The time has finally come. I can officially say that NCAA Football has returned for the 2008 season. About friggin’ time! The leading news outlets are ramping up their preseason predictions, the newpapers college football section is slowly taking up more column inches, and a fire has been lit under the college football blogosphere and the opinions are flying.

The pre-season college football annuals are about to hit the shelves and a few have been sharing, online, what we’ll all rush out to read in the coming month. If you are in the market for one of these preseason mags I found this site http://preseason.stassen.com. This guy seriously breaks down which magazine is the best for predicting the upcoming season along with a shit load of other great stats for you stat junkies.

AthlonSports.com is releasing their Top 25, one team a day, every weekday in May to lead up to the release of their annual Top 25 Magazine Annual. They have us ranked #7! Some WVU points from the Athlon article:

• White, Devine and their supporting cast will work behind arguably the nation’s best offensive line, with All-America tackle Ryan Stanchek and All-Big East guard Greg Isdaner holding down the left side.
• There is some rebuilding to be done on defense, but last year’s top two tacklers — linebackers Reed Williams and Mortty Ivy — will steady the unit until help arrives.
• There are potential landmines all over the schedule — at East Carolina and at Colorado in September, home to Auburn in October, and the visit from South Florida in the Dec. 6 finale. But the one circled in red is the trip to Pitt on Nov. 28.

Phil Steele is also releasing his picks daily but is only at #20.. and there is no WVU listed yet so we at least know we are in his top 20. Phil Steele is an awesome analyst of college football and I’m amazed every week when he is on Rivals Radio how fast he puts out unbiased, level headed reviews of the past week and previews of the upcoming weekend of games. If you get a chance to listen to Rivals Radio in the mornings on Sirius, check him out. He’s a regular during the season and does a guest appearances during the lead up this summer. By the way, Phil has published the most accurate preseason mag in the past 9 years.. so I guess he knows what he’s talking about. [BUY IT NOW].

The Sporting News just released some pre-season rankings. Here Matt Hayes ranks the Best in the Big East position by position. Pat White is the easy pick for #1 QB. Noel Devine lands at #2 in the Running Back category under Pitt’s LeSean McCoy. In the Offensive Line category we get the top 2 spots with #1 Greg Isdaner and #2 Ryan Stanchek. I can hear it now…”you could drive a truck through that hole”. Pat McAfee grabs two spots as #3 Kicker and #2 Punter. Finally, Reed Williams is the #2 Linebacker in the conference. Hell Yeah!!! I’m liking the sound of this! The Sporting News will release their PreSeason mag on June 24. [PREORDER IT NOW]

Lindys Preseason Eastern Magazine was just release today. [BUY IT NOW] I don’t understand why all of these mags don’t put out a conference by conference mag but they have one with Pat White on the cover. Also, here is an article on Lindy’s website about the upcoming season for the Big East. If you want a good laugh hop over and read it, if you don’t want to waste your time, here is their prediction for the Big East:

1. Rutgers (Coach Schiano shows his approach to team-building has staying power);
2. Pittsburgh (So long as Bill Stull provides balance to LeSean McCoy’s running threat);
3. Connecticut (too many starters (19) from last year’s team to place Huskies any lower);
4. South Florida (Leavitt’s crew rides Matt Grothe to plenty of victories but defense is less stingy);
5. WVU (defense breaks in new starters while the team moves away from capitalizing on Pat White’s open field lethality);
6. Louisville (defense improves but offense hiccups through a rebuilding year);
7. Cincinnati (loss of defensive pressure and deep coverage woes keep the Bearcats away from a higher standing);
8. Syracuse (there’s always basketball season…)

WTF???? I’ll leave you guys to ponder this one.

EXTRA:

CBS Sportsline.com has a poll on their College FB home page about who is the most exciting player to watch and Noel Devine is winning at 55%! The next on the list is Florida’s Percy Harvin at 15%! Damn. So if you get a chance hop over to CBS and vote!