Going 9-9 in league play seems to hardly qualify for a tournament, but UConn proved that they belonged by winning the Big East tournament and gaining an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Notably, UConn was unbeaten outside of league play, going 23-0 as they plowed their way forward. Thus, the Big East Conference which has been derided for being “over hyped” should get some credit too: a middle of the pack team is the national champion and they became champs by winning a classical dog fight against the Butler Bulldogs on Monday night.

Sweet Dogs

The Butler Bulldogs were the darling team of the tournament this year as they were last year. In last year’s title game, the Bulldogs came “oh so close” to knocking off Duke. This year, they were up by 3 at the half, with a national championship trophy just 20 minutes of playing time away.

Unfortunately for Butler and coach Brad Stevens, UConn coach Jim Calhoun rallied his team during the intermission and the Huskies came out fighting. UConn turned up the defense and pressed the Bulldogs hard for the remainder of the game, quickly turning a three-point deficit into a lead before going up by double digits and winning by 12.

Following the game, analysts were outdoing each other by offering comparatives and using superlatives to describe what happened in Houston.

Field Goal Futility

We now know that this is the first time since 1949 that the two teams combined for fewer than 100 points. We also know that the 18.8 percent field goal percentage by Butler was an exercise in futility and one for the record books: no finalist in the history of the tournament ever had such a tough time scoring. “Quite frankly it was one of the worst championship games you could ever see,” uttered Jay Bilas as he spoke with Hubert Davis and Digger Phelps in ESPN’s studio following the game.

Yes, Butler was in over its head with this one. Being up at the half may have lulled the Bulldogs to think the game was theirs for the taking. UConn proved that if you wear the Dogs down, you can win. Ultimately, what UConn put on was a clinic in persistence, demonstrating to everyone why they were in Houston and what it took to get there and win it all.

Retirement Planning

Calhoun may choose to retire following the Huskies’ third national championship in 12 years. The Connecticut coach and his athletic director are under NCAA scrutiny following allegations of illegal recruiting and other possible problems. For now, UConn is the top dog in the nation and Butler is one dog that has to wonder if it’ll ever be able to deliver a Hoosier miracle or whether its chances to do so have come to an end.

Utes fans await the Pitt Panthers for Thursday night action.

Can it be here already? That “here” would be the 2010 college football season.

After an active summer when several colleges announced that they would be leaving their leagues for brighter horizons, the conference transfer rumors quickly died down and practice for the season began. Those warm ups are now over and the first games will be held tomorrow night with opening weekend action continuing through Labor Day.

Thursday Night

The very first game of this season and weekend will kick off at 6:30 p.m. as Presbyterian plays at Wake Forest. The weekend’s action concludes on Monday at 8 p.m. when Boise State and Virginia Tech duke it out in Washington, D.C. Key games are getting air time with some getting national coverage while others are being shown locally.

Although there are a number of lopsided contests scheduled for this weekend–considering that college football doesn’t have a preseason like the NFL that is understandable–there are a number of contests worth following this weekend including:

Southern Miss at South Carolina – The Golden Eagles take on the Gamecocks in Columbia, a contest between a middle of the road Conference USA team and a middle of the road SEC school. I’m picking the Gamecocks to win at home.

Pittsburgh at Utah — Of course, THE game to watch on Thursday night is the Panthers at the Utes. The Panthers are the top choice for Big East honors this year while the Utes will be heading to the Pac 10 (12) next year. A lot is riding on this game for both teams, but I’m going with Utah in a close one.

Friday action is a disappointment as the only games scheduled are Villanova at Temple and Arizona at Toledo. Seems to me someone could have put a marquee game on; plenty of people won’t be able to tune in on Thursday night, but they will on Friday.

UConn at Michigan – Of all the Saturday contests, this one could be easily overlooked. Michigan is improved and so are the Huskies. I’m going with UConn to pull out an upset in front of 110,000 disappointed Wolverine fans in Ann Arbor.

San Jose State at Alabama – The only reason to watch this game is to see last year’s national champions start off their quest for a repeat. You’ll watch the game long enough for the real action to begin the following hour. Obviously, the Crimson Tide will romp.

Oregon State at TCU – 45 minutes after the ‘Bama game starts, these two teams will hash it out in Texas. I’m not sure why, but I keep thinking that the Beavers will dispose of the Horned Frogs in Arlington.

LSU at North Carolina — I like this match up because it is one of the more even games between ranked teams. Though I live only 30 minutes from Chapel Hill, I believe the Tigers will prevail.

Sunday will be like Friday as Tulsa takes on East Carolina followed by Southern Methodist at Texas Tech. Instead, fire up the grill and invite some friends over.

Labor Day games risk getting overlooked as people head back from the shore and are relaxing by cooking out or are preparing to head back to school. Though you may not be interested in tuning in to Navy at Maryland at 4 p.m. ET, you’ll want to make sure that you view the 8 p.m. contest between Boise State and Virginia Tech. Yes, the best game has been saved for last! I believe the Hokies will squeeze by the Broncos who, by the way, no longer are a surprise or underrated college football team.

