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When we were last together, many five dollar footlongs ago, I was previewing the major bowls and giving you a nice tip on Ole Miss (more on the Rebels in a bit). Turns out it was a pretty good year of handicapping by the Extra Points staff, as our '08 preseason No. 1 Florida weathered an early loss to win the national championship.

On that note, you may be wondering, who's going to win it all this year, DC? He-he-Eaaasy now ... Our official preseason top 10 won't be unveiled until August. Until then, here's the Memorial Day Weekend top 10.

1. Florida: To quote Floyd Mayweather, Sr., "The Gators are simply the best, I must confess, all the rest are no contest." The national champs return all 11(!) starters on defense and, while the offense did lose some weapons, it still features Tim Tebow and Urban Meyer's game-planning. Which is to say, it will be very good. Everyone will pick Florida to repeat as national champs, but I'll let you in on a secret ... we won't. All that said, on May 22, Florida is clearly the team to beat.

2.Oklahoma: Though the Sooners were hit hard by graduation, as long as Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford is under center they are still national championship contenders. OU returns an impressive stable of backs (DeMarco Murray, Chris Brown and Mossis Madu) to help Bradford on offense, and the defense, led by All-American tackle Gerald McCoy, should be better than last season.

3.Texas: Tim Tebow won the national championship and Sam Bradford took home the Heisman, but who was college football's MVP last season? Colt McCoy. Nobody did more for his team than the Longhorn gunslinger. During spring practices, Mack Brown's bunch featured more of an emphasis on the running game, which they went away from a bit last year. More balance could make McCoy even better in '09.

4. Southern California: Reloading is what Pete Carroll's Trojans do. Sure, they lost Mark Sanchez and a boatload of NFL Draft picks on defense, but there's just so much elite talent in the program that it's hard to imagine USC not being really good again.

5. LSU: LSU's Peach Bowl dismantling of a very good Georgia Tech team showed that the Tigers will be a handful, and then some, in 2009. Bad quarterback play and a surprisingly porous defense doomed the defending national champs in 2008, but with shifty Jordan Jefferson at the controls of the offense and former long-time Tennessee assistant John Chavis taking over the defense, the uber-talented Tigers will be back on the prowl this fall.

6. Virginia Tech: The Hokies finished last season on a roll and enter 2009 as the clear favorite in the ACC. Frank Beamer's got a loaded defense and for the first time in years. He also has an experienced, talented quarterback in Tyrod Taylor. Virginia Tech is a sleeper national championship contender. And in what will surely be a Got-KTFO bonanza, the Hokies open the season on Sept. 5 vs. Alabama.

7. Alabama The best coach in the nation, Nick Saban, is back for his third year at the helm of the Crimson Tide program, and you know what that means. Trouble for the SEC. Sophomore wideout Julio Jones is a beast-child of the highest order.

8. Mississippi: Led by future NFL signal-caller Jevon Snead, the Rebels are very talented. But they will soon find out what it feels like to be the 'hunted' in the SEC, and it will be very interesting to see how they respond. With hungry teams like Auburn chomping at the bit to regain their place in the division, can Ole Miss handle prosperity?

9. Penn State: The last image we have of Penn State is the roasting they suffered against USC in Rose Bowl. But that shouldn't take away from the great year the Lions had in '08. Do they have the athletes to run with the likes of USC and Florida? No, but they don't need to beat those teams to win the Big Ten again. And with the returns of running back Evan Royster and quarterback Daryll Clark, Penn State is favored to do just that.

10. Ohio State: Looking for the player most likely to join the Tebow-Braford-McCoy triumvirate at the Heisman Trophy ceremony in December? Terrell Pryor might be your guy. The Buckeyes' stud quarterback showed flashes of his massive potential last fall, but this is the year Jim Tressell unleashes him in earnest. Pryor will have to be great for the Bucks to win the Big Ten, as OSU lost Beanie Wells, Brian Robiskie and Brian Hartline on offense and its two defensive All-Americans, Malcolm Jenkins and James Laurinaitis.

We went quarterback-heavy this round, but college football is what it is: quarterback-driven. As we get closer to the season, we'll take a deeper look at trench play, special teams and those freaks who fly around the secondary ... guys like my boy Eric Berry, who, by the way, might just kill someone playing in Monte Kiffin's Tampa Two this year.