While just about every Division I-A football team has been back at it for over a week now, most of the student body is starting to filter back to campus.

There are two things from move-in day at Pitt that have been burned into my memory - giant yellow-canvas carts and the annoying sound the wheels made rolling along the sidewalk. People weren’t supposed to be able to move in at all hours of the night, but that didn’t stop them.  Nothing like hearing the sound of cart wheels grating across grooved cement at 3 a.m. to enhance the college experience.

Move-in day meant that the start of the season was only a week or two away. My last year at Pitt (the 2003 season), the anticipation hung over campus like a fog. Larry Fitzgerald and Rod Rutherford were the first legitimate Heisman Trophy candidates since maybe Dan Marino (Fitzgerald ended up second). The team was loaded with returning players, and picked by some to unseat Miami as Big East Champion.

All the national polls had Pitt in the top 10 to start the year. After opening the season with home wins over Kent State and Ball State, Pitt moved up to No. 9.

And then it all fell apart. Pitt went to Toledo and was upset by the Rockets. A few weeks later, the Panthers lost at home to a bad Notre Dame team. By the end of the year, Pitt had five loses and was out of the top 25.

So where am I going with this? Relax, I’m about to make my point.

When considering what to put in this space as my first blog of the football season, I considered doing my own top 25 poll. But then I remembered how ridiculous it is to put together any kind of ranking before anyone has even played.

Just take a look at this year’s preseason USA Today Poll. It is a safe bet that Florida, Texas, Oklahoma and USC are going to finish the year in the top 10. But some of the others - Alabama, Virginia Tech, Penn State, Mississippi - won’t be a surprise when they drop.

The DI-A season starts on Thursday, Sept. 3 (just two weeks away) when South Carolina plays at North Carolina State. There are a couple of good games that Saturday, the 5th, with BYU and Oklahoma, and Alabama at Virginia Tech on the schedule. And of course Miami and Florida State play in Labor Day. Week 2 brings us Notre Dame at Michigan and USC at Ohio State.

But even after those games, we still won’t know which teams will be some of the best of 2009. That will probably have to wait till the end of September. And by then, maybe I’ll have a top 25 of my own.

Tags: college football, poll, top 25