It really does seem to be it’s own beast now.

The reports are swirling that offers have been made. Honestly, while the story may be close to what could ultimately be reality — Nebraska, Mizzou, Rutgers and then a last chance offer to ND followed by one more team if they say yes — I don’t believe anything has actually happened yet. It doesn’t pass the smell test — right down to the outlet reporting the story.

So, another round of speculating and dreaming…

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While a radio station in KC is being mocked for being the latest to breathlessly report “sources” indicating that the Big Something has made offers to Nebraska (already denied by Nebraska’s chancellor), Rutgers, Mizzou and ND, I’m going to focus on something a little more realistic — preseason prognosticated rankings.

Yes, I’m setting the bar low.

Tony Barnhart is ranking Pitt at #13.

No mystery here. The Panthers will give the ball to sophomore RB Dion Lewis, who ran for 1,799 yards on 325 carries (only Stanford’s Toby Gerhart had more with 345). Lewis is the nation’s leading returning rusher and will get into the mix for the Heisman. There are a lot of starters to replace (six on offense, seven on defense) but I’m picking Pittsburgh to win the Big East.

Dennis Dodd at CBS Sports, updates his top-25 preseason pickings and moves Pitt from 24th to 20th. Yippee.

Preseason mags seem to be stepping back a bit from trying to get their mags out first this year. No early May publications, but Athlon — usually one of the first — is releasing their top-25, one per day, until releasing the mag in June. Pitt clocks in at #18.

The Panthers find themselves among the best of the best once again, underscoring the success of coach Dave Wannstedt’s rebuilding project. No longer is he simply hoping for success. Now, it’s a matter of how much. In 2009, Pitt was within a quarter of a BCS berth. Don’t be surprised if they get there this time.

They also like Lewis for Heisman candidacy.

And since it is never too early to start laying money on games (so I’m told), Covers.com looks at some of the best games to start the college football season.

Pittsburgh at Utah, Thursday, Sept. 2

Dave Wannstedt’s Panthers are the favorites in the Big East. Sophomore Tino Sunseri takes over at quarterback for Bill Stull and has a pair of NFL-caliber weapons at his disposal in running back Dion Lewis and wide receiver Jonathan Baldwin. The offense, however, struggled in the spring.

Utah returns quarterback Jordan Wynn, a sophomore who won the starting job midway through last season. Wynn passed for 338 yards and three touchdowns in the Utes’ bowl win over Cal. The Utes slipped into Sports Illustrated’s preseason rankings at No. 25, one of only two Mountain West teams in top 25.

Pittsburgh will be the higher-ranked team, but traveling across the country for a Thursday night game in what will be a raucous environment won’t be easy.

Projected line: Utah -3

No question, the winner of that game gets a lot of bounce coming out of the first week.

And so it continues.

A little tale to make Louisville and Cinci (among others) quiver. The tale of UTEP. An original WAC, but not brought into MWC to C-USA.

The bad, the blind-side hit that [UTEP AD Bob] Stull alluded to, came on May 28, 1998. Before that, the WAC that UTEP had been a part of since 1968 — the “old WAC” with Brigham Young, New Mexico and Wyoming — thought it was pioneering new ground in the conference landscape by expanding from 10 teams to 16 in 1996.

In came some old members of the Southwest Conference (SMU, Rice and TCU) that fit well with UTEP, but the result proved unwieldy.

Stull still can’t really explain the scheduling concept for football that had schools grouped into four four-team pods, and talk of dividing the conference into two eight-team divisions ended, according to Stull, with Air Force upset with its draw.

On May 26, 1998, a few months into Stull’s tenure at UTEP, eight schools from the “old WAC” staged a jailbreak to form the Mountain West Conference. Two hours before their news conference to announce their plans, they called UTEP president Dr. Diana Natalicio to let her know UTEP wasn’t coming along.

Suddenly, the WAC that UTEP had known for three decades was a new league, and the Miners were in a leftover mishmash.

Now it’s C-USA, and who knows where next. Maybe still there. Maybe brought into the Big 12, or even the MWC belatedly asks them to help out.

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