On Sunday morning, after waking up and throwing back a glass of H2O, I did what I always do ... opened the laptop and checked the college football rankings. It's a habit of mine, for no particular reason at all. I'm not a huge fan of a big powerhouse, sans my affiliation to my home state Texas teams.
This Sunday was different. I was pulling the rankings up with a purpose. I was going to see something I'd never seen in all my years as a football fan. My school would be ranked. My college was going to matter.
The University of Arizona is ranked in all the major college football polls for the first time since I set foot in Tucson, as a clueless 18-year-old hoping that I made the right choice with my selection. (Turns out, beautiful weather, all the golf I could ask for and a female student body that rivaled John Mayer's groupies is the recipe you want in a four year school.)
Washington linebacker Mason Foster was named Pac-10 defensive player of the week on Monday after he scored the game-winning touchdown off a deflected interception in Saturday's win over Arizona. But there's one big problem with Foster's big play: Many viewers don't think his interception should have counted at all.
It was a measure of revenge for the Big Ten this afternoon in Iowa City as the Iowa Hawkeyes knocked off the Arizona Wildcats, 27-17.
The Hawkeyes were led by their defense, which held Arizona's powerful rushing attack to 146 yards and kept the nation's No. 2 rusher, Arizona's Nic Grigsby, to just 74 yards on 11 carries. Arizona didn't score an offensive touchdown until 1:55 remained in the fourth quarter and only managed eight first downs all afternoon.
Iowa quarterback Ricky Stanzi started slowly, throwing a first-quarter interception which Arizona's Trevin Wade returned for a touchdown. Stanzi finished 20 of 32 for 205 yards.
So is this the year someone besides USC wins the Pac-10 title and gains the automatic BCS bowl berth?
If there is ever a year for USC to get chased from behind and caught, this is this year. The Trojans are breaking in a new quarterback in Aaron Corp and replacing several departed starters to the NFL draft.
So who's it going to be? Cal? Can the Golden Bears overcome early-season trap games and win the games they are supposed to and make it interesting? Can Oregon beat USC at home and win difficult road games and take the title? And how about Oregon State? Do Mike Riley teams always have to start 1-3 before getting into high gear?
And what about the rest of the field? Is this Stanford's breakout year? Is UCLA ready to become a Pac-10 factor again? And is Arizona really the third worst team in the conference as it was picked by the media? These are all intriguing questions that will be worked out in the coming weeks.
Our standings preview and records predictions are after the jump.
LOS ANGELES -- USC was picked to win the Pac-10 football title for the seventh consecutive year by the media, and yet the coaches from all nine competitors -- including Arizona's Mike Stoops (right) and even USC coach Pete Carroll -- touched on the uncertainty of the Trojans this season.
USC received 28 of the 32 votes with California receiving three while third-place Oregon collected one vote. The Trojans will be breaking in a new quarterback and several new defenders since 11 players were taken in the NFL Draft. Perhaps this is the year another school emerges and takes the crown out of Los Angeles, but they approached Thursday precariously and with respect. There were no declarations that USC is going down or the reign is over -- not even from UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel.
LOS ANGELES -- Perhaps there was a reason Pete Carroll pleaded with Mark Sanchez to return to USC for his senior season. He knew his Trojans would lose their gorilla grip on the Pac-10, and that is the enduring theme entering the conference's media day Thursday at the LAX Sheraton Hotel.
The Trojans are not the prohibitive favorites, but the precarious favorites with a slew of teams chasing them. But there's one major catch in their pursuit, most of the conference teams -- outside Washington -- are breaking in a new or less experienced quarterback. USC should be voted the favorites Thursday, but who is second?
Virtually every college athlete in the country is on Facebook now. This makes sense, it's hard not to be on Facebook if you're under 35, impossible if you're under 25. But Facebook has become a public relations minefield for major athletic programs across the country. Whether it's players being kicked out of school for making a threat in their status message (Wake Forest), posting racist comments about the newly elected President (Texas), setting off an internet firestorm over whether or not you actually posted messages on another person's wall (Georgia) or just having your idiotic responses to quizzes posted all over for others to enjoy (Michigan). This is just the tip of the Facebook iceberg, every program is in danger at every moment of every day. All of this attention and all of this danger raises an intriguing question: Is it time for athletic departments to ban their athletes from having social media profiles on Facebook, MySpace, and the like?
Mike Stoops was on the proverbial hot seat before last season. After all, his Arizona Wildcats bumbled to a 17-29 mark in his first four seasons in Tucson. Fans were impatient and the pressure was beating on Stoops like the unrelenting desert sun. Stoops, whose brother Bob is the head coach at Oklahoma, finally found on-field success in 2008, leading UA to a 31-21 Las Vegas Bowl victory over favored Brigham Young, securing his job and giving the once downtrodden a program a boost.
Arizona has a chance to consistently compete with the second tier teams in the Pac-10 -- there is one top-tier team, USC -- and perhaps challenge the Trojans with some consistent recruiting classes fueled by the bowl win.
Pity the poor Pac-10; its revenues are barely half of the SEC, Big Ten, and, shudder, the ACC.
As a result, the Pac-10 is exploring a route that has already made it rain on the SEC and the Big Ten, starting their own network. The Big Ten started their own network in conjunction with FOX and netted $66 million from the network last year. Rather than start their own network, the SEC partnered with CBS and ESPN. Beginning this year the SEC will bring in -- wait for it -- $205 million a year just from television rights. Why does that matter? The Pac-10 conference had revenues of just $88.78 million in 2007. Yep, by 2009, the SEC will triple the Pac-10 in sports revenue. That's a huge deal in the arm's race that is major collegiate sports.
Fortunately, as a lover of all things college football, I'm here to help the Pac-10 ensure their network is a hit. How do we do that? Programming, baby, it's all about the programming.
Notre Dame receiver Tim Brown and (snicker) Miami quarterback Gino Torretta are joined by notables like Arizona's hard-hitting safety Chuck Cecil, Ohio State linebacker and ESPN analyst Chris Spielman, and West Virginia's Major Harris -- who was Pat White before there was a Pat White.
NCAA Football 
On Sunday morning, after waking up and throwing back a glass of H2O, I did what I always do ... opened the laptop and checked the college football rankings. It's a habit of mine, for no particular reason at all. I'm not a huge fan of a big powerhouse, sans my affiliation to my home state Texas teams. 
It was a measure of revenge for the Big Ten this afternoon in Iowa City as the 
So is this the year someone besides USC wins the Pac-10 title and gains the automatic BCS bowl berth? 
LOS ANGELES -- USC was picked to win the Pac-10 football title for the seventh consecutive year by the media, and yet the coaches from all nine competitors -- including Arizona's Mike Stoops (right) and even USC coach 
LOS ANGELES -- Perhaps there was a reason 
Virtually every college athlete in the country is on 
Pity the poor 
The 
