A few observations on the first weekend of games (still incomplete until the FSU-UM tilt on Monday night):
1) USC will destroy Ohio State yet again. OSU is better than they looked against Navy (this was a classic look-ahead game), but USC still has more talent on the field than OSU.
2) Virginia Tech looked a little better than I expected, but they’re not going to win their division this year. The ACC Coastal will be extremely competitive, and I think one of three teams will win the division: Miami, Georgia Tech, or UNC. Virginia Tech will definitely have a shot at it, but I think they’ll lose to Miami and UNC, and perhaps to Georgia Tech (though they match up better with the Yellow Jackets). FSU is the class of the conference.
3) Alabama will not win the SEC West this year. LSU and Ole Miss are the frontrunners in that division.
4) FSU-BYU will be a very interesting and nationally significant game, magnified by BYU’s defeat of OU. The Seminoles will certainly not overlook the Cougars after this result.
5) UNC’s young receiving corps need to improve in a hurry if they’re going to win their division, but they’ll be very competitive on defense because of a strong front seven. They have a some work to do in the secondary, however.
6) Penn St. might get into national title discussion (and perhaps even the game), but they’re not a top five team. Unfortunately, their schedule might not expose this until too late. I’ll likely be rooting against them most of the year in the interest of having a competitive national title game.