean Beaver Stadium every Sunday didn’t have them shaking in their sweatervests in Columbus and angst-ridden in Ann Arbor, these latest comments no doubt strike fear in the hearts of the Big Eleven. The thought of Paterno sitting eight hundred feet from the field, having a nice time, drinking a cup of coffee, watching TV, means Penn State is nowhere near irrelevant.

The LSU Tigers have pulled off quite a coup, swiping an athletic beast from Indiana. I mean, this latest addition to the program is an absolute man-eater, a stone-cold killer. That’s right: a new Bengal tiger. The latest Mike the Tiger will arrive from an Indiana state facility called Great Cats. Les Miles would no doubt prefer a Southern tiger because everyone knows the Southern cats are much tougher, but he’s at least content with the fact that the new tiger isn’t coming from the wussy West Coast.

Texas DT Andre Jones is being sought by police for questioning in last week’s aggravated assault in Austin. Should have just settled things like a man: by throwing a water balloon.

In preparation for the Olympics, Beijing police are threatening to arrest fans who swear at a soccer match this weekend in the capitol.

“It is just way out of line to have 30,000 people shouting and swearing en masse,” police spokesman Liu Chunjiang was quoted as saying.

The spokesman is right: 30,000 people shouting and swearing is embarrassing. I mean, only 30,000? Those fans clearly have a lot to learn from the majesty that is 90,000 college football fans shouting and swearing en masse.

The Northern Colorado punter allegedly stabbed by his depth chart rival once considered sharing an apartment with his alleged attacker. That would be like Single White Female. Only with two dudes. And a football. And a shank. And a tiny program nobody has heard of.

With wide receiver Andrew Norman transferring from Arkansas, only one of the heralded ‘Springdale Four’ remains in Fayetteville. Despite this complete implosion of one of the most vaunted recruiting classes ever, we still say that the pressure-packed recruitment of 18-year-old kids upon whose shoulders universities’ profile and athletic revenues will ultimately reside, remains an exact science.

Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops says players’ last names will return to Sooners jerseys. Since Miami is now removing player names from their jerseys, when the Sooners and Canes meet on September 8 why don’t they just switch jerseys?

Alabama’s Tyrone Prothro has taken a medical scholarship, which sadly means his playing days are most likely finished. That’s the bad news. The good news is, Prothro will most likely retire knowing he made of the most ridiculous catches ever. It doesn’t beat an SEC title or a BCS ring, but it’s something. Something cool.

We’d like to thank the always entertaining Every Day Should Be Saturday for calling our attention to Mike Leach’s outstanding performance at Big 12 Media Day.

“It’s very savage to play in Lubbock,” Leach said. “I would recommend that everybody try to avoid it. There have been scalpings and there have been some people that quite just haven’t returned.

“There are some people, unfortunately, based on the way the conference goes, that are going to have to come to our place. Sadly, I can’t guarantee their safety or that things will necessarily go the way that they like.”

Why do we get the impression that that would be true in Lubbock even if they didn’t have a football team there?

We’ll end on a serious note. You can forget about USC trying to go wire-to-wire, or Darren McFadden trying to get that Heisman, or the Gators trying to repeat. The story of the season is life trying to return to normal in Blacksburg, Virginia. After one of the most trying offseasons in the history of the sport, the Virginia Tech Hokies returned to practice yesterday. Hokies QB Sean Glennon said it best:

“I think it’s a relief,” Glennon said. “We’ve been asked so many questions. There’s been so much media attention. ‘When are you going to get back out there?’ Now it’s good to have all these questions behind us. Just to be back out here and to be with my teammates. It feels good to be out here throwing the football around. I missed it.”

So did we, Sean.

27 days until kickoff…