Looking at the schedule of Illinois, I am thinking there needs to be a rule about the number of home games a team can have. The Illini have eight games (out of 12 total) at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, IL including five straight to begin the season. By comparison, Texas and Wisconsin each have six in the their home stadiums. Most BCS schools have seven but smaller schools with more to prove like UNLV and the Florida Atlantic Owls have five.

How good is Wisconsin and Russell Wilson?

It is really hard to say right now. The Badgers have outscored three opponents 135 to 24. However, the defeated teams were the UNLV Rebels, the Oregon State Beavers and Northern Illinois Huskies.

• Vegas is a bad team. The Rebs lost even worse to Washington State 59-7 and a home loss to Hawaii 40-20.
• Oregon State lost to Sacramento State! ‘Nuff said.
• The Huskies beat Army but lost to Kansas – who was just destroyed by Georgia Tech
  

The latest challenge for the Badgers? The mighty Coyotes of South Dakota! I guess we will have to wait until October 1st when Nebraska Cornhuskers pay a visit to Camp Randall Stadium.

As Auburn proved, a team can come out of nowhere and win the National Championship.

The way I see it, 2011 is a three horse race between Alabama, LSU and Oklahoma. It will become a two horse race after November 5th when LSU travels to Tuscaloosa. I expect the winner of that game to go onto New Orleans and beat the Sooners.

The rest:
Boise – Schedule is too weak. The only way they get in the big game is if all the big boys have 2 or more losses.
Stanford – I know everyone is in love with Andrew Luck, but his head coach is gone and historically hyped players have a less than stellar follow-up season: Mark Ingram, Tim Tebow, Jake Locker, etc.
Florida State – With a weak ACC, the Seminoles could sneak in there if they beat Oklahoma.
Oregon – After losing bad to LSU, it’s going to be tough to get back in the mix.
Arkansas – if they can go undefeated (Alabama, LSU, Texas A&M, Auburn. MSU, S Carolina) they deserve the BCS birth.
Wisconsin – The Badgers could sneak in the back door behind NC State transfer QB Russell Wilson but they will have to go through Nebraska and back-to-back road games versus Michigan State and Ohio State. Then there is the inaugural Big Ten Championship Game.
Nebraska – The Cornhuskers basically the same story as Wisconsin but have OSU & MSU at home. October 10th in Madison, WI will be huge.

Recruiting for Ohio State Buckeyes is the first sign of the backlash on Jim Tressel’s firing and Tattoogate. Of the 2012 Rivals250 (top 250 recruits for 2012) that are from the state of Ohio, three have chosen to go to Columbus, three to arch-rival Michigan, one each to Michigan State, Nebraska and Wisconsin: