SEC Football Topics for Discussion, Week 5

Okay, let's talk about the SEC East. I always like to get unpleasant topics out of the way first, so we'll do that. Here's my theory, and I'd love to hear everybody's thoughts on it: There is no favorite in the SEC East. South Carolina likes to drag every team down into the muck with them, which ends up with the kind of games they played Saturday -- sometimes the other guy plays better in the slop. Florida's best quarterback is looking likely to miss some time, which should not worry them at all with the game against LSU coming up. /sarcasm Georgia is looking nice right now as it slices through the week part of the schedule, but it still has to play Tennessee and has a date with Florida on the docket. Some people think I'm arguing with the idea of Georgia as a favorite in favor of some other team. I'm just saying I don't think anyone is the favorite right now.

Let's talk about the SEC East, Part II. Has the East actually gotten any better? After all, that was one of the narratives coming into this season -- whether the gap between the divisions had narrowed. On Saturday, it appeared as wide as it was last year. Is a West victory in Atlanta already a fait accompli, and how long with that division remain the best in the conference?

How 'bout them Black Bears? Ole Miss ended up traveling to the left coast and clocking Fresno State. So do you think we might be underestimating the Rebels a little bit? Or are they just the same team proving that even a bad SEC team is better than a potential WAC contender? Sure, there's no way Ole Miss is going to win the SEC West this year -- but might they be able to think about a bowl?

What did you think of Texas A&M's bow as a future SEC team? They outscored Arkansas -- if you count out that whole last Arkansas touchdown thing. The Aggies outgained the Hogs throughout the entire game and shut down the Razorbacks' rushing attack, though how impressive that is is in the eye of the beholder.

What's your undercard for next week? Let's go ahead and say CBS got the big game right, and I think they did, with Florida's trip to LSU. What's your next-biggest game? The choices for conference games are Auburn-Arkansas, Georgia-Tennessee, Kentucky-South Carolina and Vanderbilt-Alabama. What's the game you're looking forward to the most after Florida-LSU, unless you favor one of these games more than that?