Well here it is, my projected AP Top 10 for next year as of February 1, 2010! I will mention it now and I will mention it numerous times throughout today’s blog but this is not MY preseason Top 10 for next year, it is where I project the AP Top 10 to come out at the start of the season.

Last year my projected Top 10 for the AP Poll was #1 Florida, #2 Texas, #3 USC, #4 Oklahoma, #5 Alabama, #6 Virginia Tech, #7 LSU, #8 Oklahoma St, #9 Ohio St and #10 Mississippi. The actual AP Top 25 was #1 Florida, #2 Texas, #3 Oklahoma, #4 USC, #5 Alabama, #6 Ohio St, #7 Virginia Tech, #8 Mississippi and#9 was a tie between Oklahoma St/Penn St.

I nailed nine of the ten teams that appeared in the Preseason Top 10 with the only exception being LSU/Penn St and I may have had something to do with that. It’s interesting to note that of the main preseason magazines, only two had Penn St ranked in the Top 10 and I had them my #1 surprise team and ranked #5. Most had Penn St out of the Top 10. Perhaps since I had them rated so high in my magazine, it influenced a few voters across the country, bumping them into the Top 10.

Now let’s take a look at this year’s projected Preseason AP Top 10: Read more…

I have been working on magazine deadlines since December 1st and have just finished reading 75-150pg reports on each of the 120 FBS teams. The reports are created by my staff throughout the season as they read dozens of articles daily on each of their assigned teams. My staff then underlines all the important information for me and this gives me a lot of flavor of what was going on into and out of games throughout the season. I find it interesting every year to see how the writers’ perception of the team changes from August to January.

I have also just completed my projection of what the AP Preseason Top 10 will look like in August. In each of the last two years I have nailed 9 of the 10 teams that appeared in the Preseason Top 10 successfully with last years exception being LSU/Penn St and I may have had something to do with that. Read more…

WHO FACED THE TOUGHEST SCHEDULE IN 2009?

What makes my Toughest Opponents Faced rankings far superior to the NCAA method is that mine takes into account 9 sets of power ratings, combines them and factors in every team’s schedule this year. I did this not only for the bowl teams, but for all the NCAA teams & found out which teams played the toughest schedules this year. Read more…

First of all I would like to congratulate all those Browns fans that went down to the game last night. It was FREEZING with subzero wind chills in Cleveland and the Browns had one total win on the year. I think it speaks really well to the true 50,000 or so Die Hard Browns fans who showed up to support their team and clearly the Browns responded with their best performance of the season in the 13-6 win. The Browns sacked Steeler QB Roethlisberger 8 times and had a 255-216 yd edge including a 171-75 yd rush edge. It has been a really tough year in Cleveland but last night true Browns fans could finally be proud of their team.

Here are the five candidates for the 2009 Heisman Trophy. Today, I will give you the PROS and CONS for each winning the Award this year. The Award comes out on Saturday but here is my projections of the order of finish for this years top 5 that have been invited to New York.

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I wasn’t too thrilled with some of yesterday’s results as far as the magazine goes but I still have an excellent shot at being the most accurate magazine in the country this year. Naturally a lot depends on how the rest of the season goes.

The last two weeks I have put up the average rankings’ top teams each Saturday but I will try to do that earlier this week, perhaps on Wednesday or Thursday. I hope that you checked out the Saturday News and Notes for a lot of interesting things I read throughout the week and as I get more and more caught up this football season, I will continue to put more into those News and Notes each Saturday as well. I may even have my overall power play rankings and add in some other rankings beside the +/- this week. Let’s take a look at this past weekend’s performances.

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The season is far from over but a couple of Ohio St bloggers as well as some Ohio State fans that wrote into Phil Steele.com questioned my sanity for picking Brandon Saine as the top RB at Ohio St over Boom Herron. Yes, Herron was the top RB out of spring and had more yards last year but remember Saine was never 100% healthy last year. After last week Saine has rushed for 294 yards and a solid 6.0 ypc and Herron just 233 and 3.6 ypc. Remember the players I have listed #1 in the magazine are not the ones that necessarily will START the season but the ones that will be the starter at the end.

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The BCS Busters are down to two as Houston lost to UTEP, so only Boise St and TCU have a shot at being a BCS Buster this year. Boise’s toughest foe appears to be Tulsa who they have to play on the road and TCU has to play BYU on the road.

Let’s take a look at this week’s top performances:

USC’s demolition of California on the road got them the top grade for this week at 103.4 per my computer. USC is a prime contender for the National Title and should they end up with just one loss, would probably get my vote if they continue to play this impressively. They have been in the Top 25 Performances of the Week every week this year.

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Make sure to check out the Saturday Results - updated all day Saturday!

I just got around to checking the polls mid-week and I did so after reading a rant by Doug Lesmerises of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. He noted that the coaches poll CLICK HERE FOR LATEST POLLS and the Harris poll BOTH had Penn State ranked ahead of Iowa! That is ridiculous as Iowa is unbeaten and beat Penn St AT Penn St and the Lions 3 wins were over creampuffs. Iowa deserves to be in the top 10 and Penn St maybe at the bottom of the top 20. Good call Doug.

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Brand new this week – Saturday morning NFL picks will be up at 10 am ET and I will also have the latest college football injury report as well as players that will play who were expected out as well as my additional notes from Thursday, Friday and Saturday reading. Check the Daily Blog at 10 am.

As you know I am a voter on TEN different college football Awards for the upcoming season. I love all of the College Football Awards . You will notice I have the history of the Awards and all of the this year’s Preseason Watch Lists up for each award for the 2009 season right now!

I will also provide stat updates during the year and share with you the information that I use to make an informed vote for each award at the end of the year.