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Photo courtesy of the University of Utah.

The UConn Huskies playing in a BCS game seems almost farfetched, but when you consider how close they played in each of their losses last season, the Huskies stand a chance to prove themselves nationally this year. Winning the Big East Conference championship would provide the Huskies with that access; who’s to say that UConn won’t win it all?

The Bleacher Report is just one of many websites offering up their predictions about how the 2010 college football season might unfold. And writer Ben Carson got one thing dead right: most avid fans think about college football year ’round, thus the prognostications are never too early.

SEC Rules

One thing on most fan’s mind is this: will the SEC fill out the glove and claim their fifth consecutive championship? Importantly, are the Tennessee Volunteers good enough to knock off the Tide and keep all challengers at bay?

Clearly, college football is one of the hardest sports to predict with supposed top teams going from glory to gloom in just one season. Yes, Hawaii got creamed by Georgia in the Sugar Bowl a few years back, but there always seems to be a handful of Cinderella teams who defy the odds and get an unaccustomed January play date.

Best Guess

Personally, I haven’t bothered to throw my predictions out there, not that I’m afraid of what you may think. I simply find it too difficult to offer anything that could possibly be taken seriously; then again I see the following trends unfolding in 2010:

New Champ — This will be the season that the national champion won’t be from the SEC. Instead, I see Texas (not Oklahoma as Carson suggested) winning the Big 12 and playing for the national title. The Longhorns will face off against an SEC opponent and surprise everyone with a statement making win.

No Irish — This is the year that the Irish will turn the corner. Not so fast.  Brian Kelly will make some much needed improvements including getting the Notre Dame defense to do their job, but I don’t expect they’ll manage much more than a lower tier bowl bid this year. Three years out and the Irish could be playing for the national championship.

Mountaineers Run It – UConn may be the odds on favorite for some, but I see West Virginia winning the Big East on the legs of Noel Devine. If Devine rushes for 2,000 yards, he’ll lead a perfect West Virginia team to a shot to play for the national championhip. Yes, they’ll have to beat LSU, UConn and Pitt on the road along the way.

In a few weeks we’ll take a look at the first games of the season and offer up our predictions then.

Forgive me if I’m not too excited about Divisions II and III although I did graduate from a college who competed on the smallest of the three levels. When it comes to late season basketball—March Madness—what happens on the Division I level gets all the press. And, not to put the women out, men’s basketball has by far the biggest following of all.

Besides, a UConn Lady Huskies repeat is a given, right?

I wrote this article before the final conference championship games were played which means what I have to say won’t include details about Selection Sunday and the 65 teams chosen to go to the big dance. But, there are certain givens about this year’s tournament, stuff we already know will happen no matter who makes the tournament or where they are seeded.

Major Downer – UConn and UNC are perennial performers who make it the NCAA and go deep. Last year the Tarheels won the championship, this year they won’t be going to the dance. Neither will the Huskies. Both teams were expected to shine this year, instead they have disappointed their fans. Better luck in 2011.

No Duds – It seems every year a Cinderella team finds their way in the tournament, a 13-18 team from a bottom feeder conference who suddenly livened up at season’s end to win their conference title. Well, not this year. True, there are a handful of teams who got in who weren’t expected to including Winthrop and East Tennessee State, but at least they have winning records. And, they’ll most likely get trashed in the opening round by a top seeded team.

Baylor – Who would have ever thought that the Baylor Bears would be a force in college basketball? Last year, they just missed out on the NCAA tournament but made it to the NIT before losing in the championship game. This year, they’re testing everyone including the high flying Kansas Jayhawks. Just remember the names Tweety Carter and LaceDarius Dunn—you’ll hear their names repeated as long as Baylor stays alive in the Big Dance. Did I mention Ekpe Udoh? Three players who could help Baylor surprise this year.

Tourney Hosts – 14 cities host opening, first/second round, regional and final four action, giving these locales a chance to bring in rapid money spending fans to bolster the local economy. Pity Dayton, Ohio who gets to host just one game—the forgetful opening round play in game no one cares about. Buffalo will be hosting first/second round action March 19-21 which raises a pair of questions: what if the city is socked in by a blizzard and what is there to do in Buffalo anyway? The best deal belongs to Indianapolis as that hoops crazed town will host the Final Four which will be held at Lucas Oil Arena April 3 & 5.

Stay sane….March Madness is here!

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Oddly, the defending national champion UNC Tarheels look like that they will sit this one out unless they manage to win the conference tournament, thereby receiving an automatic bid. But at 13-10, that isn’t a likely scenario with the more realistic picture having the Tarheels play in the NIT.

But the Tarheels are not the only surprise team of 2010. There are at least four more teams who have raised eyebrows at some point this season with some not on everyone’s radar, at least just yet:

Pitt Panthers – Being 17-6 and ranked #21 isn’t a bad place to be, but when the expectations for your team were so much higher, the Panthers seem to be a disappointment. At 7-4 in the Big East, Pitt lost a pair of games in recent weeks that they should have won against Seton Hall and South Florida. Still, don’t count Pitt out just yet: they’ll make the NCAA and they could go deep. A close second Big East surprise is the Uconn Huskies who, like UNC, will probably not make the tournament.

