BCS Outlook

I want to give you a list of predictions fro 10,000 feet for each of the conferences. I am going to give bullet points, a few stories I think will be interesting for each of the 6 BCS conferences, my picks for winners, and maybe a National Title guess, too. Hopefully the other writers will pick up the pace and add their two cents, too.

Big East

This is probably the conference I know the least about. I miss Rich Rodriguez, where you could just pick WVU to win and be done with it. Things have changed, I guess, because that probably won't happen again for a while.

1. Winner: Conventional wisdom says Pitt, but I do not believe in the 'Stache. I say Rutgers with their easy peasy schedule has the advantage.
2. Cincinnati will fall back a little. They lost a lot, but kind of had a quietly great season. They'll be good, they have an excellent coach, but he hasn't built a program that can graduate 13 starters (9 on defense) and not take a step ack.
3. USF has been a trendy pick in this league ever since Grothe has been their QB. They are an interesting team and fun to watch, but they don't seem to be very mentally tough to get as close as they have been and screw the pooch.

Big Ten

This conference is so boring.

1. Winner: Penn State. They get Iowa and Ohio State at home, their toughest away game is at Michigan State who will not be as good as they were last year.
2. What happens in Michigan? Do we see a jump in performance with another year in the system, or will Wolverine fans have to wait another year to see results? I think they will at least make a bowl, but won't scare any of the upper tier in the conference yet. They can call the UM-ND game the Mediocre Bowl.
3. I am really curious to see if Purdue can return to te Tiller days under a new coach or if they will fade into obscurity.

Pac 10

I am really high on the Pac10 this year. I like the way they scheduled, I think that USC's exodus of talent will lead to some very entertaining competition this year. The offense, as usual, will be high flying fun out West, if you can stay up to watch.

1. Winner: This is trickier than you think. I think that there is a narrow window this year for someone other than USC to play in the Rose Bowl. I just can't decide if it's going to be Oregon or Cal. I guess Oregon.
2. Cal is also pretty impressive. Finished the season strong and Jahvid Best is a name you are going to hear a lot of this season.
3. Stanford is the biggest wildcard in this league. Jim Harbaugh is a very impressive coach and it will be interesting to see how he does and for how long he coaches the Cardinal.

Big XII

The other SEC, except all the good teams are in one division (sorry Nebraska).

1. Winner in the North: Nebraska, almost by default. Mizzou lost a ton of talent, Kansas has probaly hit their ceiling, and Nebraska is rouning into dangerous form again. I didn't like to see it at the end of last year, but Pellini was probably the right hire for them.
2. Winner in the South: I like Oklahoma, and to win the whole conference. I know that everyone is taking Texas to the big one, but I don't know. My opinions are changing as we approach the season. OU lost a lot, and despite the Heisman Curse, I like their coaching staff better.
3. Oklahoma State is the question mark. They are a dark horse contender for the conference and possily the National Title, but I don't quite buy into the last part. The game against UGa will set the tone for their season.

SEC

The conference that their fans take pride in being the toughest, and this year will probably take a step closer to being undisputedly so.

1. Winner in the West: LSU. It looked like they sorted out their QB issues in the bowl game and shored up their defensive coaching staff. They will not allow 50 points to anyone this year.
2. Winner in the East: Florida, duh. They will also win in Atlanta.
3. Arkansas will be the surprise of the conference. I think they could finish ahead of Alabama, and will finish ahead of Ole Miss. Ole Miss will disappoint, even though Snead will continue to be a badass and probably be the steal of the NFL draft.
4. South Carolina will suck out loud, and the waves of disappointment coming from Spurrier's visor will be felt as far away as Knoxville.

ACC

This conference will continue to be a jumbled mess, especially in the Coastal. Teams are starting to rise to stratify a little more, like they do in other conferences. With the out of conference schedule, there should be a lot of really good ACC games this year.

1. Winner in the Coastal: Virginia Tech. It's their's until someone takes it from them.
2. Winner in the Atlantic: The winner of the FSU-Clemson game will go to Tampa to play the Hokies. I hope it's the Tigers, but it will probably be the Noles.
3. The Atlantic is going to be the weaker division this year, with Wake and BC being down. This might be the year that makes the grumbles for Friedgen audible outside of ACCland, an NCState lives and dies by their QB.
4. The Coastal has a bottleneck with VT, GT, UNC, and Miami. Georgia Tech is the story of the league, returning a ton of players. We keep hearing about how he is going to install more of the offense. Ok. UNC should be good, but who knows. Same could be said for Miami, really. They have new coordinators in Coral Gables and had a dramatic offseason.

National Title Picks:

UF over Penn State. I can see something similar to last year happening in the Big XII, and an undefeated Penn State will get to play ahead of a one or two loss OU or UT. Nobody is demoting even a one loss Florida this year.

I will summarize in the comments. Leave your own predictions there.