Game of the Century

There have been several games that have drawn similar hype as this week's Tussle in Tuscaloosa, or Showdown in T-Town, between LSU.

Personally, Alabama has the edge in coaching, while LSU has more overall talent. There's talk that 35 NFL prospects will be on the field, and there have been 600+ media credential requests.

Keep in mind that no one handles rematches like Nick Saban. According to Jon Solomon of the Birmingham News, 10 years have passed since Saban lost in consecutive years to the same college coach. Since Steve Spurrier beat LSU 41-9 and 44-15 in 2000 and 2001, Saban is 12-0 in rematch games.

What's more, Alabama RB Trent Richardson will be the best player on the field. For investment advice, take the Crimson Tide -5 against the Bayou Bengals.

The weight of preseason No. 1

Sure, Alabama is the consensus preseason No. 1. But that hardly means the Crimson Tide will sit atop the polls in January. Sure, it was an easy pick for the SEC media to win the league championship. But that group has only been correct three times since 1992.

Certainly it will be more difficult with the absence of RB Mark Ingram (knee), if only for two or three weeks.

Even beyond the SEC, the historical challenge of starting and finishing the season on top is rare. Since 1991, it has happened three times: FSU in 1993 and 1999, and USC in 2004. Here's a sampling of the preseason and postseason No. 1s since 2002.

Preseason Postseason
2002 Miami Ohio State
2003 Alabama/Oklahoma USC/LSU
2004 USC USC
2005 USC Texas
2006 Ohio State Florida
2007 USC LSU
2008 Georgia Florida
2009 Florida Alabama

The questions for Alabama are mainly on defense and special teams. They have to replace nine starters on defense, including six draftees, although many of last year's backups saw significant playing time, and all three main specialists. Kicker, punter, returner, but also long snapper and holder.

Of course the schedule is tough, with a well-documented six games against teams who have their bye week scheduled the week before playing the Crimson Tide. Not to mention road games against Arkansas and LSU.

It's difficult to bet against Nick Saban when he's on the college sidelines. But all it takes is a blocked kick, injury (see above) or wacky turnover to derail a championship run. History is tough to argue against.

College football nuggets to pass the time

Three days until the official kickoff, here's a few items to get to the starting line...

Mark Ingram faces a daunting task to start this season: He's a returning Heisman Trophy winner. And returning Heisman winners are held to a higher standard than other contenders. It's human nature to compare a player to his own stats from the previous season. But it also adds an imaginary opponent to a player's competition for the coveted trophy.

Every season, there's a weekend where you might just want to make a dent in the honey-do list, and put the games in the background. What week will it be this year? Oct. 9? Here are some games that day: No. 1 Alabama at South Carolina, Indiana at No. 2 Ohio State, No. 21 LSU at No. 4 Florida, No. 11 Oregon at Washington State, Clemson at No. 18 North Carolina. Several decent games, but nothing that really moves the meter, barring an upset or an unexpected undefeated team.

How are blue bloods Notre Dame and Tennessee rebuilding with weak schedules? Forget all the tradition talk with the Irish and the military schools. They won't be taken seriously until they schedule multiple power conference teams that are ranked. Tennessee's reputation took a major hit when it pulled out of an agreement to play North Carolina. Is this designed to lengthen Derek Dooley's stay in Knoxville?

Speaking of Notre Dame, the Irish could have added an asterisk after word surfaced last week that they're working with NBC to schedule shorter commercial breaks, which would help Notre Dame's up-tempo offense. All this does is add to Notre Dame's elitist nature. If they are to play for a national championship one day, what will happen during the conventional commercial breaks? Of course, this could be much ado about nothing, and it might have little impact. Still, no other school would pull a stunt like this, so it's just another reason to believe the Irish think they're more important than everyone else.