Charlotte 49ers – The Dayton Flyers were expected to waltz through the Atlantic 10 this year as Xavier, Rhode Island, Temple and St. Joe’s lost their most talented players to the NBA last season. But Dayton is 5-3 and in sixth place in the conference with Charlotte leading all-comers at 8-1. Forward Shamari Spears and guard Derrio Green are leading the 49ers effort this season, combining for 31 points per game. Tomorrow night’s game at Dayton is a must win for the Flyers.

Cornell Big Red – The Ivy League will likely never field a national champion, but they usually can be counted on for fielding a team with the potential to slay a giant. Princeton and Pennsylvania once had a lockhold on the conference for smart people, but Cornell is 6-0 and will most likely win the conference if they knock down challenges from Princeton and Harvard. The Big Red’s open seasoning victory at Alabama and five point loss to #1 Kansas has put Cornell on the NCAA conference map.

Lafayette Leopards – Not exactly a power conference but one where the tournament winner receives an automatic bid, the Patriot League has its own surprise in the form of Lafayette. Everyone had the Leopards finishing dead last, but they started out their conference season on top of the league. Now 5-3, Lafeyette is one game behind Lehigh, but within striking distance of the top. At 14-9 overall, the Pennsylvania school may be a surprise entry in the Field of 65 come March 14.

West Coast

I realize that this list is skewed toward eastern teams, but I think that may be due mostly to the strength of the east versus the west. Indeed, when a power conference such as the PAC 10 cannot place a single team in the Top 25, then you know that a shift has taken place. Gonzaga, New Mexico, Brigham Young, and UNLV are the top teams of the west, but the dearth of a dominating team from that area of the country is simply stunning.

The college football season is fast approaching, with the first games to be held the last weekend of this month. Yes, the lull from the January bowl games to Labor Day is about over, giving fans from Athens to Laramie and everywhere else a chance to cheer on their favorite teams.

LSU was crowned champion last season despite doing what no other #1 team had done previously — they lost two twice before knocking off Ohio State 38-24 in the BCS title game.

LSU Opens Light

This year, LSU starts the season on August 30th against Appalachian State (ASU), the top team from the formerly known as 1-AA division. That ASU team started the 2007 season with a shocking victory on the University of Michigan’s field, but don’t expect LSU to be caught looking when the Mountaineers from Boone, NC come to town. LSU follows up its opening contest with games against Troy and North Texas before heading into SEC play.

Early Season Tilt

With major college football now a twelve game season, most schools are electing to pad their schedules with a subdivision team or a weak BCS team in a bid to get that extra win and position themselves for a higher post season bowl opportunity. Not so with Ohio State and USC who will be meeting each other, Rose Bowl style, at the L.A. Coliseum on Saturday, September 13th.

Both schools have a decent conference schedule this year with most of their toughest games at home. Whether worthy of that distinction or not, the winner of this tilt will be an early season favorite to play at Dolphin Stadium in Miami Gardens, FL on January 8, 2009. Me thinks that several other programs will take exception to this theory, including several powerhouses from the SEC.

Any Fight Left In The Irish?

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish made history last year, but not the kind of history the Irish are noted for.  Fresh off a 10-3 season in 2006, Irish faithful expected much in 2007, but got very little. Three wins to be exact and a heart-wrenching home loss to Navy. The arm of Jimmy Clausen will guide the troops this year, but it is the defense that needs the most improvement, a unit that gave up 29 points per game last season.

Sporting News says that the Irish are the #28 team on their Top 50 list for 2008 and NBC recently extended their exclusive TV contract with the university through the 2015 season. Expect the team to forget last season as soon as they take the field when they open up against San Diego State on September 6th.

Big East, Not The Least

A few years back when the Big East Conference lost its top three teams, the Miami Hurricanes, Boston College Eagles, and Virginia Tech Hokies, most pundits said that the conference’s ability to compete on the national level would be limited to only one team: the West Virginia Mountaineers. Since the Big 3 fled for the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Big East’s fortunes have actually improved while the ACC still remains a full step behind the SEC.

This year, West Virginia is expected to shine, but the South Florida Bulls are right up there as well. In addition, a renewed Pitt Panther team should be bowl bound while UConn, Rutgers, Louisville, and Cincinnati, battle for the two remaining post season positions.  Speaking of Rutgers, will Ray Rice’s early exit to the NFL hurt the team and will the State of New Jersey find enough money to fully fund the stadium upgrade?

Lots Of Coverage This Fall

SayCampusLife will keep an eye on big time college football this fall, but we’ll throw in a few surprises including some smaller school programs and other tidbits. The season starts early, but by the time the first fall chill is in the air, we’ll have a good idea just how far some of these teams will go.