Top 25, Heisman favorites, and links: Pre-season

Well, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is now officially game week.

And with game week comes the return of the daily grind of In the Nic of Time, starting with the weekly Monday edition with the Top 25, Heisman trophy favorites, and as many links as you have time for.

Something I want to get is the pulse of students on campus or readers of the blog, so if you want to have your say in the weekly Monday Top 25, just send me an email at jngulas@gmail.com and I will send you a reminder every Sunday morning.

Also, want to play college pick'em with me and some of the other readers? Join the ESPN.com College Pick'em group. It's easy. Just search for the group "ITNOT Pick'em" and put in the password ITNOT. Just like that, you are in.

Now, let's get to the substance of the blog.

ITNOT's pre-season Top 25

1. Oklahoma
2. Florida
3. Texas
4. Penn. St.
5. Alabama
6. LSU
7. Ohio State
8. Mississippi
9. Oklahoma St.
10. USC
11. Virginia Tech
12. Georgia
13. Cal
14. TCU
15. Boise St.
16. BYU
17. Illinois
18. Florida State
19. North Carolina
20. Georgia Tech
21. Iowa
22. Pittsburgh
23. Oregon State
24. Nebraska
25. Kansas

Heisman trophy favorites entering the season

• Tim Tebow, QB, Florida
• Sam Bradford, QB, Oklahoma
• Colt McCoy, QB, Texas
• Jahvis Best, RB, Cal
• Jonathan Dwyer, RB, Georgia Tech
• Dez Bryant, WR, Oklahoma State

Links

Once the season gets going, Monday will be the busiest day for links, but this first week, it might seem pretty even every day.

• One of the favorites of some football fans is the vaunted, and in my opinion, overrated, helmet schedule. So for those of you who want one for the SEC, here ya go.
• Since Ian Rapaport left for the Boston Herald, The Birmingham News has now hired Don Kausler, Jr. to replace him. His latest this morning is on Tide punter P.J. Fitzgerald's opinion that Alabama is ready for Beamer Ball. He also reported that Alabama will be in white once again for the Chick-fil-a Kickoff on Saturday. His twitter is @Tide_Source.
• Gentry Estes has been on the Bama Beat for a few years now, and has five questions heading into the final week of practice before Virginia Tech. His twitter is @BamaBeat.
• Stewart Mandel, one of my favorite links during the week, now has a Monday column called College Football Overtime to go along with his Wednesday mailbag. His twitter is @SIMandel.
• Andy Staples of Sports Illustrated has a blueprint on how to stop Tim Tebow, and who knows if anyone can follow it to perfection. His twitter is @andy_staples.
• Ivan Maisel of ESPN.com will be producing his Three-point Stance blog on a more regular basis this year, and his latest talks about Nick Saban's contract extension at Alabama. His twitter is @Ivan_Maisel.
• Chris Low is the official blogger for ESPN.com on the SEC, and he will have regular updates every day and always has lunchtime links that cover the conference. In his latest post, however, deals with his visit to Steve Spurrier and the Gamecocks, who kickoff the college football season on Thursday. His twitter is @ESPN_SEC.
• SECsports.com has debuted a new website today with more stats and information than ever before. Their twitter is @SECSportsUpdate.
• One of the best places for any and all SEC information is the Orlando Sentinel, who have an article covering what would be 10 surprising upsets of this college football season. The sports editor is Tim Stephens, and his twitter is @twstephens.
• Finally, and this goes for any day, if you want to go to one place that has even more links here for the entire conference, hit up dandbradio.com, the official website of the Dunaway and Brown show in Birmingham. Their twitter is @dandbradio.

Of course, if you want to know when the next blog is available, you can follow me on twitter as well, @ng11787. Along with blog updates, I will have re-tweets of pertinent stories, break downs of my Wednesday radio show on 90.7 FM, the Capstone in Tuscaloosa, and any random musings you may find entertaining throughout the day.

Be sure to check back tomorrow as I will go through the first Pass or Fail of the College Football season, covering what happened during the off-season.

It has been a long eight months, but it will be good to get back into the swing of things this week.

Alabama Basketball Schedule and Quick Analysis

With the release today of the entire SEC Basketball schedule, it gave a nice hint as to what to expect from Anthony Grant's first team at The Capstone.

