I realize there are plenty of other notable omissions from both lists that I could probably discuss at length, but I'll wait for you to e-mail about them. On to other matters....

Phil Steele predicts Arkansas as the surprise team of the year at No. 13 in the nation. Where do you think the Hogs will finish up?
-- Art Smalley, Huntington Beach, Calif.

That's a bolder projection than I'm willing to make, but I do think Arkansas will be much improved this season, so much so that reloading USC had better not take that opener lightly. The Razorbacks may have gone 4-7 last year, but they were extremely young and they got much better as the season went on, losing to Georgia, South Carolina and LSU by a combined nine points. A staggering 20 starters return, including budding star running backs Darren McFadden and Peyton Hills. New offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn promises to inject life into Arkansas' long-suffering passing game, be it with returning sophomore QB Casey Dick or Malzahn's highly touted high school protégé, Mitch Mustain.

Before you get too excited, though, Razorbacks fans, remember that our good friend Phil had Purdue at No. 3 in the preseason last year. We all miss some from time to time, but ... yowsers.

Navy has posted three consecutive winning seasons, with two straight bowl wins over New Mexico and Colorado State. With 18 returning starters back and the best recruiting class of the academies, do you believe the Midshipmen have a chance to cement themselves as a Top 25 team and go on a run like Air Force did in the '80s and '90s?
-- Adam Nettina, Maryland

As you probably noticed earlier, I have a lot of respect for what Paul Johnson has accomplished at Navy. There's no overstating just how far down that program was in the previous decade, and the fact that the Midshipmen are now enjoying annual bowl trips is astounding. To engender the kind of respect you're hoping for, however, the academy would need to substantially upgrade the quality of its competition. The vast majority of Navy's wins the past few years have come against the likes of Rice, Tulane and Temple. In fact, the only BCS-conference foes the Midshipmen have defeated in the last three seasons are Duke, Vanderbilt and Rutgers. So I'd temper the expectations a little. I think Navy fans should be very happy right now with a program that's winning eight games a year and going to bowl games but isn't necessarily going to be regarded as a national power anytime soon.

Stewart: Why is there no respect for Virginia Tech? One could argue the Hokies have over/underachieved in the past few years; however, they always end up in January bowls. Why do the media hate Virginia Tech so much (other than Marcus Vick)?
-- Nash, Festus, Mo.

Oh, brother. It's the old "why do the media hate us so much?" question. You may recognize it from its previous incarnations, as espoused by fans of Miami, Florida State, Ohio State, LSU, Auburn, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Oregon, Bowling Green and Prairie View. I don't think the Hokies have been hurting for coverage the past few seasons. They're on television nearly every week, they show up high in the preseason rankings every year, etc.

I won't deny, however, that there's been something of a Virginia Tech backlash since the end of last season, and it's due almost entirely to the situation you mentioned so casually. Frank Beamer did not win a whole lot of favor with his treatment of the troubled quarterback. Remember, even after a year-long suspension for the incident with underage girls, flipping the bird at West Virginia fans, the Elvis Dumervil stomping and a second driving-with-a-suspended-license charge, Beamer still did not dismiss Vick from the team. That decision came from university president Charles Steger. This, mind you, came on the heels of increasingly frequent stories throughout college football about Tech being a "dirty" team -- a theme I've heard repeatedly from sources at teams that have played the Hokies. (Miami players last year inferred that running back Tyrone Moss' knee was intentionally twisted while under a pile, resulting in his ACL tear.) So the program's image has a taken a bit of a hit, but I would contend that the Hokies are still almost universally viewed as a consistent top 10/top 15 team.

Is it just me or is there something a bit "off" about the new season of Entourage? Most noticeable is that the cinematography has changed, but it seems there is a change in tone that I can't quite put my finger on. Your thoughts?
-- Chad Gorman, Sugar Land, Texas

I'm not astute enough to notice the cinematography, but there's definitely something off so far this season: the humor. You've basically had one good, classic Entourage-style episode (the second) and two absolute clunkers (the first and third). It seems almost as if the writers are trying too hard to live up to the mystique that's grown around the show since last season. Instead of focusing on what made the show good in the first place -- the camaraderie of the four friends and the glimpses of Hollywood's inner workings -- they've felt compelled to introduce outside elements to spice up the plot, most notably this new guy Dom. You can already see where that's headed. Most troubling of all, the other regular characters besides Vince and Ari have largely been ignored. What happened to Turtle's budding music-management career? Why no new auditions for Drama? And where the heck is Sloan??

Stick to what got you here, guys. More drunken Vince shouting from a rooftop; fewer guilt trips about the nothing-but-trouble sidekick from back home.