Reed: For me the weekend's most exciting game, if not the season's, is the matchup betweenBoise State and VPI. As an unabashed BCS-basher (can you be an unabashed basher?), I will be fully on board the Broncos bandwagon in 2010. After 3 years in SEC territory I would love to see a team from outside the purported conference to end all conferences take the title. It would be even better if they could take down an unbeaten Alabama squad, both because Nick Saban sucks at life and because it would be the ultimate tool with which to shut up the SEC fans who cling to conference dominance as a remedy for their own teams' mediocrity.
So Boise MUST win on Monday. Nobody expects them to lose a game in conference, so this represents the biggest challenge on their docket. Yet despite the handicaps against them (cross-country flight to what is basically a road game), Boise is favored. That shows the respect that has developed for this team over the past few years among opposing coaches and AP-voting reporters, if not the talking heads and the proverbial man on the street (unless that street is in Boise, ID).
What about yourself?
Brooks: I think Boise State-VT is definitely the game of the week, and not just because ESPN tells me it is (though it's mostly because ESPN tells me it is. Da-da-da, da-da-da). I'm obviously watching Michigan-UConn this weekend. RichRod needs a win here to cool the heat that has been on him since the allegations of practice violations first broke last September, and realistically he needs to win this game and Notre Dame next week on the road if he's going to have any chance of 7 wins and keeping his job. On the other side of the field, Randy Edsall is riding high from his win over the S-E-C, S-E-C in his bowl game, so another big win over a major Big 10 program will truly announce UConn's arrival and their assuming the title of favorite in the Big East.
One other game for you-- Oregon State-TCU. TCU is the forgotten BCS buster, but they return just as much as Boise, plus they have the schedule int the Mountain West with games against Utah and BYU to also make a run both to the BCS and the National Title Game. We also really should not sleep on the Rodgers' brothers and Oregon State. In a wide open Pac 10, they can ride a big opening win against TCU to a conference title and a BCS berth. Also, remember they take on Boise State in three weeks. If both those programs win in week 1 and go into that game 2-0, that could be another battle between Top 15 teams with huge bowl implications.
Reed: I love what's happening to them. Not only because I love seeing Chapel Hill fans squirm even more than SEC fans (and we should see plenty more of that this winter - stay tuned), but because they elected to play in said Chic-Fil-A game and eschew their commitment to open the season against South Carolina in Williams-Brice. Not that the Gamecocks are clean, but they're certainly cleaner than UNC right now, and it would have helped USC jump up into the top 25 a lot sooner had they beaten a top 20 team down last night instead of Brett Favre U. And of course, I'm very much a law-and-order guy when it comes to NCAA rules, because the players should know what's right and wrong, and if I hear Dan LeBatard talk one more time about how amateurism is meaningless and should be thrown out, and criminals are good for a football program, I'm going to throw up. I may also throw up because I was awoken this morning to the sounds of my roommate's guests hooking up on our couch, but that's another story.
Let's hit a happier subject: Most reporters have Terrell Pryor as the Heisman favorite and Jake Locker as the presumptive #1 pick. Instead of those flawed titles, let's decide who will be the ACTUAL best player in college football this year, without regard to conference, chance of winning the BCS, pro potential, position, or east coast bias (which, by the way, I recently decided was my favorite band name that has yet to be used).
Brooks: That's a really good question, because I agree with you that it looks like this year it really is going to be all about QBs and RBs both for the Heisman and the #1 overall draft pick. To be perfectly honest, I have absolutely no idea who I would pick right now. Mark Ingram is the reigning "best player in the nation," but I don't even think he's the best running back on his own team since Trent Richardson is just that good. Pryor will have some great highlights, but DE Cameron Heyward is the best player on Ohio State and probably the best player in the Big 10. I haven't had the chance to see a lot of games live, but I have to say no player has impressed me live more than AJ Green of Georgia last year. He showed during the game that not only was he the best wide receiver in the nation, but he was also their best running back and blocked a potential game winning field goal. I know you want to push a lineman here, but I'm sticking with a skill position guy I guess. Who's your pick?
Reed: You are close. [Linemen] are near and dear to my heart but having no actual football experience it's hard to tell which of them is elite, unless and until somebody jumps off the screen like Suh did in the Big 12 title game last year. My real favorite position, however, is linebacker, and this year my favorite player has to be Stanford's Owen Marecic (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.
There's plenty of stuff in the college football universe that's worse than Mark May: Starting College Gameday on ESPNU at 9 and then switching to ESPN at 10; Kirk Herbstreit's hair; people who think tailgating revolves around bad alcohol (as opposed to good food). But worst of all are the cupcakes. Not actual cupcakes, those are delicious. But these early games really are dreadful. Youngstown State at Penn State? Coastal Carolina at West Virginia? San Jose State at Alabama? The lack of integrity in 1-A football is really appalling. Letting these power-conference teams scheduld 1-AA schools is criminal! How on earth can the talking heads say with a straight face that Alabama's schedule is difficult compared to Boise State, TCU et al when they have 7 or 8 home games each year and inflate their stats with these cupcake games. Wake me on Thursday, when real football starts.
Brooks: Trick question. While your list is certainly valid, the only thing worse than Mark May is the fact that he is now teamed up with Craig James. This is [my] nightmare, people!
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