At first glance, the schedule has a nice feel of out of conference teams, with two Big XII and one Big Ten team assured for the schedule, and the probability of at least one more major basketball conference team in the Old Spice Classic.

The SEC schedule plays out decently, but five the last eight games of the season are on the road.

The toughest stretch from first glance looks to be the two weeks from the end of January into February where Alabama will play three out of four on the road.

The Crimson Tide will travel to Auburn, Ole Miss and Kentucky in this stretch with the only home "relief" being a game against Florida. The last three games of the stretch are played in a six-day span, but Alabama will only have one game over the next eleven days after that.

Hopefully Coach Grant and his staff will have the full schedule set soon.

Below is an organized schedule of the Crimson Tide's 2009-10 games that are known to this point.

Old Spice Classic in Orlando, FL
Thur. Nov. 26th vs. Baylor 6:30 ET/ 5:30 CT ESPN 2
Fri. Nov. 27th Florida State/Iona
Sun. Nov. 29th TBA
bracket link

Wed. Dec. 2nd North Florida 8/7
Sat. Dec. 12th Purdue 4/3 ESPN2
Sat. Dec. 19th Kansas State in Moblie, AL
Dec./Jan. @ Georgia Tech*

SEC Schedule

Sat. Jan. 9th @ LSU 5/4 FSN
Wed. Jan. 13th Vanderbilt 9/8 CSS
Sat. Jan. 16th @ Arkansas 1:30 / 12:30 SEC Network
Tues. Jan. 19th Tennessee 7/6 ESPN
Sat. Jan. 23rd Mississippi State 12 noon/11 CBS
Wed. Jan. 27th LSU 8/7 SEC Network
Sat. Jan. 30th @ Auburn 4/3 SEC Network

Thur. Feb. 4th Florida 7/6 ESPNU
Sat. Feb. 6th @ Ole Miss 6/5 FSN
Tues. Feb. 9th @ Kentucky 9/8 ESPNU
Sat. Feb. 13th Arkansas 4/3 SEC Network
Sat. Feb. 20th @ Georgia 4/3 SEC Network
Wed. Feb. 24th @ Mississippi State 9/8 CSS
Sat. Feb. 27th Ole Miss 2/1 ESPN2 and ESPN360.com

Wed. Mar. 3rd @ South Carolina 7/6 ESPNU
Sat. Mar. 6th Auburn 1:30 / 12:30 SEC Network

Thur.-Sun. Mar. 11th-14th SEC Tournament in Nashville, TN SEC Network, ABC

*-Anticipated match-up as a return game for last year's visit to Coleman by Georgia Tech.

View from the Stands: August 20th, 2009

What's the best part about waking up the morning after your weekly sports talk show?

Discovering that everything you would have rather talked about happened while you were asleep.

Nothing like having to wait another week to rant and rave about these topics, but this is what print media is for!!!

• Coach Cal, the Magician. Once again, a team coached by John Calapari is apparently having to vacate wins. The Memphis Tigers team from 2007-08 is looking to give up their record 38 victories and a Final Four appearance for violation of NCAA rules concerning the SAT score of Derrick Rose. If this is how the axe falls, Coach Cal will be the first coach to have two Final Four appearances scratched from the record books after he took UMass to the 1996 Final Four. Calipari has yet to be mentioned in either instance, but the fact he coached both teams leaves little to be discovered. He may not directly be involved, but let's face it, he was there both times. Meanwhile, the sunshine pump was working overtime in Lexington this morning. Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear called Calipari, "An upstanding guy. I really don't foresee any problems." Sadly, Calipari will escape with no punishment from this incident, but once again leaving his players and school in question in a cloud of dust to worry about their own problems while he moves on to bigger and better things. Just remember this, Eric Bledsoe, the highly touted recruit from Alabama, had trouble with his classroom scores before being cleared by the NCAA to play this year. Not sayin', just sayin'.
• The streak has come to an end. Alabama linebacker Courtney Upshaw managed to blow Alabama's cover of saying that Nick Saban players don't get arrested by managing to commit misdemeanor domestic violence at 1:25 am. Two things here: First, good run, Alabama. It has been over a year since Jimmy Johns stole the headlines and put the sandwich company in the black. Since then, Florida has had the same guy arrested twice, Tennessee players have smoked dope in the car, and Mark Richt's clean program has lost its shine. Fulmer Cup points for all!!! Second, not only is Upshaw in the tank for 12 hours, meaning the earliest he can pay his $500 bond is 1:25 this afternoon, but he is missing the first day of his Tuesday/Thursday schedule. Now, I'm not up on my university's policy, but I know some places drop you if you miss on the first day. Congrats, Courtney, hope the doghouse is just as nice as the indoor facility.
• Plaxico ain't signing with anyone!!! Instead, Plaxico Burress will be taking Michael Vick's spot on the Mean Machine roster when he heads to the slammer for two years after pleading guilty this morning to a weapons charge in New York City. The DA of NYC said that Burress was going to jail by any means necessary a couple of weeks ago, and today he got his wish. Plax will now be sentenced on September 22. It is pretty safe to say that his playing days are over. Burress is 32 years old and will surely face a sentence from Roger God-dell once he is released. Plax's best bet: get buddy-buddy with Tony Dungy and the NRA. If only he had been smart and done this in Florida where the penal system is practically as strict as a game of Monopoly.

