SEC: Oh yeah, It’s Personal

Nick Saban insisted that it wasn’t personal. Try telling that to the families of dearly-departed Dennis and Donna Smith who found themselves on the wrong end of a shotgun after the Crimson Tide’s overtime victory in Baton Rouge. The couple, Alabama fans, had gone over to the home of Michael Williams, an LSU fan, after the game. A few minutes later both were dead. The AP, in their inimitable “Duh” style, reported that alcohol might have been a contributing factor.
    Meanwhile, Saban told anyone and everyone with a microphone that his departure from LSU was “not personal; nothing about it was personal, and if people take it personally, there is nothing we can do about that.” 
    SEC football is always personal. But by now, Saban knows that. 
    It is hard to believe, given how often college coaches change jobs these days, but Saban is the first Division I coach to beat a team he had previously led to a National Championship. This week, Steve Spurrier hopes to become the second when The Ole’ Ball Coach leads the Gamecocks against Florida. That game is now the focus of the SEC, not just because of the implications for the East, but because if Alabama and Florida can get through their remaining games without a hiccup, the SEC Championship game will, despite what BCS defenders say, determine the best college football team in the country.
    Saban’s team has already locked up the West, but as the No. 1 team in the country, they can’t afford any Penn-State-like letdowns against Mississippi State and Auburn in the last two weeks. Florida has South Carolina, the Citadel and Florida State, two of three of which pose potential upset threats.
    If everything works out the way the experts and prognosticators say it should, the national championship game will be played Dec. 5 at the Georgia Dome. And the farcical fraud that is the BCS will, once again, be placed on full display.