I thought the most impressive performance in college football last year was in the Fiesta Bowl, where a West Virginia team who’d been heartbroken by Pittsburgh and was without their head coach played the team I thought was the best in the nation…and won by 20. Pat White is back to run the offense and take another stab at the Heisman, while Noel Devine should make people aware of his presence instead of Steve Slaton’s absence. It’s a defensive issue that keeps West Virginia out of surefire National Championship conversation; only four starters are back (though the ’07 group was surprisingly great). They might get tested at East Carolina or at Colorado early, but they’re without a doubt the most talented team in the Big East and play USF at home to close. The national title talk begins and ends with the Auburn game.

7. USC

I’ve heard it said that there’s no truly great team in college football this year, but a bunch of really good ones, and that list starts here with USC. The offense gets placed in the hands of Mark Sanchez and whichever talented back gets the most carries. You judge this offense because it doesn’t have names like Palmer, Leinart, Bush or Williams—and maybe there are legitimate questions about how good these receivers are, and the fact that only one starter is back on the line—but just because you don’t know all the names doesn’t mean it still won’t score a lot of points. And with seven back on last year’s second best defense in the nation, the offense won’t have to win many games for them. These are the best linebackers in the country and the secondary is in the conversation. The Pac-10 is getting more competitive and Stanford proved you can’t take anything for granted, but most still believe that USC’s biggest hurdle to Miami is Sept. 13 against Ohio State. If the Trojans win that one, they won’t be this far down anyone’s list.

6. LSU

It’s privilege as defending National Champion to be ranked a couple spots higher than you probably should be, especially when you’re inexperienced at quarterback. But everywhere else, LSU is still very good. The backs and receivers are deep and experienced and the line is incredibly good, it simply falls to Andrew Hatch or Jarrett Lee to make it work. Remember, LSU won it all last year with Matt Flynn, so these new guys don’t need to win the Heisman for the Tigers to succeed. The Tigers return the best defensive line in the SEC even without Glenn Dorsey, but it gets a little muddy from there

Beckwith is the only returning LB, and only one starter is back in the secondary as well. Plus, Bo Pelini is in Nebraska. So it’ll be a real work in progress on that side of the ball, but again, that doesn’t mean they won’t ultimately be good. LSU has been to BCS bowls the last two seasons and is still right there in the uber-competitive SEC. They have the misfortune of trading Kentucky for Georgia on the SEC rotation and go to The Swamp, but they can still probably win the division if they can win at Auburn.

5. Missouri

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