BCS preview: The conferences

Editor's note: All predictions based on conference media vote, except the Big Ten.

Analysis: The SEC has posted back-to-back national titles, and with relative ease in the big game, which has the conference looking down at the rest of college football.

LSU won the SEC and the BCS titles in 2007 and it might have been the second-best team in its own conference by the end of the season. That’s how strong Georgia, the preseason No. 1 team in the country, closed out 2007.

The Dawgs are hungry to make it an SEC three-peat and win their first national title since the glory days of Herschel Walker and Buck Beleu in 1980. Knowshon Moreno made a Walker-like debut with 1,334 rushing yards in his first season. If the Dawgs can stay out of legal trouble, they’re loaded on defense and they might be the best-coached team in the SEC.

That’s a mouthful considering Mark Richt isn’t one of the five coaches in the SEC with a national title in his back pocket. LSU’s Les Miles joined that exclusive club last season but the Tigers will miss big DT Glenn Dorsey and gutsy RB Jacob Hester, not to mention QB Ryan Perrilloux, who was thrown off the team for his distinguished list of off-field accomplishments.

That leaves a void in the West for Auburn, which is following Florida’s lead and switching to a spread option offense.

Speaking of the Gators, the 2006 national champs, they return Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow at quarterback and eight starters on defense.

Florida, not Georgia who was voted No. 1 in the country by both the writers and coaches, was picked by the SEC media to win the conference.

Forget the uninspired bowl loss to Michigan, the Gators are capable of claiming Urban Meyer’s second title. Tebow needs help on offense. He already showed signs of wearing down at the end of 2007 because of too much wear and tear.

If the Gators can avenge last year's 42-30 loss to Georgia in the Cocktail Party, the only thing standing in their way is Florida State.

Analysis: The Mountaineers lose coach Rich Rodriguez and RB Steve Slaton but return QB Pat White and Slaton’s replacement, Noel Devine. In the short term, WVU will miss change-of-pace fullback Owen Schmitt more than Rodriguez, who ruined an otherwise storybook stay on the Country Roads by blowing a spot in the national title game with a home loss to Pitt in the season-finale and then bolting for Michigan.

USF, and underrated QB Matt Grothe, got a nosebleed after starting 6-0 and reaching No. 2 in the national rankings. If the 17 returning starters can learn from the 3-4 finish, the Bulls can unseat WVU as Big East champs.

The Big East writers like Pitt, on the strength of its WVU upset, but the Panthers are going to have to bring the fastball to finish in front of competitive teams at Rutgers, Cincinnati and UConn.
A once-proud Syracuse program, 7-28 under Greg Robinson, could usurp Duke’s title as the worst team in the BCS.

1. Ohio State
2. Wisconsin
3. Penn State
4. Illinois
5. Michigan State
6. Michigan
7. Iowa
8. Purdue
9. Northwestern
10. Indiana
11. Minnesota

Analysis: While Lloyd Carr was sleepwalking and Joe Paterno was warding off ESPN “witch hunts,” the Big Ten turned into Ohio State and the Little Ten. The Buckeyes, 22-2 since 2004 against the conference, should win the league again but will have a tougher time because of road trips to Wisconsin, Michigan State and Illinois.

Carr retired and Rich Rodriguez brings the spread option to Michigan. He's missing some parts, though, which means it will be up to Wisconsin, Penn State and Illinois to challenge OSU.

The Illini, which must replace RB Rashard Mendenhall (1,681 yards, 17 TDs), beat Ohio State last season and should be formidable again behind QB Juice Williams.

Penn State, with 18 returning starters and a new QB to run the spread option, should push Illinois and Wisconsin for second place.

Michigan State’s on the rise with former OSU assistant Mark Dantonio in his second season and a sharp senior at QB in Brian Hoyer.

This is the swan song for coach Joe Tiller at Purdue, who’s going to retire after 12 seasons and introducing the Big Ten to modern game of football.

Minnesota has taken the unconventional route of turning to a former UNC assistant (head coach Tim Brewster) and a former Duke head coach (defensive coordinator Ted Roof) to try and turn around a team that plummeted to 1-11 in 2007.

North
1. Missouri
2. Kansas
3. Nebraska
4. Colorado
5. Kansas State
6. Iowa State
South
1. Oklahoma
2. Texas
3. Texas Tech
4. Oklahoma State
5. Texas A&M
6. Baylor

Analysis: The Big 12 has come a long way from the first half of this decade when Oklahoma and Texas treated the rest of the conference like mushrooms. The Sooners, with budding star QB Sam Bradford, are still the class of the conference but Kansas, Missouri and Texas Tech all have top-10 potential.

The Tigers are thinking national title after last year’s 12-2 run and with the return of Heisman finalist QB Chase Daniel (4,306 yards and 33 TDs). They have to put their work boots on to win the North, with Kansas, 12-1 in 2007, primed for another explosive season, and Nebraska, renewed under the leadership of first-year coach Bo Pelini.

Mike Sherman (Texas A&M) and Art Briles (Baylor) join Pelini as the league’s rookie coaches. They are both older than Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy, who turned 41, but is nevertheless, still a man.

Dan Hawkins, Gundy’s fellow Internet legend — “Go play intramurals, brother!” —  has Colorado, 6-7 in 2007, poised for a step forward in his third season in Boulder.

1. USC
2. Arizona State
3. Oregon
4. Cal
5. UCLA
6. Oregon State
7. Arizona
8. Washington
9. Stanford
10. Washington State

Analysis: Injuries, specifically at quarterback, ruined what should have been a banner season for the Pac-10 in 2007. Oregon, not conference bully USC, was on track for the BCS title game before Dennis Dixon blew out his knee.

The Ducks, Cal and Arizona State all take a step back this year which leaves USC, even in a transitional season, as the undisputed favorite. The Trojans lost 10 players to the NFL, seven were drafted in the first two rounds. The biggest losses are on the offensive line, which needs four new starters.

USC is still USC, though, and the defense, led by linebacker Rey Maualuga, will be lights-out good. With a win over Ohio State on Sept. 13, the Trojans could sail into the BCS title game because all of their tough conference games are at home.

Rich Neuheisel gets back in the college game at UCLA, where Kenny Rogers’ favorite coach wisely made Norm Chow his offensive coordinator. The Bruins should show some fight in the new regime, not enough to knock off USC, but enough to make the wide-open race for No. 2 interesting.