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.

With Kentucky visiting Alabama this weekend, it seems like everyone has focused solely on this game.  As much as we really don’t care, there are others games this weekend in the SEC, including a matchup of ranked teams in NASHVILLE, where Gameday will also be airing live.  Wow, never thought i would say that.

AUBURN @ VANDERBILT  6 pm  ESPN

Holy crap, a game between ranked teams in Nashville, Tennessee involving the Commodores.  Who would have ever thunk it.  Ranked for the first time in forever, # 19 Vandy hosts #13 Auburn on Saturday night.  Vanderbilt has had a week to prepare for the Tigers so I look for them to come out ready for everything.  Auburn fought hard last week and held off Tennessee 14-12 in Auburn but should be ready for the Dores due to their ranking.  Any other year, we might expect the Tigers to overlook Vandy but this year, no one will overlook the Dores.  A win on Saturday night for Vanderbilt would put them at 5-0 for the first time since 1943.  I don’t look for that to happen though.  The ranking ends here!  PREDICTION: AUBURN 24, VANDERBILT 21

FLORIDA @ ARKANSAS 12:30 pm  RAYCOM

After getting knocked off in the swamp at the hands of Ole Miss, the Gators travel to Fayetteville to rebound against the Hogs.  Florida looks to extend their win streak against Arkansas to seven games and take a 7-1 lead in the all-time record against the Hogs.  Arkansas is looking for any signs of offense from their team.  I think it’s funny to watch a Bobby Petrino team struggle to score considering the entire time he was in Louisville the players could probably score in their sleep.  It’s gonna be another week of no offense for the Hogs I’m afraid.  The Gators should bounce back nicely in this one.  PREDICTION:  FLORIDA 35, ARKANSAS 10.

SOUTH CAROLINA @ OLE MISS  2pm

The Cocks travel to Oxford to face the Rebels who are fresh off their upset in the swamp.  Both teams come into the game with matching 3-2 records but Ole Miss is 1-1 in SEC play while USC is 0-2.  Both have losses to Vanderbilt by nearly the same score 23-17 for one and 23-17 for the other.  I think this may be a good game but only because both teams are very mediocre at best.  I look for a bit of a letdown on the Rebels side after their big win last week but I’m not sure whether USC can capitalize on it or not.  PREDICTION: OLE MISS 17, SOUTH CAROLINA 14

NORTHERN ILLINOIS @ TENNESSEE  7 pm  PPV

FINALLY, a cupcake for the Vols to munch on.  After a disastrous start to the season, the Vols finally have an easy opponent to play.  This just shows how dumb the people of Knoxville are.  Most major college programs schedule these games as the first couple of the season to allow their teams to work out the kinks while racking up wins for their records.  In Knoxville, they would rather be embarrassed early and then have to defend themselves as a good team the rest of the year.  If this game is in doubt going into the second half,  Fat Phil may not make it out of the locker room for the rest of the game.  Good Luck Phil!  PREDICTION: TENNESSEE 34, NORTHERN ILLINOIS 7

Georgia, LSU and Mississippi State are off this week.

Boy I haven’t really ranted in a long time. But thanks to ESPN.com’s Bruce Feldman, you will be treated to one this morning. Why? Because Feldman is a busch league college football columnist. Feldman and Mark Schlabach released their pre-season bowl projections. A silly thing, I’m sure they’ll tell you, but it’s gets idiots like me to post about it, so I guess they win.

Anyway, the SEC has NINE bowl tie-ins and Feldman has UK listed for ZERO of them. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. And Feldman’s mistakes start at the top. His BCS championship game? Southern Cal. Versus Missouri. You had at me at hell no.

The sad thing is I like Missouri and Chase Daniel. But those boys won’t even win the Big 12. Feldman has Auburn in the Feista Bowl (vs. Pittsburgh) and Florida in the Sugar (vs. BYU, or Hawai’i redux). He has Ole Miss making the Liberty bowl. I’m OK with that. It’s possible. And forget about the Music City bowl, who broke an unwritten rule about taking a team in consecutive years already. But surely the PapaJohns.com or Independence bowls Bruce. Nope.

Arkansas likes the pizza bowl, Croom like independence. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Luckily, Schlabach slides UK into the Independence bowl against Oklahahoma State. I’m down with that. Not really, but it’s a third straight bowl.

I don’t know what ESPN did why Ivan Massel, who is much better at this bowl projections than Feldman. And that’s saying something. Feldman = busch league projections. Maybe you were going to the shake ups, the reaches. You win then Bruce.

But I think you actually believe Missouri will make the NC, BYU will crash the Sugar and Clemson can win the ACC. And I think you don’t watch college football.

I was going to wait a little bit before getting all worked up about UK’s chances to go bowling for a third straight year in football, but ESPN has left me no choice.

