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.

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.

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.

1. Auburn hosting South Florida: Both of SI’s college football writers pick the upset.
2. Texas hosting TCU: TCU alum Dan Jenkins prays for the upset and Bob Davie picks the Horned Frogs.
3. UCLA hosting BYU: The battle for Ben Olsen’s soul…
4. Boise State at Washington: If not for the Fiesta Bowl, would anyone outside of Boise or Seattle care?
5. Oregon at Michigan: Can Lloyd Carr save his job for 7 more days?

1a. Under extenuating circumstances, however, you may have up to three Division I-A rooting allegiances, so long as the schools meet the following criteria:
[...]
(e) You’re a bandwagon-jumping, low-self-esteem weenie and scurry from Notre Dame to Miami to Ohio State to USC to Boise State depending on the year, the polls and the amount of water flooding into the ship. [I don't understand how this counts as one of the criteria for schools, but anyway.]

9. You are allowed to root freely against the following schools for no specific reasons: Notre Dame; Notre Dame in their puke-green jerseys; Notre Dame when playing on “Triumph of the Will”-shaming propaganda house organ NBC; USC; any school that plays its fight song approximately 4,387 times per game like USC; Michigan; Miami; Ohio State; any school like Ohio State with a pretentious “the” in front of its name, because otherwise how would we know which Ohio State university they were talking about?; any school coached by Steve Spurrier; any school coached by Nick Saban. [I began to understand this rule when we watched last year's Oregon State game in a sports bar in Columbia, Missouri. Although I would add this addendum: you can't root against USC (for example) unless you can name the college town its opponent comes from ...]

25. It is never OK to deny the hotness of the USC song girls.

25a. Not even if you attend UCLA.

26. Please observe the following age guidelines on appropriate thoughts to have while ogling the USC song girls:

• 11-15: What is this strange tingling feeling?
• 16-18: College is going to be awesome.
• 18-24: Damn, I wish she’d wear that skirt to sociology class.
• 25-35: College was awesome.
• 36-50: Damn, I wish she’d wear a burka or something. That could be my baby daughter!
• 51-75: Gee, what a lovely young lady. I hope she meets a nice boy.
• 75-over: What is this strange tingling feeling? Do I have to go to the bathroom again?

41. Observe the following statutes of limitations:

(a) Bragging about national title: 25 years
(b) Bragging about a top-five finish: 15 years
(c) Bragging about a top-five finish if you are Ohio State, USC, Florida , Miami, Tennessee, Michigan, Florida State, Texas, Oklahoma: 0 years
(d) Bragging about a BCS bowl win: 10 years
(e) Bragging about a blowout BCS bowl win over Notre Dame: one year, or until someone else joins the club
(f) Bragging about Heisman winner: 10 years
(g) Bragging about Heisman winners whose last names rhyme with “Baretta”: six months
(h) Bragging about Heisman winners named “O.J.”: null

It looks like ranked teams will be taking on better competition this week and some people expect upsets.

Looking ahead to Week 2: Virginia Tech rolls into Baton Rouge to give LSU more than the glorified scrimmage they got from the SEC juggernaut MSU, while TCU goes down to Austin to stake a claim to being 2007′s BcS Cinderella. Last year’s undefeated team, Boise State, goes on the road to Seattle to play a Huskie team high on life after demolishing Syracuse on the road. Finally, we will see what Michigan has when Dennis Dixon (another running QB) and Oregon arrive at the Big House to make the Wolverines 0-2?

#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.

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…