Brian over at MGoBlog sent out the "It's BlogPoll time" e-mails, and I as I sat down to fill out my preliminary ballot, I was stumped at the first spot.  The homer in me says take the Irish, but it's a tough position to defend from an objective and logical standpoint.  But then as I slid other teams into the number one ranking, I realized there wasn't a completely defensible, easy choice to make.  So before I fill out my ballot, due next Wednesday, I think we should all just take a wander through some of the teams deemed title contenders and break down their pros and cons in relation to finishing as national champion.  Granted, Mandel is doing this over at SI.com and Mark Schlabach did it rather poorly on ESPN, but I feel like they may have left a few things off.  So in my pursuit to not repeat some of my terrible preseason mistakes of a year ago (Rocky Top at number two?  Yikes.), we'll glance at the good and the bad of the first half of the top ten.

(Using the USA Today poll as a basis off of which to work.)

The Ohio State University Buckeyes

Pros:
*    Troy Smith, Ted Ginn, Anthony Gonzalez and Antonio Pittman all return in an offense Senator Tressel seems ready to let loose.  Smith is the key here, as along with Peterson and Quinn, his is the name floated around for early Heisman consideration.  
*    New recruit Chris Wells is touted as some sort of unearthly monster at tailback.
*    Get Penn State and Michigan at home.  
*    Despite losing nine defensive starters, if anyone has the string of talent ready to move into a quality defensive system, it's Tressel.

Cons:
*    Again, they're losing the entire back seven and both defensive ends.  What has been the one constant under Tressel's reign is now a big question mark.
*    Mike Nugent and Josh Huston are both gone, leaving a hole at another Buckeye gold standard.
*    How willing will Tressel be to let the offense lose when it's a close Big Ten game?  Throwing it around against ND is one thing, but I sat in Beaver Stadium and watched the Buckeyes plow Pittman repeatedly and hopelessly into the teeth of the Nittany Lion defense while Santonio Holmes and Ginn were mostly ignored.  Granted, that might not have worked in that environment against that team either, but it was worth a shot.
*    Road games at Texas and Iowa.  Sure, Texas will be breaking in a new quarterback which might factor out any inexperience the Buckeyes have on defense, but Drew Tate would be the exact opposite of green and vulnerable.  They also must travel to East Lansing, which is only dangerous if you're as terrified of/repulsed by Drew Stanton as much as I am.

Texas Longhorns

Pros
*    Probably have more talent than anyone else in the country.  Even with the loss of Ramonce Taylor, the combination of Jamaal Charles, Selvin Young and Henry Melton is scary is as much talent as you could ask for to complement a new quarterback.  Billy Pittman and NCAA Football superstar Limas Sweed hold things down on the outside.
*    The linebackers, all young last season, are a year older and help anchor a perennially solid defense.
*    If you're going to break in a new quarterback in the Longhorn state, could you ask for a better name than Colt McCoy?
*    The Big 12, especially after the Bomaring of the Sooners, appears to be in for another down year.  They get Ohio State at home, OU in the usual neutrally-sited Red River Shootout and find their only real road tests to be back-to-back games against Nebraska and Texas Tech.

Cons

*    There can probably never be enough written or said about the impact Vince Young had on the Longhorns during his time there.  He more or less willed them to consecutive Rose Bowl victories, but he's gone.  Sometimes missed in the discussion of the quarterback situation is the fact that Texas lost their best defensive playmaker (Michael Huff) and most sure-handed receiving threat (David Thomas).
*    Even though he was behind the national title last year, I find myself not fully believing in Mack Brown.  He's always been a sensational recruiter and he's always had basically the same level of talent we'll be seeing him field this year, but he didn't win his first Big XII title until this past season. I think Young was the difference maker, a transcendent vessel of pigskin glory that simply would not lose, regardless of who was running the show.  With Number 10 gone, I find it difficult to believe that Texas will slip back into its very good, but not championship-level, rate of ten wins a season.

USC Trojans

Pros

*    One of the few teams that rivals or even defeats Texas in the game of stockpiling talent.  While they lost Leinart, Bush and White, there are dozens of high school All-Americans just waiting to fill in any available holes across the board.
*    The defense was not as good as previous years last season because they were young.  Much like Texas, they're all a year older and a year wiser.
*    Dwayne Jarrett and Steve Smith.  Ye gods.
*    Somehow manage, in a rebuilding/transition year, to get what many would consider their five toughest games - Nebraska, Oregon, Cal, Arizona State and Notre Dame - all at home, and then see their potentially fatal road opener become a little less scary with Darren McFadden getting injured in his turn as a street fighter.

Cons

*    If Vince Young was responsible for the success of the Longhorns last year, you can count Reggie Bush as the only reason that USC achieved at least two of their twelve wins last year (Fresno State and Notre Dame).  He is gone, along with your 2006 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year LenDale White, Matt Leinart and Dominique Byrd.  There is a lot of talent to potentially fill those gaps, but potential is a dangerous thing.
*    That opener at Arkansas, even minus McFadden, still might be tricky for Booty or Sanchez, whichever one is given the starting nod.  While both quarterbacks have some experience, they've still never guided a team through an entire season, let alone one in which they'll be constantly looking over their shoulder and in which the difficulty, according to Phil Steele, is the most difficult in the country.

University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Pros

*    The most returning starters of any of the top teams, plus Rhema McKnight, who while not starting at the end of last season due to injury, was the leading Irish receiver in 2003 and 2004.
*    Brady Quinn + Charlie Weis = a lot of points.  The offense is not a question mark.  Darius Walker, McKnight, Jeff Samardjiza and John Carlson are all talented cogs in the robot genius' scheme.  Munir Prince is "Whoosh" fast in fall practice so far, and James Aldridge, despite being injured, reminds people of Cadillac Williams.
*    The entire secondary is back, so if you count experience as anything, hooray.  Also add some major speed with Raeshon McNeil and Darrin Walls.   The defensive line should hold strong against the run, although the other-than-Abiamiri pass rush will be questioned.
*    Other than the first four and season finale, the middle of the schedule appears to be smooth riding.

Cons

*    The secondary, which has been a sieve for the Irish the last two years.  They're working on tweaking the schemes and positioning, but with some of the talented quarterbacks and wide receiving corps they face this year, they'll have to get better in a hurry.
*    Our second leading rusher is being converted to linebacker.  Although Charlie mentioned Travis Thomas playing both ways, this cannot be seen as a huge vote of confidence in the middle of the defense.
*    Brady looked rather apathetic in the spring game and wasn't that sharp against his brother-in-law in the Fiesta Bowl.  He showed his onions in the final drive of the USC game, but if he is to live up to the massive Heisman hype, there can be no letdowns.
*    The first four games are unparalleled by anybody else in the country in their difficulty.  Two night games on the road against mobile quarterbacks and two home games against tough Big Ten opponents.  Oh yeah, in the Coliseum to close the season.

Oklahoma Sooners

Is it necessary to discuss the Sooners in-depth?  It was questioned why some prognosticators had them so high in the preseason, and that was before Bomar's blunder.  Adrian Peterson is a stud, but quarterback-to-wide-receiver-back-to-quarterback convert Paul Thompson will have to attempt to run the offense behind a rather shaky offensive line.  Bob Stoops' defense will keep them in games, but with a trip to Autzen and the Longhorns on the map, somebody is going to have to score for them.

 Part two will run through the latter half of top ten and a few of the teen teams.