Call it arrogance, but after finding myself on top of the Forecasters heap nearly every week this quarter, I was starting to feel secure in my superiority.

But a Daily Sports alumnus knocked me down from my high horse last week when he said he was disappointed by the quality of the Forecasters column under my leadership. Ouch.

Adam Rittenberg, Medill ’03, otherwise known as Hippie (he’s from Berkeley), told me he longs for the good old days when he and the other now geezerly, mostly male writers and editors were in charge.

Maybe I could learn a thing or two from the old guard. After all, Hippie works for the prestigious Daily Herald covering — what else? — Northwestern sports. His former partner in crime, Glenn Kasses, covers the ferocious Cougars of Washington State — who have a worse record than our very own Cats — in the city I affectionately call the ‘Can.

Don’t they just scream “role models”?

Nevertheless, I feel a duty to respect Hippie’s request that I stick to criticizing my fellow panelists’ picks — with a few personal insults thrown in.

This task really is too easy.

Jerome C. declined to give scores at all this week, going with the (n)ever-hilarious word-style predictions. Memo to the ME: You’re not funny. At all.

And Purdue over Ohio State? After the fall of Orton, the Boilermakers don’t stand a chance. Prof. Boye’s rule for winning this contest — when in doubt, always go with the home team — hasn’t propelled you to victory enough this season to avoid tying with our merely mediocre Special Friends.

And Friends, Boston College may have eked out a victory over a surging Notre Dame two weeks ago, but they won’t be so lucky against high-flying West Virginia.

I congratulate our contest winner on being the only other woman to grace the page this season. Unfortunately, her hopeless optimism about NU’s chances against the Big Ten’s No. 2 team dooms her to be yet another one-timer like all of her male predecessors this year.

But at least she is certain to do better than Sterrett, who is so lazy that he picks every team he thinks will lose, just so he never has to write this column.

So until next week …