By Thomas "LA" Lewis

With the first games kicking off tonight, I wanted to get my biggest preseason prognostications officially documented before it was too late to call them "preseason" predictions.  History tells me 5 of these will be spot on and 5 of them will so far off it will laughable at season's end.  But which 5 are the good ones?  Check back in on January 9th...

10.  Last year, the BCS Championship Game was played out between the #3 (LSU) and #7 (Ohio State) “Raw Talent” ranked squads in the LA system.  This year, I call for #2 (USC) versus #5 (Florida).  In other words, having the most talent is not enough…and Ohio State won’t have to worry about “losing another Championship Game this year” as they won’t make it back.  Thanks Sports Illustrated.

9.  While the average fan won’t know it, the overall talent will be up this year versus last.  But the casual fan won’t “feel it” because the talent pool is more divided into the “haves” and the “have nots” this year than last.  (Said differently, the week in and week out of upsets and poll juggling won’t be happening.)

8.  Clemson fans will be seriously contemplating suicide at season’s end as the Tigers will somehow miss out on a BCS invite despite CLEARLY having the best RB tandem (in James Davis and CJ Spiller) of the past decade.

7.  You will be BEYOND tired of the “Is Tim Tebow worthy of being a two-time Heisman Trophy winner?” discussions before the calendar flips to November and the argument actually starts becoming relevant.  Ironically, all the discussion about it (most of which will be started by those arguing Archie Griffin was a far better player) will actually help him win.  Any press is good press.

6.  Texas will lose to Oklahoma for the fourth time in six years and everyone will forget about the 2005 National Championship Mack brought to Austin.

5.  You will be so tired of hearing about the Bobby Bowden/Joe Paterno “race” for the most victories ever by season’s end that you will actually channel surf every time the ESPN GameDay crew starts discussing it as part of their Bowl coverage.  Predicted total victory count at the end of this season:  Bowden 384, Paterno 383.  If only the Big Ten had a Championship game…

4.  Arizona will finally make a bowl game (first since 1998) and save Mike Stoop’s job.  I will brag about calling it despite having done so in 2006 and 2007 as well.  

3.  Michigan will finish no higher than 4th in the Big Ten standings.  And, ridiculously, the West Virginia fans will be happier about that than saddened by their third place finish in the Big East.

2.  BYU and Fresno State will not play in a BCS Bowl.  I’m screaming it now – Utah is your best chance at a “BCS buster” in 2008.

1.  Three…perhaps four…teams will go undefeated in 2008 setting in motion a REAL movement to go to the “+1” format.  One step closer to a mini-playoff system we crawl.

There you have it.  Everything you need to know in order to make a killing in Vegas.  Do me a favor…give me a 5% commission on anything you make?  Hey, I got kiddo #3 on the way and Daddy needs a new Geo.