If the Governator acknowledges USC's greatness, alas so will I.

First off, boy was I wrong with last week's picks. The Pac 10 really let me down last week and my faith in the national rankings have been shaken. TheCouchQB called the USC game and I blew it, but I made up for it by betting against the local team, UCLA. So all in all, it was a week that didn't make me feel great watching UCLA laying an egg in a national game and that aprehension has delayed this article. But on to the big local scene, USC proved that it was hands down the dominant team in the nation. The only way that Ohio State could keep up was when they were matched up against USC's back ups in mop up mode.

I've heard the saying many times, but the 2nd best team in the Pac 10 might be USC's second string. I know TheCouchQB will call blasphemy on this, but watching USC over the years and seeing as how they reload every year, I am inclined to believe it. Anyways, as conference play is really starting this week, we will see who the real contenders are. Anyways, here's hoping for a better week from the Pac 10!

UCLA beats Tennessee and now they think they're hot stuff. Neu-weasel apparently chartered a helicopter to take him around the southern California area so he could scope out some recruits.

After watching the nation's No. 1 guard, Michael Philipp, play for San Bernardino Arroyo Valley at home against Pasadena High, Neuheisel fought through Los Angeles' traffic to make it to the Inglewood High-Long Beach Wilson game. Neuheisel was there to check out four-star receivers Shaquelle Evans and Jemari Roberts.

He wasn't done.

After watching Evans and Roberts, Neuheisel drove to the Hawthorne Airport and got in a helicopter to fly out to the Inland Empire to watch La Puente Bishop Amat on the road against Rancho Cucamonga Los Osos.

Neuheisel wasn't able to land at the school as expected, and was forced to land at Ontario Airport. By the time he got to the game, it was over.

Courtesy of the benevolent taxpayers of California!

I'll admit it. I lost a few bills by betting on Tennessee -7 this game. UCLA was supposed to lose, but they didn't. Bad for my bank account, bad for the SEC, good for the PAC-10.

Do the Bruins not suck as much as everybody thought? Or did Tennessee just play that bad? We'll find out in a couple weeks when the Bruins play BYU. If they're the UCLA that I know, they'll come back from an amazing win over a top-25 opponent and piss away any credibility gained by losing to a lesser team. Until then, when it comes to UCLA my wallet is staying in my pocket.

Found in today's edition of the Los Angeles Times. Pretty ballsy move for Neuheisel, considering his team is completely unproven and USC is ranked in the pre-season top 5 of just about every national poll. At least he realized there WAS a monopoly in Los Angeles.

The first games of the college football season are only a week away, and based on my experience the first couple weeks make for the best opportunities to make some money at the sportsbooks since college football in general is relatively unpredictable and nobody really knows how good or bad teams will be. Here are what my picks are going to be for a select few games going into the first week:

Tennessee -7 @ UCLA - September 1, 2008
Is there anybody here who doesn't hail from LA that thinks this game will be close? UCLA's offensive line is razor thin with crazy numbers of injuries in the offseason. They're starting a guy who would have been their 3rd string JC transfer at quarterback after their #1 and #2 quarterbacks were injured on successive plays. Some people may point out their all-star coaching staff of Rick Neuheisel and Norm Chow, but seriously, great coaches still need to have a quarterback and offensive line to coach! Defense will be solid, but not enough to send Tennessee into fits.
TCQB says: Tennessee 31, UCLA 9

This past week the US News released its 2009 list of "America's Best Colleges." With three schools ranked in the top 25 in the nation (Stanford #4, California #21 and UCLA at #25), the PAC-10 wins the CouchQB honor of being the smartest football conference in America.

Now lets focus our attention on the dumbest. The number of schools considered "Tier-1" by US News stops at 130, and with a #130 ranking LSU barely makes being "tier 1" by the hairs on its chinny chin chin. Arkansas comes in at #125, and South Carolina and Tennessee both tie at #108.

That's four teams in the bottom 25 for the SEC, more than any other football conference. SEC wins the CouchQB award for being the dumbest football conference in America.