College football season is nearly upon us.

Don’t believe me?

Yesterday’s release of EA Sport’s NCAA 2010 marks — at least on my calendar — the ever-approaching time that all sports fans in the South crave.

It is the first of many road signs that lead us to that glorious time we call “College Football season.”

No matter whom you root for, football season always seems to be in the forefront of the public’s eye.

Where once the season was maintained with in a disappointing four-month span, individual team sites on ESPN, Rivals and Scout give the passionate fans exactly what they crave.

Let’s face it. It is never too early for a look at the upcoming season.

So now I am going use this space to give you guys a look from the perspective of someone who doesn’t have either of the big teams in the state in his Top 3 teams for which I cheer (but I do cheer for them).

Alabama’s upcoming season looks to be an interesting one.

After using a stingy defense last year — and John Parker Wilson not screwing games up — Alabama was able to rise out the ashes to once again become a team to reckon with on a national scale.

This year, however, there are many questions to be answer for the Tide on the offensive side of the ball.

Gone is JPW, with all his records. In is Greg McElroy. Gone is a majority of an offensive line that had made its claim as one of the best in the country.

It will be interesting to see how coach Nick Saban’s solid recruiting classes from the past three years will be able to fill these holes.

The defense will look to be solid in T-town again.

They don’t lose much on that side of the ball and have added some excellent talent to fill the gaps.

Across the state, Auburn is preparing for its first season under new head coach Gene Chizik.

To be honest, I was a little surprised by Auburn’s choice. But I’m fairly sure I’m not alone in that regard.

Auburn’s offense was abysmal last year.

The Tigers weren’t able to crack the top-half of any offensive categories in 2008.

Now Gus Malzahn, the architect of Tulsa’s explosive offense last year, is on the plains and hoping to bring new life to a team that just looked dead all of last season.

The defense for the Tigers looks to be as solid as people have come to expect from Auburn.

I think this year will be a pivotal one for Auburn.

They are fighting with Alabama for a lot more top-flight recruits in state; something they haven’t been able to handle the past two years. And they are even getting looks from some extremely talented out-of-state prospects.

All in all, I think that this year’s SEC West will go through LSU and Alabama, but I hope that there is success in both programs because a great Iron Bowl match-up is just more fun.  

I’m really excited to see what will happen on the college football landscape this upcoming season and I know that our readers are just the same.

So for now, I leave y’all with a “Roll Tide,” a “War Eagle” and a “Go Trojans” (This is my bias coming out!)