For the first week of the season, all SEC teams in action play other SEC teams.  There are five games on tap including the Cats and Cocks.  How many jokes will we hear this week involving cocks?  Seroiusly, probably enough to start a drinking game. 

SOUTH CAROLINA @ KENTUCKY  12:30 pm  RAYCOM

Oh well, I guess everybody loves when USCjr comes to town because they can openly make jokes about cocks and no one cares.  I just hope this week that everyone is in a good mood after the game as well.  I look for the Cats to prove once again that they are superior on the defensive side.  USCjr’s offense hasn’t been much to talk about this year but like the Cats, they have relied heavily on their defense.  Remeber last year’s contest when a couple of turnovers cost the Cats the game.  If those same mistakes can be avoided, look for the Cats to finally send the Old Ball Coach home crying.  If it happens, Spurrier’s seat may become a little warm considering  he has yet to have a good season in Columbia.  PREDICTION: KENTUCKY 20, USCjr 6.

LSU @ FLORIDA  8:00  CBS
The Tigers go into “The Swamp” fresh off of a bye week while Florida basically had a bye week even though they did travel to Fayetteville for a scrimmage with the Hogs.  After their 38-7 win, they flew back home and began preparations for LSU.  If Tim Tebow keeps his word, it was probably one of the toughest practice weeks the Gaotrs have had yet.  I think after this showdown, there will be one less unbeaten team in the SEC.  PREDICTION: FLORIDA 24, LSU 21

TENNESSEE @ GEORGIA  3:30  CBS

The first half of the SEC doubleheader on CBS takes us to Athens where the Dawgs host the Vols.  As much as it will kill Billy Bob and Bertha, Fat Phil will still be leading the Vols out of the locker room for yet another week.  I think that if the Vols don’t perform well and keep it close, someone may be out of a job next week, and I’m not talking about any coordinators.  Two blowout losses to SEC East opponents would not be taken well in Knoxville.  I just hope that if they do get rid of Fulmer this year, it is done before the end of the year instead of at the end of the season because teams tend to play differently for their coach when they know it’s his last game.  Yeah, we get them in their last game of the year.  Here’s to hoping Georgia can get it done this week.  PREDICTION: GEORGIA 35, TENNESSEE 13

VANDERBILT @ MISSISSIPPI STATE  1:30

After their victory over Auburn, Vandy travels to Starkville to take on the mighty cowbell backed Bulldogs.  Vandy looks to get to 6-0 for the first time in 80 years and extend their SEC winning streak to the longest in school history (3?).  It’s unknown which quarterback the Dores will use.  Starter Chris Nickson injured his shoulder last week and his status for this week is unknown.  If needed, MacKenzie Adams is more than qualified to step in and lead the team to victory.  Mississippi St has lost three in a row and looks to spoil Vandy’s cinderella season.  PREDICTION: VANDERBILT 21, MISSISSIPPI STATE 14

ARKANSAS @ AUBURN  3:00

A week before coming to Lexington, Arkansas travels to Auburn to battle with the Tigers.  Arkansas got blown out by Florida at home last week and Auburn lost to Vanderbilt for the first time ending a 13-game winning streak against the Dores.  Auburn fired it’s offensive coordinator earlier this week and really have no identity on offense.  Although I don’t think Arkansas will win, I think it will be a close game because of Auburn’s lack of offense.  PREDICTION: AUBURN 10, ARKANSAS 6

Alabama and Ole MIss have the week off.  Bama is still #2 in the national rankings after their win over the Cats last weekend while Ole Miss is regrouping after the letdown they suffered against South Carolina last week.

This is a great week of SEC football coming up. It might be the best total package weekend in the SEC this year. Four games stand out.

Florida @ Tennessee

I know the games are always close at Knoxville, but have you seen Tennessee this year? They played like absolute garbage against UCLA and didn’t look that much better when they beat UAB last week. I still don’t have the kind of trust in Jonathan Crompton to convince myself that Tennessee will keep this one close. On the other hand, Florida has done everything a championship contender is supposed to do in the first three weeks of this young season. I think I saw on ESPN that they were outscoring opponents 65-3 in the first three quarters of the game. That is scary precision, folks. I like Florida to roll in this one, let’s say 49-17.

Alabama @ Arkansas

This will tell us something about both teams. Is Alabama for real, or did they just catch fire against Clemson and their games against Tulane and WKU indicative of how they will play the rest of the season? Is Arkansas as bad as they have looked in 4th quarter comeback wins against Western Illinois and UL-Monroe? I’d say that yes, Alabama is for real, and yes, Arkansas is that bad. The Razorbacks are just missing the kind of talent all around that is necessary to achieve any kind of success this year, and I think the Crimson Tide will win comfortably. I think we’ll go with 38-14 in this one.

