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If the top two seeds are destined to culminate the season in Colorado this weekend, it will cap one of the more unpredicted rivalries in recent sports history. These two are not Conference Rivals, with one in the Big Ten and one in the Southeastern Conference, and the two only moderately involved in a debate over the nation’s best football conference. The two states are removed as for north and south as is possible. There aren’t any other sports that one can point to for Championship thrillers that lead one school to forever hate the other because of its missed opportunity.

With the schedule locked down, and everyone itching to hit the fields, we take a quick glance at how the tournament could play out. Any number of scenarios are within reason in one of the deepest fields at the College Championships in recent memory, so we highlight the game in each pool that will have the most impact on the Championship Bracket, and then take a quick glance at what those results will mean into the weekend. Texas has its best opportunity in recent memory to make a deep run, while Arizona and Carleton are dangerous down the seed line. Can Michigan continue its magical run?

While it won’t be the most exciting article ever published here, we hope that it is one of the most helpful and informative. With the best teams in the country headed to Boulder, and many playing for the first time over a mile high, the effects can not be taken too lightly. Remembering the difficulty of some in adapting to the conditions in Austin in 2003, we encourage every athlete to read and digest the information. Much of the early discussion is very technical, but nonetheless important to understanding the adjustments over the next week.

Dartmouth and Harvard filled out the strongest field of sixteen since 2004, and now the focus shifts firmly to the question of who will win. With the schedule not likely to be released until Friday, and very difficult decisions to be made on most of the seeds, the roadmap to this National Championship isn’t going to come into focus for a few more days. Looking to the past, there exist some clear trends this decade that narrow the Championship contenders to Florida, Wisconsin, and Michigan, but that reveals little about the route those teams must traverse for the Title.

Before the seeds and schedules are released, there are some match-ups you should already have circled. With everything up in the air after Florida at one, there is no telling where these games might fall. What looks to some like a Pool Play game could end up being a Semi-Final. Even before the seeds are set, it seems unlikely that the Quarterfinals will see only one team advance by virtue of an upset, in the form of the 9th seed over the 8th, like both of the last two seasons in Columbus. In spite of similar travel schedules, many of the top teams have yet to play this season.

With fourteen teams punching their tickets to Boulder, all the focus will shift to where the teams will be seeded, and the path to the Golden Disc. Even though New England, which because of Brown has claimed as many trophies as any other Region, has yet to determine its representatives , the major questions about the 2008 UPA College Championships can be answered. Those questions might lead you to a familiar answer, with the top of Open Division forced to go through a pair of teams that will be very comfortable in their position.

Where will the National Champion come from?

With apologies to Auburn, we’ll pick up the list at the more serious contenders, with a slightly less serious take. Working our way toward the top of the list, you may find some surprises, all the way to the very top. A reminder that this is not an attempt to rank teams according to skill, but to compare the difficulty each team faces in trying to claim one of two bids from its Region.