You see, College Football writer Mark Schlabach has released July bowl predictions to help keep people like me sane. And he has the Wildcats going to Mobile to take place in the newest SEC bowl (but not a new bowl altogether) the Papajohns.com bowl.

The good news: UK will be in a third straight bowl game. They would face a Big East opponent (Mark says Rutgers).

Bad news: The bowl is named after a website.

Now, the addition of the bowl gives the SEC nine tie-ins. I’m not quite sure if this is the ninth spot, but I doubt it since the Liberty Bowl projection has Ole Miss and the Independence Bowl has Mississippi State. I’m thinking this Papa John’s bowl jumped to the 7th best team in the conference. Or so I hope.

Of course, little brother Louisville is back bowling too in the International Bowl. Big East vs. MAC. The bowl may be closer in date to the BCS bowls, but you’d be playing in Canada. Not an upgrade.

Also, I went back and looked, this is the same match-up Phil Steele predicts. A bowl is a bowl right? Only if there’s free pizza!

Another day, another pre-season football magazine saying UK just can’t compete above fifth in the SEC. Sure, Phil Steele has given UK more credit than the other two magazines we’ve reviewed so far, but still.

You can put more UK guys on your All-SEC teams. You can say this will be better or that will be better. Mr. Steele works really hard on his magazine, hell, he writes every page himself and they are crammed with information.

But Phil, where is the courage? UK finished 3rd and Fourth the past two years in the SEC East. Back to back bowls, buddy. Although you do have UK bowl bound again (as the SEC’s 8th best team no less), fifth in the SEC?

Of course you think Tennessee will be par for the course and South Carolina is one of your sleeper teams. Then again, so is Louisville, who you rank 50th in the nation. You bury UK in the 60s.

You claim on your magazine that you have been the most accurate the past NINE years. Yet you have missed the mark consistently on UK these past two years. Can’t you see the mistakes?

The fact is that the Cats just won’t get any love this year until they punk out Louisville in the opener and head into Bama undefeated. Even then, they won’t get much love.

I’m thinking about applying to write for a national college football magazine. Looks like an easy job. Just go with what everyone else says, follow the trend and don’t take risks. Even though everyone knows the craziest stuff happens in college football.

But why in the world would a pre-season magazine actually want to be bold? I haven’t a clue.

Texas vs. Arkansas in 1969… could we soon see that match up every year?

I have to admit, when I first came across this, I thought it was going to be a bunch of a bull. I mean, is the next step for college football really 16 team superconferences?

Tim Stephens of the Orlando Sentinel seems to think it could be. I’m still a little wary, until I read his new conference alignments. And the SEC went from beast to SUPER BEAST. Check this out.

SEC East: Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, South Carolina

SEC West: Arkansas, LSU, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M.

In case you’re wondering about the West, in this situation, Stephens says that the Big 12 and Big East will fold and their teams will be raced to be grabbed by the other leagues. And it looks like the “SEC-16″ went nuts. Alabama and Auburn switch over to an already tough division in the SEC East. Oklahoma, Oklahoma State (I’m a man….ok, I’ll stop), Texas and Texas A&M jump to the SEC West.

And I can honestly say that at that point, a playoff must occur. Take a look at those divisions again. There is no way any team gets out of either division undefeated. The East division is a monster, the West division is the boogeyman.

The best part of this whole idea may be what happened to little brother, Louisville. After thinking they are some big football power, none of the four power conferences (ACC-16, SEC-16, BIG 16 or PAC 16) take the Cardinals. Instead, they are relegated back to a 16 team Conference USA, a clear second-tier conference. The Mountain West also grabs 16 teams to fight the C-USA for the best of the rest title.

If this situation happened, I would be absolutely giddy. The SEC would be nuts, with a must-see game every week (like it’s not that way already). The SEC would get the best four from the Big 12. The ACC would live up to their name, completely blanketing the East Coast. the Pac 10 would be the the West Coast ACC and the Big 10 would continue to suck. Haha, just kidding. But not really.

When I think about it, this could have already happened a few years ago. Thankfully, the ACC decided to raid the Big East, not merge. But all it’s going to take is a power move by any of the remaining conferences to spark the flame. If the Big East or Pac 10 tries to raid some teams that aren’t in lower conferences things will get dicey.

And think about the rivalries. Alabama-Auburn comes to the SEC East, while all the old east feuds stay. Georgia and Auburn get each other every year. In the West, everything stays the same, but you add the Red River Shootout… and Arkansas gets a shot at Texas and Oklahoma every year. Same for LSU.

And I haven’t even talked about the other sports yet. Yikes.

And honestly, I think college football and the fans would be better off if these 16 team conferences ever do come along. Texas, Oklahoma, OK State and Texas A&M in a new SEC? I’m going to faint!

This is the second leg of a series where we here at WC break down what each preseason college football magazine says about UK football for the 2008 season.