Why Florida? It's all about the playmakers.
Receiver Jabar Gaffney caught 14 touchdown passes last season. Cornerback Lito Sheppard intercepted six passes, returned one for a score, and went the distance twice on punt returns. DE Alex Brown has 20.5 sacks in the past two seasons. Then, there's the quarterback position, where super sophomore Rex Grossman will get the call. Or, uh, maybe it will be super sophomore Brock Berlin. Whatever, either can be really, really good ... and Florida has 17 other returning starters from last season's SEC title team.
THE GOOD NEWS: Florida has a minefield of a schedule that includes eight bowl teams, but here's the nugget of good news: Tennessee and Florida State must visit Gainesville. The offense isn't a question; the focus of the spring was often to find fire in a talented-but inconsistent defense.
THE BAD NEWS: Maintaining the delicate balance of having two young, quality QBs is a difficult task for any coach, although Spurrier seems to be even more baffled than most. Can he keep Grossman vs. Berlin from becoming a disruption?
OUR CALL: The Gators are athletic, they're experienced and they're deep -- perhaps as deep as any Florida team under Spurrier. Combine all that with what should be a big, fat chip on their shoulders from getting whomped by rivals Florida State and Miami last season, and this is the year Florida delivers the payback and walks away with all the hardware.

Butch Davis did the heavy lifting at Miami, rebuilding the 'Canes in six seasons that could've/should've ended in the national title game. And, now, it's all Larry Coker's baby. Davis bailed in late January for the Cleveland Browns, and Coker was promoted from within to his first head coaching job since Clarmore (Okla.) High in the late 1970s. OK, Larry, show us what you've got.
THE GOOD NEWS: Blossoming QB Ken Dorsey knows what to do with all the time he gets from a marvelous offensive line with bookend tackles Bryant McKinnie and Joaquin Gonzalez. Not much will get past the quality secondary.
THE BAD NEWS: This Larry Coker character ... can he coach? He'll be tested by Joe Paterno, Frank Beamer and Bobby Bowden this season -- all on the road.
OUR CALL: Talent wins out. If you're good, you're good, so never mind those road games. BCS computers willing, Miami reaches the national title game.

Hey, Major Applewhite, we love you ... but this is Chris Simms' team now, and he's got all the goods to finish what Mack Brown has been building toward for the past three seasons -- a conference championship. Maybe even a national championship. Dare we consider an undefeated season? Texas fans dream big, and all the elements are in place for the 'Horns to deliver.
THE GOOD NEWS: Let us count the bests: The best quarterback duo in the nation, the best young receiving corps in the nation, the best schedule in the Big 12. This is huge: Texas misses Nebraska and Kansas State in league play.
THE BAD NEWS: The 'Horns lost 1,000 pounds of pure NFL talent -- OT Leonard Davis and DTs Casey Hampton and Shaun Rogers. The running game is in the hands of a true freshman, albeit a talented one, in Cedric Benson.
OUR CALL: The window of opportunity will never be wider for UT, which will atone for last year's horrific loss to Oklahoma and carry a stacked Big 12.

OK, consider these guys rebuilt. The Vols are ready to make a run at the prize (SEC East), bigger prize (SEC title) and biggest prize (national title). An 0-3 SEC start last season made it feel like the wheels were coming off, but realistically, it was just a young team losing tough games in a tough league. QB Casey Clausen and DT John Henderson have turned that worm.
THE GOOD NEWS: The offensive line, which was almost all new last year, is an almost all-veteran crew this year. Yes, there are trips to Gainesville and South Bend, but there aren't any other games the Vols won't be favored to win.
THE BAD NEWS: Didn't you read the line above about Gainesville and South Bend? The defense needs to reduce the big plays it allows (11 TDs of longer than 20 yards in '00), and the wideouts need to step up and make more big plays.
OUR CALL: Non-league games against Syracuse and Notre Dame give the Vols ample "national pop," which will allow them to attain and sustain a high national ranking even if they aren't able to emerge from The Swamp with a victory.

What will these guys do for an encore? Well, don't look now, but who's to say they can't keep the Sooner Magic going? Coach Bob Stoops was only kidding (or was he?) when he said that the only way to top last year's 13-0 national championship season was to go 14-0 and win a national championship. Hmmm ... he then went out and scheduled a potential 14th game for 2001.
THE GOOD NEWS: This winning thing is very much a habit. Consider that 13 Orange Bowl starters return to the lineup, and of the nine that are gone, only two were NFL draft-worthy. There's reason to think these guys can improve.
THE BAD NEWS: Well, now that everyone expects them to be great, the whole experience changes a great deal. And QB Josh Heupel is no longer around to help pull the Sooners out of the fire when needed.
OUR CALL: If they avoid injuries and get just a couple of breaks (like last year), there's no stopping them. Except for Texas, and perhaps in Lincoln.