Today I will take a break from the best case/worst case scenarios. First we are only 65 days away from the start of college football season and today I want to talk about a couple of new features on PhilSteele.com.

First, this past weekend on my Facebook Fans page I took requests for some of my early forecasts for 2011’s top games.  From the hundreds of requests here were the first four games.

Facebook Forecasts

1. Arkansas at Alabama, Sept 24th – Both teams have 1st year starting QB’s but Ark’s Wilson makes his first road start vs the best defense in the country (not ideal situation). In Mallett’s 1st start here (12 of 35 passing) and the Hogs lost 35-7 with just 254 yds offense. Ark Oline also is young and has to replace three 3-yr starters. Both teams are in my Top Ten in my Power Poll but 1st road starts are tough and the Tide wins at home 27-17. Read more…

The Week One Poll is available right now!

You can vote on who will win this week’s games by clicking the above link. This poll is separate from the conference and non-conference poll contest that you have been voting on all summer long. The tie breaker will be whoever correctly picks the biggest upset to occur. For example if two players are tied at the top, the person who correctly predicted a 17 pt underdog to win will get the nod over someone who did not pick any upsets.

Every week I will announce the winners of the weekly poll along with the prizes. This first week the prizes are as follows:

1st Place. Complete Set of Phil Steele magazines and Polo Shirt
2nd Place. Your choice of two magazines and Polo or T shirt
3rd Place. Phil Steele.com T Shirt
4th Place. Phil Steele.com T Shirt
5th Place. Phil Steele.com T Shirt

Make sure you get in on the week one vote I will keep a running talley of the leaders during the year in two categories A) Total Wins B) Winning Percentage. I will update this weekly as well. Best of all the contest is FREE!!! Read more…

The non-conference polls are shaping up and if you have not voted already you have until Monday August 30th to vote on who you think will win each non-conference game played this year! First Let’s Look at Some of the Key Non-Conference Matchups So Far

71% of the voters feel Florida will beat Florida St on the road.
60% of the voters feel Georgia will beat Georgia Tech at home.
54% of the voters feel South Carolina will beat Clemson on the road.
80% of the voters feel Oregon will beat Tennessee on the road.
83% of the voters feel Alabama will beat Penn St at home.
85% of the voters feel Auburn will beat Clemson at home.
64% of the voters feel Arkansas will beat Texas A&M in Arlington.
56% of the voters feel LSU will beat North Carolina in Atlanta.
76% of the voters feel Ohio St will beat Miami, Fl at home.
64% of the voters feel Iowa will beat Arizona on the road.
75% of the voters feel Notre Dame will beat Michigan at home.
69% of the voters feel Nebraska will beat Washington on the road.
78% of the voters feel Oklahoma will beat Florida St at home.
51% of the voters feel Boise St will beat Virginia Tech in Landover.
56% of the voters feel Miami, Fl will beat Pittsburgh on the road.
64% of the voters feel USC will beat Notre Dame at home.
62% of the voters feel TCU will beat Oregon St in Arlington. Read more…

The college football season is fast approaching and in today’s blog I will give you a sneak peak at some of the early marquee college football non-conference games and how I think they will shake out as of right now. Also included is your current voting tallies for each of these games.

Remember if you visit the homepage right now, you can get a head start on voting in the Non-Conference Poll with all the non-conference games. To see where you rank against other voters, as soon as your vote is entered in, you will see the % stacked with or against you. In the next day or two the four remaining non-BCS conferences will be added on the front page. The Non-Conference Poll will run until Sunday, Aug 29th. On Monday the 30th, look for the Weekly Polls to start. There are games every day Thursday September 2nd thru Monday September 6th as the first week of the season looks to kick off with a bang! Weekly prizes will be awarded throughout the season. Read more…