The Southeastern Conference has five teams that are already bowl eligible going into the third Saturday in October — Alabama, Mississippi State, LSU, Florida and South Carolina — and two more teams that only need one more win to be bowl eligible — Georgia and Texas A&M.
The SEC has 10 bowl agreements to fill, but, even for the premiere conference in college football, 10 teams is a lot to send to the postseason. With Kentucky and Auburn currently with one win, it is going to be a stretch for the SEC fill its bowl obligations.
It’s not too surprising that the SEC leads the nation when it comes to teams reaching bowl eligibility. What may come as a surprise, however, is the other major conference that has the most teams that have already reached six wins. It is the Mid-American Conference with three teams — Ohio, Toledo and Northern Illinois — and one team with five wins — Kent State.
Around the rest of the country within the BCS system, the ACC does not have a single team that is bowl eligible at this point. The Big 12 has one team with six wins and — Kansas State — three teams within one win — TCU, Texas Tech and West Virginia. The Big East has two bowl eligible teams — Rutgers and Louisville— but Cincinnati is knocking on the door with five wins.
The Pac-12 has only Oregon with six wins, but Oregon State, Arizona State, USC and UCLA are on the cusp with five wins.
Bowl-wise, the Big Ten is in serious trouble. Among teams that are eligible for postseason play, only Northwestern, at 6-1, has already reached bowl eligibility. Wisconsin is one win away and four teams — Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State and Minnesota — need two more wins to become bowl eligible. Ohio State at 7-0 and Penn State at 4-2 are not in the bowl mix due to NCAA probation.
The only other conferences that have bowl eligible teams are the Mountain West, with Nevada, and Conference USA, with Tulsa. Notre Dame, an independent, is also bowl eligible with a 6-0 record. …
Remember when Alabama and Tennessee on the Third Saturday in October was one of the nation’s top games and had a huge impact on the SEC Race? Those days are gone with the slide of the Vols program and the split of divisional play, which now means that Alabama and Tennessee can’t play for the SEC championship unless each wins its division and they meet in Atlanta.
So this Saturday when the Crimson Tide and the Vols play, it won’t even be one of the top two games in the league. It is still a big game for Alabama and Tennessee but, unless the Vols can pull off an upset of the nation’s No. 1 team, the rest of the country won’t really care what happens in Knoxville.
“We all know about Bama, they have been the standard of college football the last four years,” Tennessee coach Derek Dooley said. “It is a good opportunity for our players to go and we have gone toe-to-toe with all the teams so far, we will see if we can do it with the best team in college football.”
One game that should grab the intrigue of the nation will be played in College Station. LSU visits Texas A&M, who has been playing well behind fabulous freshman quarterback Johnny Manziel.
“They have a very productive offense,” LSU coach Les Miles said. “Johnny Manziel is a very capable quarterback, and an exciting player. Coach (Kevin) Sumlin’s done a great job there. I think their organization is good on offense, defense and special teams. The defense is a very athletic group with guys that are very talented in position. I think we’ll look very forward to playing Texas A&M at Kyle Field.”
Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin has to be happy with Manziel, who threw for 395 yards and three touchdowns and ran for 181 yards and three more scores in Texas A&M’s win over Louisiana Tech.
“He’s progressing. He’s only played six games as a college player. His progression has been steady,” Sumlin said. “On things that we couldn’t get done in the first game, we’ve really made some strides. He’s been in the pocket and gone through some progressions in the past couple of weeks on early downs and on third downs. We’ve demonstrated the ability to get the ball down the field vertically now.”
No game in the league this weekend will generate the interest that South Carolina’s trip to Gainesville to play the Florida Gators will. Florida is ranked No. 3 in the AP poll and South Carolina is No. 9, but the storyline that most media will be dragging out is the return of Steve Spurrier to The Swamp. Spurrier led the Gators to 122 wins and six SEC championships and a national title in his 12 years as the coach at Florida.
“Florida is always going to be my school. I love Florida. My wife, my daughter and even Steve (Spurrier) Jr. got a graduate degree from there,” said Spurrier, who won the 1966 Heisman Trophy as a Florida quarterback. “We’re Gators, but we’re Gamecocks now. When my coaching days are over, I’ll be more of a Gator then. I’m a Gamecock now and this is our team. I hope the Gators finish second in the East this year, which would be a good finish for them. I hope we finish first. They’re having a very good year.”
Florida coach Will Muschamp grew up watching Spurrier and pulling for the Gators but that won’t have any impact on how he approaches the game this weekend — where the lead in the SEC East is there for Florida to maintain.
“At the end of the day, we’re about winning championships on and off the field here at Florida and it’s another step to Atlanta,” Muschamp said. “I knew about him winning the Heisman and certainly, not just being a Florida fan but being an SEC fan, thought the job he did as a coach here was pretty amazing.
“[Spurrier] really put Florida on the map as far as winning championships in football. I’ve asked him before why it didn’t happen before and he never gives me a good reason. But he just did a phenomenal job here as the head coach, and he’s a guy that’s very well respected and a guy that I’ve got a tremendous amount of respect for.”
The coaches’ love fest will end Saturday at 3:30 pm ET, and, if the Head Ball Coach can prevail, it will get South Carolina back into a tie for first place in the SEC East. If Muschamp nails down his second signature win of the season, it will be another step toward possibly winning a championship of his own.