Back in Tuscaloosa! What's new to talk about?

After two weeks off to pack, move and generally get settled down again in Tuscaloosa, I figured now would be a good time to get back in the swing of things with the blog since kickoff is less than three weeks away.

So, after being in Tuscaloosa for a week, here are the things that have stood out so far, and things to have a head's up for:

• Football practice has started back up. Of course, most people probably knew this by now with last Saturday being the first scrimmage. There is little use for me to do practice updates considering 1) only twenty minutes of practice is open to the public and 2) There are guys here, here, and here who do a better job and know what to look out for on the field. Also, there will be practice updates available in the Crimson White when circulation begins for the Fall semester on Wednesday.
• Coleman Coliseum looks exactly the same. When the report came out about the seating change at Coleman, I had figured that there would be some inkling as to what it would look like already. No such luck. There are no risers, the old band location is still without new seating, and this project has yet to even be started. There are two months until practice begins and roughly two and a half before the first game. That would be some quick work for a scoreboard.
• Construction at Bryant-Denny is taking shape. Sure, it won't be ready before 2010, but the South End Zone construction is starting to go upwards. Who knows if it will reach high enough where this kind of scare could occur once again, but it also brings about an dilemma for students. The University has confirmed that there will only be one gate for students to enter in to football games for in 2009. That's right, one. I will definitely have more on this from my own opinion in the coming weeks as well as if anything changes.

So besides that, I also have some news of my own.

I will be one of the three hosts on 90.7-FM, The Capstone's weekly sports show, Rock n' Jock. The show will air weekly on Wednesdays from 10-midnight. It will be preceded by another staple of the sports staff, The Student Section from 8-10. Both shows will cover all things Alabama, and I will try to incorporate a national flavor to the show as well.

Second, I will be the radio and Internet voice for the Alabama women's soccer team. They will play mostly Fridays and Sundays at the Alabama Soccer Complex on the west side of campus by the Rec Center. If you want to listen in, just tune to 90.7-FM on most weeks unless we are predicated by Volleyball, who start back next weekend. Soccer begins their regular season on Friday at home against UAB.

Also, I have finalized what to expect from me as far as posts during the football season. Each post will be up by noon each day so my dozen or so loyal readers will know when to check in for the latest.

• Monday: Top 25, Heisman list, and links
• Tuesday: Pass or Fail
• Wednesday: Opinion column plus what to expect on the radio later
• Thursday: Who is (insert team) anyway?
• Friday: Picks, Previews, and Prognostications.

That is the same line-up I tried to follow during the short time I posted last football season, but be on the look out for each of these during the week. Also, don't be surprised if a few random posts or View from the Stands pop in during the week or on weekends to discuss other things besides Bama football.

This pattern will start in the week leading up to the Virginia Tech game, so be on the look out for my pre-season top 25 August 31st.

Until then, I will tide people over with the best in the SEC series I promised about a month ago. Be on the look out for the first post in the series in the next day or two.