World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party This Weekend
Time Out
by Paul Jordon
This is Eastern Division Showdown Week in the Southeastern Conference. Western Showdown Week will be next weekend.
In what used to be called "The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party" (before organizers were forced to toe the politically correct line) Saturday afternoon in Jacksonville, Fla., Florida and Georgia get together in what has to billed as the biggest SEC football game of the week.
The Bulldogs and Gators have identical records (5-2 overall, 3-2 in league play) and resurrected title hopes as they get ready for kickoff.
The outcome of the Gators-Bulldogs annual battle in Jacksonville usually goes a long way toward setting the Eastern Division title. It looked for awhile that wasn’t going to be the case this year when Florida suffered back-to-back losses to Auburn and LSU and Georgia lost to East foes South Carolina and Tennessee. After all, the Eastern Division leader has never had more than one loss after eight weeks into a season.
Make that "had never." Heading into their ninth game of the season, there is a logjam at the top of the Eastern Division standings with Florida, Georgia and South Carolina (6-2, 3-2) all tied for first place, each with two losses.
The other big game of the week is another East battle that will knock the loser out of the conference race. Steve Spurrier’s South Carolina Gamecocks will head to Knoxville to take on the Tennesse Vols (4-3, 2-2). It should prove interesting as the Gamecocks have struggled on offense and have a hard time scoring, while Tennessee has found it nearly impossible to stop anyone.
There are two other league games, but neither too interesting except to loyal fans. Ole Miss (2-6, 0-5) will be searching, but probably in vain, for its first league win when it visits Auburn (5-3, 3-2) Saturday and Mississippi State (4-4, 1-3) goes to surprising still-in-the-hunt Kentucky (6-2, 2-2). There are also two intersectional games in which the SEC teams are overwhelming favorites. Florida International, which currently holds the most losses in a row record for NCAA teams at 19 (0-7 this year), is at Arkansas (4-3, 1-3) and Vanderbilt (4-3, 2-3) hosts Miami of Ohio.
For the first time this season, or in several seasons for that matter, neither Alabama nor Auburn will be on TV this weekend … for free anyway. If you’ve got the cash and make the call, the Auburn-Ole Miss game is available pay-for-view. No amount of money will enable you to see the Crimson Tide on TV this weekend – except maybe on ESPN Classic … or you could pop in a tape or disc (depending on how old the game is that you are going to watch) and view an old Bama bowl victory.
The current version of the Tide, the Saban version, is enjoying an off week as it gets ready for the showdown for the SEC West against LSU next weekend. Alabama (6-2, 4-1) and LSU (7-1, 4-1) come into the game all tied up for the West top spot.
Don’t know whether to call it parity or inconsistency, but it has been an up and down year in the SEC with no team, even LSU, able to dominate. Alabama will come into the LSU game sporting the longest win streak in the SEC – no matter what happens this weekend. The Tide is on a three-game roll, the longest current win streak in the league. In fact, no other team can boast of even a two-game winning streak heading into this week.
It could be a good omen for Alabama … at least good odds. As the old "Meatloaf" hit song proclaimed, "two out of three ain’t bad." Eight weeks into the season, Bama finds itself tied for the SEC West lead. The Tide has been in that position six times previously, holding at least a share of the lead after eight. Alabama went on to win the West title four of those six times.
WEEKEND TV LINEUP
The weekend TV lineup kicks off with Friday night’s ESPN contest (7 p.m.) Boise State at Fresno State.
Saturday’s TV lineup, other than pay-for-view:
11 a.m.
West Va. At Rutgers (ABC), N.C. at Wake Forest (WB), Michigan St. at Iowa (ESPN2)
11:30 p.m.
Miss. St. at Kentucky (Lincoln Financial); at noon – Howard at Norfolk St. (ESPNU)
2 p.m.
Southern Cal at Oregon (FSN South), Appalachian State at Furman (SportSouth)
2:30 p.m.
South Fla. at Conn. (ABC), Florida at Georgia (CBS), Minnesota at Mich. (ESPN Classic)
3:30 p.m.
Virginia at N.C. St. (ESPNU)
5:30 p.m.
UCLA at Wash. St. (FSN South), Charleston Southern at Gardner Webb (SportSouth)
6 p.m.
Troy at Arkansas St. (CSS), Kansas at Texas A&M (ESPN2)
6:45 p.m.
South Carolina at Tenn. (ESPN)
7 p.m.
Duke at FSU (ESPNU), Ohio St. at Penn St. (ABC)
9 p.m.
California at Arizona St. (FSN South).