Adieu, CBS

Like any good divorces, it finished because of money. CBS had the media deal of a lifetime, only spending $825 million to the SEC on a 15-year contract, giving the schools $55 million per year each and itself the primary rights to each weekend. They refused to move on the ‘Best Contract On Earth’, and when ESPN threw in a $3 billion, 10-year offer for the conference, the SEC jumped at it. And so at this year’s SEC Championship game, we say goodbye to an old friend…. On Saturday afternoon, we bid goodbye to CBS’ coverage on CBS, which has been the partner of the Conference That Means The Most for 20 years. Most of the coverage of the last

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Your SEC Turkey Day(s) Preview!

So it’s Thanksgiving. You’ve had 400 pounds worth of turkey, eaten too much bacon, stuffed yourself with too much stuffing, and listened to Uncle Leonard drone on about ‘woke’ society, and you look at your phone. “Gotta go”, you say. “It’s Egg Bowl time”. Thank God for The Egg Bowl. Whatever the year is, and however poor one or both teams are, there are two things that are certain. Firstly, that they will play each other on Thanksgiving Evening and give us a break from Uncle Leonard. Secondly, they absolutely hate each other, to the point that an Ole Miss instagram was firing around alleged conversations between Mississippi State QB Will Rogers and an unnamed Ole Miss chick. On Friday,

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The things each SEC team should be thankful for (and not!)

It’s Thanksgiving, so here’s one thing that each SEC team should – and should not – be thankful for (or maybe more) this year… ALABAMA Thankful: That Tommy Rees has finally worked out how to use Jalen Milroe. Suddenly they look like a machine again. Not thankful: That it took Rees so long to figure this out, and now they are behind Texas, so it means that if UT wins out, they won’t get into the play-off for the second straight year. Which means Nick Saban’s trees are in trouble, folks! ARKANSAS Thankful: That the season’s going to end soon, and Sam Pittman will be out the door. Not thankful: That there’s still one game to go in the season,

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Week 11: Ain’t a lot on your SEC register

I hate this weekend in the SEC. It’s basically a tune-up weekend that should have happened at the start of the season, but somehow it happens before ‘Rivalry Week’ at the end of the year. The Chatanooga – Alabama, Louisiana Monroe – Ole Miss, New Mexico State – Auburn games aren’t interesting at all. Saturday’s coverage of Abilene Christian’s trip to Texas A&M and Southern Miss at Mississippi State will basically be a load of commentators gossiping about the well-paid departures of Mssrs Fisher and Arnett. And LSU’s Jayden Daniels will put up video-game numbers against mighty Georgia State. That’s your preview for that one, folks. Oh, and Arkansas is still a 29.5 point favorite over FIU, even if this

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Jimbo Fisher out at Texas A&M

Jimbo Fisher has been fired at Texas A&M. He will be taking $76m with him, with a $20m due within the first month of termination, and then he gets a $7m annuity over next 7 years. He might be touchable during that time. The writing was on the wall “They won’t fire him, the buyout’s too big”, boosters told me over and over again last year after another moribund offensive performance – particularly against a they-turned-out-to-be-awful Appalachian State team. To be honest, it was the 38-22 win over LSU at the end of last season that probably saved his job. If they had lost that, Texas A&M would have been looking for a head coach last autumn. By the start

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Week 10 SEC Previews: UGA v Ole Miss, Tennessee v Missouri etc

This week College Gameday is going to ‘The Classic City’ for Ole Miss’ visit to Georgia, which should be a lot of fun. It should provide Georgia with yet another resume game after the victory over ranked Missouri last week, while a win for Ole Miss will leave them still in the hunt for a New Year’s Day Bowl and perhaps the SEC West title. Oh, and everyone can talk about the Lane Kiffin a little more, too. Elsewhere, it’s No.13 Tennessee at No.14 Missouri, No.8 Alabama at Kentucky, Florida at No.19 LSU, Auburn at South Carolina, Mississippi State at Texas A&M, and the Jefferson Sports Pilot Game in the form of Vanderbilt at South Carolina 1. No.9 Ole Miss

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Week 10 SEC Predictions: THE Alabama/LSU game + Georgia hosts Missouri

You’d not normally put LSU’s trip to Alabama in the same breath as Georgia v Missouri, but give us a second. The LSU v Alabama is a monster. Whether it’s a poor Alabama side playing a poor LSU side or whether it’s a 1 v 2 match-up, the game ALWAYS has an electric atmosphere, and chock-a-block with future NFL talent. This one’s particularly interesting, because the winner could decide the West (or at least the joint division winner!). And with Georgia v Missouri, the winner is in the driving seat of the SEC East (although Missouri still has to play in-division rivals Tennessee and Florida, while Georgia’s still got a battle with Tennessee ahead). Anyway, A&M goes to No.10 Ole

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SEC Rankings: The SEC West is a head ****

People talk about the Big Ten East as being the ‘crazy conference’, with Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State all battling it out for supremacy. The first leg of that is already done, with Ohio State proving that having NFL-talent wide receivers and a stout defense will tend to win more big ballgames than lose them when they beat Penn State 20-12 in a game that wasn’t that close. But the SEC West, dear Lord, could be even worse. Here’s why (if LSU beats Alabama): LSU beats Alabama who beat Ole Miss who beat LSU who beat Alabama. In other words, a 3-way tie at the top. All three teams don’t look like losing again anytime soon….yet Alabama play LSU

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Week 8 SEC Preview and Predictions (and some others too!)

It’s a relatively quiet week in the SEC, with only 4 SEC match-ups and out-of-conference v SEC game. Headlining it is Alabama v Tennessee, with South Carolina’s trip to Missouri, Ole Miss’ trip to Auburn, and a bottom-feeder-for-the-SEC-West clash between Mississippi State and Arkansas (which should be stuck on on the Pac-12 Network, let alone the SEC Network) coming along behind. Oh, and LSU hosts Army, which would have been a cool match-up, erm, last year. So as a special treat, we’re doing a brief  preview of three non-conference match-ups between ranked teams, including Penn State’s trip to Ohio State, Duke v Florida State, and Utah v USC – a match-up that looked a lot spicier before the season started.

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SEC Rankings: Missouri flies up

Georgia: The injury to Brock Bowers is obviously going to hurt the Bulldogs, but the fact that there are alternatives – and good wide receivers that will help Kirby feel happier about life. Also: The defense will be able to step up. As they usually do.  Alabama: The offensive line is less of a problem than people think. Jalen Milroe hasn’t been great with his decision-making, which means he gets sacked lots. But right now, Nick Saban’s team’s all about running the ball down the opposition’s throat….and they are very good at doing that.  LSU: The loss to Ole Miss is looking more and more like a blip. The defense rebounded well against Missouri and even better against Auburn, although

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