ACC will face tough, early slate to start next season

ATLANTA — We just finished March Madness, which can only mean one thing: The countdown to the 2007 college football season has officially begun. Just 140 more days. So let’s get started.

Out of the gate. Who says the SEC and the ACC don’t play tough openers? We’ll put these five kickoff games against any conference in the country:

1. Georgia Tech at Notre Dame, Sept. 1. Will the highly touted Jimmy Clausen, who walked out of a limo to announce that he was signing with Notre Dame, make his first college start under center against Jon Tenuta’s defense? That could be entertaining.

2. Florida State at Clemson, Sept. 3. The Seminoles start over with a new offense directed by coordinator Jimbo Fisher. Clemson’s Tommy Bowden could use another win over his old man to make Tigers fans forget how last season ended.

3. Oklahoma State at Georgia, Sept. 1. A big fuss was made when Boise State came to Athens two years ago. Trust us when we tell you the Cowboys are better. Dantrell Savage was one of the nation’s top runners at the end of last season.

4. Tennessee at Cal, Sept. 1. The Vols put a whupping on the Bears last September in Knoxville. Can Tennessee go all the way to Berkeley and win with Erik Ainge coming off a knee injury?

5. Kansas State at Auburn, Sept. 1. The Wildcats were 7-6, including an upset of Texas, in their first season under Ron Prince. If you haven’t heard of Josh Freeman, K-State’s sophomore quarterback, you soon will. This is a dangerous game for Auburn, which has some rebuilding to do.

The grapevine. CBS is talking to the SEC about a couple of blockbuster doubleheaders.

On Oct. 6, the network wants to televise Georgia-Tennessee in the 3:30 p.m. ET slot, with Florida-LSU in prime time. The latter game could be a preview of December’s SEC championship duel at the Georgia Dome.

Starting this season, the SEC will require all of its schools to finish their regular season on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. As a result, the Alabama-Auburn game in Tuscaloosa will be played on Nov. 24. CBS wants to put together a doubleheader of Alabama-Auburn and Florida State at Florida on that day.

• At the request of the SEC, Mississippi State has agreed to move its home game with LSU to a Thursday night — Aug. 30 — so it can be televised by ESPN.

“This league is so good now that it’s pretty much like the NFL,” Bulldogs coach Sylvester Croom said. “You’re going to have to play these teams anyway so you might as well play a team like LSU early.”

LSU has made several changes on its staff, including replacing offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher with Gary Crowton.

“One thing this game has done is that it has gotten the attention of our kids as they are working in the offseason program,” said Croom, who is 9-25 in three seasons in Starkville. “All we have to do to motivate these guys is say ‘L-S-U.’ They know we have to be as good as we can possibly be on that night.”

[More at www.thestate.com]