Pre-Season Recap:
MattNY/Yanksfan was the only person that failed to accept his invite, so he's on the bubble for the first week of the season and needs to complete his activities so I see that he's actually going to be active in this dynasty. Just as a reminder, if you're not playing a game in a given week and don't want to do recruiting, the least you can do is sign on and select the "ready to advance" option in the dynasty headquarters so I know you're not ignoring the dynasty. It's at least 10 times easier to get to the dynasty this year, so there's no excuse to get spend five to ten minutes to get on and get the small amount of work you need to do done when you don't have a game to play.
I've gone through the schedules with a fine tooth comb and made them fit to start the season, so here are your non-conference schedules to see how they turned out. Because the conference has so many high caliber teams, most everyone's strength of schedule is A+, so BCS rankings should be a bit kinder on anyone that is in the running for the National Championship. Michigan State/Notre Dame was no possible for the reason that both are in the same conference, but different divisions, so that game will happen when it happens.
This is the first week of the newly-rebranded Supremely Excellent Conference (SEC), which is made up of some of the most exciting and talented teams in the country that wish to prove that they are better than everyone else by aiming for to play in the National Championship game at the end of the season.
The Pre-Season Heisman Watch features two players from the SEC: Tim Tebow of Florida in the #1 spot and Colt McCoy of Texas in spot #3. I will keep an eye on how the race progresses as the season starts to see who is most likely to take home the Heisman trophy for the 2009 season.
The Pre-Season All-NCAA All-American selections included a number of SEC players. The first team saw Florida take the lead with four players, LSU in second with two, and Georgia Tech, Notre Dame, South Florida, and USC all had one player each. Florida had the most players on the All-NCAA All-American 2nd Team list with two players whileLSU, USC, Texas, Michigan State, and Miami had one player each.
The All-SEC All-American selections provided some odd moments, as voters seemed to be confused about who was in the SEC since Georgia, South Carolina, and Vanderbilt players were selected for a few spots. The 1st Team was overwhelmingly filled with Florida players, nine of them to be exact, while LSU came in second with four players, and Georgia Tech and Rutgers tied for third with two players each. The 2nd Team saw a repeat with Florida in first again with seven selections, LSU came in second with four selections, and USC and Ohio State tied for third place with two selections each. Georgia had an embarassing ten players selected, ensuring that a petition will be created to have selections redone, but the red tape is sure to take several years to be cleared up so that nobody will care by then.
This first week of the season is always a special one, as it kicks off the long stretch of coverage regarding which teams will contend for the National Championships at year's end and eternal complaints about the BCS and why we need playoffs to truly settle the disputes. In the meantime, a few big games are scheduled for today. #7 Ohio State will be taking on #25 Kansas as one of the first ranked games of the year, though you will also see #10 Virginia Tech at #3 Texas later that night. Florida also hosts a game against Missouri at home to start off their campaign as rightful owners of the #1 ranking. A few rivalry games are also happening early this year, with Boston College at Notre Dame, USC at UCLA, and Michigan State at Michigan all taking place today.
The full schedule for this week:
Lee Rutgers (BigAT4) at NC StateKirk
Kirk Virginia at Miami (HeadShotKillaz) Lee
Ohio State (FriskyTanuki) at Kansas Lee Kirk
Kirk Missouri at Florida (Ultimate Matt X) Lee
Kirk Memphis at Georgia Tech (S3anAmI) Lee
Kirk Boston College at Notre Dame (Regian) Lee
Kirk Louisiana Tech at Iowa (MattNY) Lee
Lee USC (ShadyMarino) at UCLA Kirk
Kirk Michigan State (XXXplosive1) at Michigan Lee
Lee Kirk Virginia Tech at Texas (Frankysox)
Lee LSU (Doomtime) at Washington Kirk
South Florida (JustnCredible29) at Arizona State Lee Kirk