Vanderbilt @ Mississippi

The two most underrated teams in the conference square off in Oxford Saturday. Vanderbilt has been great on defense this season, just like they have been throughout the Bobby Johnson era. Ole Miss showed the world just how good Houston Nutt is when they were a blown pass interference call away from beating Wake Forest, the best team in the ACC. Jevan Sneed is the best quarterback you haven’t seen so far this season. I might be inclined to call this one a must win for Vandy because of their struggles against Florida, Georgia and Kentucky. They play a few more OOC games, so in order for them to get that sixth win, they’ll have to take this one. I think the Rebels win a very close defensive slugfest. Let’s call it 14-10.

LSU @ Auburn

Now we’re talking the good stuff. I had Auburn winning the West and eventually the entire conference this year, but I didn’t plan on them benching their quarterback after only one week. Chris Todd did not fare very well in that offensive explosion in the land of the cowbells, and the more I watch LSU, the more I think they can win this thing again. Charles Scott has been the best offensive player in the conference up to this point, and if something happens to him, no SEC team has a deeper pool of runners than LSU. I’ll say this: If LSU wins this game, they will go on to win the national championship again. However, you can’t just waltz into Jordan-Hare and expect to beat Tommy Tuberville in a big game. I think the War Eagle Tigers will beat the Bayou Bengal Tigers in a classic. Auburn wins, 24-21.

In other news, I think Georgia will make like a Mountain West team and destroy Arizona State in the desert.

I’m Seth Stogsdill, and watch me be completely wrong on all of these picks except Alabama/Arkansas.

Last week the league as a whole went 10-2 against non-conference opponents with Tennessee and Mississippi State suffering the only two losses. Thanks guys! Last night we got our first glimpse of league action with South Carolina visited Vanderbilt and left with a 24-17 defeat at the hands of the Commodores. On Saturday, the rest of the league continues with out-of-conference opponents.

We told you before we are very thankful to be invited to be part of the SEC Power Poll. And even more thankful to be able to air our comments and ballot here. So this is what was just turned in. You get the first look! In reverse order.

12. Mississippi State
Anyone who put Croom higher thsn 10 in a ranking of SEC coaches should publicily apologize. Those who believed the Bulldogs were anything but a one-year wonder, please excuse yourselves. We’ll wait.

11. Arkansas
Petrino comes deathly close to hell, but the Razorbacks still pull out a comeback win over Western Ill. Will fight MSU for the most crappy team this year.

10. Tennessee
Hang it up Fulmer. Claw-fense my butt. How about a defense that has 4 INTs in the first half and a team that can’t score on those mistakes. You’re awful. Say hello to fifth place in the SEC for us.

9. Vanderbilt
Gets lucky since three other teams played bad.

8. Ole Miss
See: Vanderbilt. Real test comes this week.

7. Kentucky
Did you see that defense? Did you see the awful play of four of UK’s conference opponents? Looking good for the Cats.

6. South Carolina
Maybe Spurrier has something brewing in Columbia. Finally.

5. Alabama
Saban has a growing monster in Tuscaloosa.

4. Auburn
Still waiting to see if they can rise up and take the SEC West

3. LSU
Their handling of App State proved they weren’t ready to hand over the SEC to anyone else.

2. Georgia.
Playing Georgia Southern means nothing except you get to stay where I think you should be.

1. Florida
If those freshmen speedsters continue to play well = championship.

I am a Kentucky fan first, but an SEC fan second. One of the perks of playing football in the SEC is that you don’t have to beef up your OOC schedule with tough games because you play a vicious eight-game gauntlet that is almost always good enough to tilt the BCS standings in your favor. However, in the past few years, the SEC schools have been playing top competition before the conference slate begins. As a person who wants to see the SEC make the best bowls possible, I am against this. The SEC is tough enough as it is. Why schedule one of these teams (especially on the road) when the schedule in conference play is difficult enough that no additional risks are needed?

Mississippi State has played West Virginia. Georgia has played Oklahoma State is will play Arizona State in Tempe. Tennessee did a home-and-home with California and will play UCLA in Los Angeles. Alabama played Florida State in Jacksonville and will play Clemson in Jacksonville this season. LSU did a home-and-home with Virginia Tech. Vanderbilt went to Michigan. Auburn did a home-and-home with USC near the peak of the Trojans’ run, and last year they played Kansas State and South Florida. This year they play West Virginia in Morgantown. I don’t mind Arkansas vs. Texas, Georgia vs. Georgia Tech, South Carolina vs. Clemson, Florida vs. Miami or Kentucky vs. Louisville because those are rivalries and nothing tops a college football rivalry. Still, I wanted to take a look at the marquee games SEC teams play out of conference in the first two months of the season.

