The college football season is finally here after a long, hot summer.  Since I'm a Pac-10 guy, I'm going to give my conference predictions along with this year's national championship game.  The destination this year for the BCS title game is Miami, Florida, but the Southern Cal Trojans will be making their third consecutive appearance in the Rose Bowl.  The Trojans will improve to 6-1 in BCS games the last seven years, but their national championship drought will continue.

The two teams playing for the title in early January could be titled the Redemption Bowl between Ohio State and Oklahoma.  The Buckeyes have been manhandled the last two national championship games, while Oklahoma has been dominated in recent BCS losses against USC and West Virginia (not to mention an upset loss to Boise State).  Anyway, I have Oklahoma winning its first football national title since 2000 in a close contest.  27-24.

Back to the Pac-10, picking Southern Cal to win the conference isn't exactly going out on a limb.  The Trojans have won or tied a record six straight league titles under head coach Pete Carroll, and the program is at a point where they just reload talent year after year.  Here's my predicted finish for the upcoming season.

1. Southern Cal Trojans
2. Oregon Ducks
3. Arizona State Sun Devils
4. California Golden Bears
5. Arizona Wildcats
6. Oregon State Beavers
7. UCLA Bruins
8. Washington Huskies
9. Stanford Cardinal
10. Washington State Cougars

I'm predicting that Oregon's Mike Bellotti will be named Pac-10 Coach of the Year, while Washington's Tyrone Willingham will get his pink slip and the Huskies will go hard after Jim Mora Jr.  These two coaches meet the first weekend of the season.

Arizona State will have another solid campaign, but will slide down the standings slightly behind a young offensive line that will bang up quarterback Rudy Carpenter.  The senior signal caller has started 31 straight games, and will continue that streak despite taking a ton of punishment and be named the Pac-10 Offensive Player of the Year.  His durability will help coach Dennis Erickson keep Jack Elway's redshirt year intact.

California will remain in the upper echelon of the Pac-10, but will struggle with consistency once again.  The Golden Bears have enough talent to defeat some top teams on their schedule en route to another bowl season.

Speaking of bowl seasons, Arizona hasn't enjoyed the postseason since 1998 when the school went 12-1 and just missed out on the Rose Bowl.  Head coach Mike Stoops is on the hot season in Tucson, but the Wildcats should secure seven wins and a Las Vegas Bowl berth behind a potent offense and an easy early season schedule.  

Oregon State finished third the last two seasons, but will fall back in the pack behind inexperienced line play on both sides of the ball.  The Beavers will also miss the services of kicker Alex Serna who graduated, and will drop a couple close contests they would have won in 2007.

UCLA will rival USC in a couple of years, but not with its current quarterbacking situation.  The Bruins have all the tools, a proud history, fertile recruiting ground and incredible assistant coaches.  Head coach Rick Neuheisel is a proven winner, but he also brings a ton of baggage to the situation.  Once he gets some of his own recruits in Westwood with offensive coordinator Norm Chow and defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker, look out.  Teams should enjoy beating up on UCLA this season, because the balance of power will be in the City of Angels in a few years.

Stanford and Washington State will battle for the basement, but with that being said I like the Cardinal to upset Oregon State on the opening weekend.  Now to bury this blog and look back in four and a half months to see how accurate the predictions have played out.