Welcome to the seventh season of Mountaineer Gameday. OK, so it's not really game day until Saturday, and if you think we're getting ahead of ourselves ...

Never mind.

Anyway, the 119th season at West Virginia University opens with a team the Mountaineers never have played before. Coastal Carolina starts only its eighth football season Saturday at Mountaineer Field.

West Virginians are pretty familiar with the Chanticleers' geography, however. The campus is located in Conway, S.C., just 10 miles west of Myrtle Beach on U.S. 501. Coastal has finished with a winning record in five of its previous seven seasons and was 5-6 the other two times - including last season.

CCU is the sixth NCAA Football Championship Subdivision program WVU has played in seven seasons - and the second Big South Conference team in two years, following Liberty last season.

In its first three steps up against major programs, Coastal lost 66-10 in a 2008 opener at 22nd-ranked Penn State - before 106,577 after the Chants hadn't previously played in front of more than 24,267 - then fell 18-0 at Kent State and 49-3 at Clemson last season.

The Chants are picked third in the seven-team Big South race in 2010, when the conference will get its first automatic bid to the FCS playoffs - which have been expanded from 16 to 20 teams.

Mountaineer fans squawk about WVU dropping down a level for an opponent, but they'd better get used to it. Most major programs play what used to be known as a Division I-AA team, and WVU needs one annually to get to the seven home games the program wants (for a win) and needs (financially).

See, using this season as an example, it's cheaper to get a Coastal to come to Morgantown ($350,000) than a Nevada-Las Vegas ($740,000) or even one of those Ohio-based Mid-American Conference foes.

West Virginia has Norfolk State ($325,000) next season, is looking for an FCS visitor in 2012, and the two years after that will entertain William & Mary and Towson, respectively - for $300,000 apiece.

 

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IF THE preseason national polls serve as an accurate barometer, it seems most observers are expecting the Mountaineers to have another nine-win season.

That's pretty much the translation when you're No. 25 in the Associated Press media poll and tied for 24th in the USA Today coaches' poll. Double-digit winners finish higher than that when the final rankings are filed in early January.

As an indicator over WVU history, however, the preseason polls haven't been close on forecasting the Mountaineers' fortunes - especially on finishing higher than they started.

Using the AP poll as a guide:

The 2010 debut polls marks the 13th time West Virginia has been in a preseason ranking, dating to WVU's first appearance, in 1953 (the AP poll dates to 1936). Of the previous 12 preseason-ranked WVU teams, eight have made the final poll - but only twice with an upward mobility.

In '53, WVU was No. 16 in the preseason poll (only 20 teams were ranked then), and the Mountaineers landed 10th after falling to Georgia Tech in the Sugar Bowl.

The other climb from the preseason came in 1988, when the Mountaineers started at No. 16, went 11-0 in the regular season to reach No. 3, lost to Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl, and finished at No. 5.

In 1955, WVU started and finished at No. 19, and the 1989 Mountaineers were No. 17 for starters and closers. The West Virginia teams that were in preseason polls but finished out of the rankings were 1970 (No. 20), 1994 (No. 24), 1995 (No. 23) and 1998 (No. 11).

This is the fifth time in the last seven years that WVU has made the AP preseason poll.

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SPEAKING OF indicators, it's going to be difficult to get an early read on the Big East Conference's football prowess. Seven of the eight teams play an FCS foe in Weeks 1 or 2.

Syracuse is the exception, but then the Orange play two of those lower-level foes in Weeks 3-4 - Maine and Colgate. SU is the only Big East team with a pair of FCS dates in 2010.

By the end of September, however, the nation will know where just how large or small the Big East will play this season. The non-conference schedule is tougher than it has been in recent years - and if the Big East is to earn a larger measure of respect, it will likely have to do so on the road.

Pitt opened Thursday night at Utah (tied with WVU for No. 24 in the coaches' poll), and Connecticut visits The Big House on Saturday in what has to be a no-lose situation for embattled Michigan Coach Rich Rodriguez.

In Week 2, USF visits Florida in The Swamp (and also plays at Miami in late November). Rebuilding Louisville goes to No. 24 Oregon State on Sept. 18.

Drum roll, please ...

However, the Big East Referendum football weekend of Sept. 23-25 starts on a Thursday night, when Miami (Fla.) faces Pitt at Heinz Field. Then, two days later, WVU plays at LSU's Tiger Stadium, Oklahoma plays Cincinnati at Paul Brown Stadium, and Rutgers entertains North Carolina.

Barring early shockers, that's four ranked non-conference opponents for the Big East in a three-day span. The Big East played one, three and four ranked outsiders in entire regular seasons, respectively, in 2007, 2008 and 2009.

Pitt also plays at Notre Dame and Syracuse at Washington and Boston College this season. If the Big East can win more than a few of those, someone might think the league does something other than dribble.