This college football season has one of the more compelling opening slates in recent memory. Cal-Tennessee, Arkansas-USC and Georgia Tech-Notre Dame are all on tap for Sept. 2; we’ll see if former Tennessee quarterback Brent Schaeffer will actually show up to play for Ole Miss against Memphis Sept. 3, and then we’ll watch the annual Miami-FSU penalty-fest on Sept. 4.

Gamblers will probably want to avoid this Cal-Tennessee, as there are just too many question marks:

Those go along with traditional questions about opening day sloppiness, jitters, off-season conditioning, and mental preparedness. And there are other unpredictable variables that come into play with teams that have rarely, if ever, played each other. The teams are about evenly-stocked with talent (aren’t most teams now?), but we know that rarely translates to wins and losses.

USC-Arkansas is mostly compelling to see what USC’s offense will look like without Heisman winners Reggie Bush and Matt Leinhart. Closer-but-not-close than last year’s USC blowout seems to be the consensus, but it’s opening day so anything can happen. And Arkansas did smack Texas around a couple of years ago.

As a Tennessee fan I should probably thank Notre Dame for taking Jimmy Clausen off my school’s hands, but it should be obvious I’d like Georgia Tech to beat the Irish given some of my past rants. That outcome is doubtful but not impossible given the Yellow Jackets’ habit of playing surprisingly well against highly-ranked opponents and surprisingly poorly against everyone else.

But what about Georgia fans? You’ve got yourself a conundrum. Check this Dawg Sports preview for background, come back and let me know what you think. The whole thing is worth a read, but I found this comparison especially interesting:

Notre Dame is a self-righteous condescending scourge awash in sanctimoniousness and bathed in media adulation. Georgia Tech is merely an annoyance, not unlike the insect with which the North Avenue Trade School’s mascot shares its name. A rigid and reflexive “Dawg Fan = Always Roots Against Tech” policy seems to me to give the Yellow Jackets pride of place out of all proportion to their actual significance, not at all unlike a strict “Vol Fan = Always Roots Against Vandy” stance.

Sound like hyperbole? Writer tkyleking points out that in the past 15 meetings, Tennessee is 14-1 against Vandy while Georgia is 12-3 against Georgia Tech.

I could take or leave Notre Dame. I think of the school as being an inoffensive second-tier program (the way Tennessee and, yes, Georgia are second tier programs compared to USC, Miami, and Oklahoma in recent years.. consistently top 25, but not in national title contention when bowl time rolls around). Jmac’s analysis is spot-on regarding the Irish:

[I]f we take a look at some of the existing data, we find that much of Notre Dame’s success came largely in the 1920s and the 1940s. It’s remarkable success, to be sure, but those numbers tend to artificially inflate their overall rankings. Notre Dame captured four national titles in the 1940s, losing only nine games in the entire decade.

However, upon looking at the 1950s and 1960s, we see a return to earth for the Irish. It was still an impressive 126-65-8, but it doesn’t compare to the gaudy 155-50-4 record Oklahoma put up and, all things considered, it isn’t that much better than Georgia’s 110-87-13 mark over the same 20-year span.

It seems to me the Irish were the program from 1920 through 1949, however they have done little to distinguish themselves since then. A title pops up here and there, but Notre Dame has done little — in comparison with the other members of the ‘Big Eight’ as well as upstart competitors like Miami and Florida State — to stake a longterm claim to its supposed throne.

You should read his post to get context about who his top 8 programs are. He makes a good case that Michigan is the best overall program, though I won’t say I agree with him without reviewing records on my own.

Predictions? Thoughts? Grievances?