College football fans recall that the Florida State Seminoles and Miami Hurricanes used to play annually for a virtual National Championship not all that long ago as two of the most dominant programs of the 1980’s and 90’s. It looks as if those days are returning as the two hated rivals are the co-favorites in college football predictions to win the 2010 ACC Conference championship. Online sportsbooks opened with Miami as a +240 choice to win the ACC with Florida State at +275. Other top contenders in 2010 ACC conference odds include Virginia Tech at +300, North Carolina at +475, Clemson at +500, Boston College at +800 and defending champ Georgia Tech at +900.

Just last year, many online sportsbooks and handicappers and fans thought that the Vanderbilt Commodores might become the Wake Forest or Northwestern of the Southeastern Conference and contend regularly for bowl games, an occasional conference title and maybe even in college football odds to win the BCS. Vanderbilt was coming off their first bowl season since 1982 as they won the Music City Bowl and had plenty of returning starters for 2009. Unfortunately the Commodores imploded with a 2-10 record and lost every SEC game on the schedule, and had plenty of graduation losses that had to be filled for 2010. It is no surprise that Bobby Johnson decided he did not want a ninth season of slamming his head against a brick wall. What is surprising was that he retired from coaching just as camp is about to begin.

With a passionate fan base, rich history, and plenty of home grown talent to recruit, the 2010 Georgia Bulldogs would seem to have everything needed to become a national power in college football odds. Georgia has not played for the Southeastern Conference title since 2005 when they clobbered LSU, however, and finished unranked last year after finishing 8-5 straight up and 5-7 against the spread in college football picks to conclude their fifth season out of the last six in which they did not produce a profit. Online sportsbooks have the 2010 Bulldogs as 40-1 longshots in BCS odds to win the championship with a regular season win total at 8.5 OVER (-120) but this is a team that definitely has a shot at the SEC title.