Thursday Linkage is full of meaningless predictions

The main stream media is now rolling at full throttle, as we were blessed this week with their infinite wisdom in the form of predictions, power rankings and Heisman talk.

• ESPN has put together an "expert" panel to begin voting on the 2009 Heisman Trophy race. Naturally, the big three -- Tebow, Bradford and McCoy -- lead the way. But then there are the picks that you know are just made to piss people off, like Tennessee SS Eric Berry, USC Safety Taylor Mays, and TCU DE Jerry Hughes. I just wonder, if they're good enough to get votes now, where are those votes in December?

• Staying with the whole best-in-America theme, NBC Sports released its All-America teams for 2009. While Penn State didn't get any first-team nods, Evan Royster and Navorro Bowman were both named to the second team. Stefen Wisniewski and Jared Odrick landed on the third team. Not bad, especially considering Wiz has never started a game at center prior to this season.

• Preseason rankings are the lifeblood of college football in August; SI.com and NBC Sports are right there with the pack. Penn State comes in at a respectable No. 11 at NBC, and a bit disappointing No. 14 at SI.com.

• ESPN's Mark Schlabach and Bruce Feldman both like Penn State to return to the BCS circuit; Schlabach pegs the Lions for the Orange Bowl vs. Virginia Tech, while Feldman sends JoePa back to the Rose Bowl for a USC rematch.

• Adam Rittenberg says otherwise.

• Today is Penn State's media day, but if you didn't want to pay 10 bucks (!) to watch Joe Paterno's presser online today, you can see a replay of it later on the Big Ten Network, along with other Penn State goodies this evening.

• Jay Paterno would rather have his players practicing than talking.

• The always entertaining BlogPoll is reving back up.

• Just a reminder, the Buckeye Battle Cry was kind enough to stop bashing Michigan for a few minutes, and answer a couple questions for this week's First Look '09. I'll have the post up later today, so be sure to check back for it!

• And lastly, my copy of Sports Illustrated just arrived. While I'm still not crazy about the positions they placed the players, it's nice to see Daryll Clark and Wiz on there.