September 1: #18 Tennessee @ UCLA

Why does Tennessee keep going to the West Coast? I know they’ve gotten some recruits from there (Casey Clausen comes to mind), but they rarely win the game. I’m going to put down the Pac-10 when I talk about Georgia vs. ASU, but I think UCLA might be a little better than people expect. I’m not saying they’ll win their conference (they won’t – USC will in a landslide), but Rick Neuheisel and Norm Chow know offense, and that had been the Bruins’ weakest area. Also, I’m not sold on Tennessee. Jonathan Crompton is very green at QB, the running backs are powerful, but don’t have the blazing speed possessed by Georgia or LSU, and the defense is still suspect. I don’t think UCLA would beat Tennessee if they played at the end of the season (Tennessee always has a top-heavy schedule and closes out seasons well), but I like the Bruins in this one.

Prediction: UCLA 28, Tennessee 27

September 6: Miami @ #5 Florida

Florida is either going to go undefeated in the regular season, or they will have one loss against Georgia. People bring up how mediocre their defense was last season, but I’ll counter by bringing up how young that defense was last season. Tim Tebow is a pretty good football player, and they have a ridiculous amount of talent returning at the skill positions, even taking into account the injury to Cornelius Ingram. Randy Shannon will turn Miami back into “The U” by 2010, but his young Hurricanes won’t be ready to take a gameplan into the swamp and execute perfectly, which is what they’d have to do to win. Also, I don’t like betting against Urban Meyer.

Prediction: Florida 42, Miami 24

September 13: Arkansas @ #11 Texas

Arkansas is in a major rebuilding mode with the loss of Darren McFadden and Felix Jones, plus having Casey Dick return at QB. Bobby Petrino will probably achieve success on the same level of Houston Nutt at Arkansas (which I’d kill for as a Kentucky fan), but not this season. Texas might be a tad underrated this season. Their talent level is always top notch, but I wonder if Mack Brown caught lightning in a bottle with Vince Young. This is the last game in this rivalry for several years, and I don’t see Texas losing.

Prediction: Texas 38, Arkansas 21

September 20: #1 Georgia @ #15 Arizona State

Arizona State is overrated because the Pac-10 is overrated. Every team besides USC has a great offense and a terrible defense. A lot of the people I’ve seen on TV have begun to hump on the “Georgia is overrated” bandwagon, but I disagree. If any team is capable of getting through that meat grinder of a schedule, it’s the Bulldogs, and it will start against Arizona State. I think Rudy Carpenter will rack up a lot of yards against Georgia, but I think Georgia has the kind of red zone defense that can take points off of the scoreboard, and Georgia will control the ball with the running game enough to win comfortably.

Prediction: Georgia 34, Arizona State 19

October 23: #10 Auburn @ #8 West Virginia

I really like Auburn to do big things this year. They looked like a totally different team as the big underdog against Clemson in the Chick-fil-A Bowl, and with Tony Franklin calling the plays and Cody Burns at QB, the Tigers’ new spread offense should be lethal. Auburn people don’t like Tommy Tuberville, which is one of the biggest mysteries ever. Somebody exhume Robert Stack’s body so he can figure that one out. WVU will be awesome on offense with Pat White and Noel Devine, but I wonder if their blowout win over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl might have been a bit of an illusion. Those guys rallied behind Bill Stewart as the interim coach, but can they carry that into this season? Morgantown is a tough place to win, but if Pittsburgh can do it on a night where WVU could have made the title game, Auburn can certainly do it. I think they will, in a wildly entertaining game.

Prediction: Auburn 34, West Virginia 31

And finally, there’s Louisville vs. Kentucky.

Yeah, that one will have to wait for another day. I don’t want to waste that one on Monday because I’ll be dead for the rest of the week.

I’m Seth Stogsdill, setting the DVR for 5:00 today. ESPN Classic is showing a replay of last year’s Kentucky vs. Louisville game. There will be good times tonight.

I could do a column on either of the two games UK had against Arkansas in 1995, but I don’t have the loss in Fayetteville on Super Bowl Sunday where Scotty Thurman pushed off to get open for the game winner. That was a great game despite the outcome, but this one was even better. The 1995 Wildcats were a dominant team, losing only four times during the season. Just imagine the 1996 team, subtract Ron Mercer, Wayne Turner and Derek Anderson, and add Rod Rhodes and my boy Andre Riddick. They were legit. The biggest weakness on this team was at point guard. Rick Pitino shuffled between Anthony Epps and Jeff Sheppard at point, but neither of the two sophomores was good enough to control the offense like Epps did in his next two years. Of course, Pitino wanted Tony Delk to play point guard, but you know how that worked. The fan