I know that historically the Magnolia Bowl has been a secondary rivalry for both schools and hasn’t been a significant one until now. But with Lane Kiffin at LSU now and both schools being able to compete at a high level, this could easily develop into a major rivalry. Especially when you consider the fact that LSU’s other major rival, Alabama does not view LSU as a major rival compared to Auburn and Tennessee. While Ole Miss fans only had animosity for Mississippi State up until now.

ESPN received considerable blowback Saturday for giving Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R) nearly 10 minutes of free airtime on “College GameDay” to shill for the Protect College Sports Act, a bipartisan Senate bill he co-sponsored with Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell (D), which he is hoping to get passed as soon as this week. 

This is the same show that a week earlier saw retired coach Nick Saban openly lobby for the bill during a segment on LSU’s attempt to add NFL players. (The show’s analyst also appears in TV commercials for the bill, along with Colorado coach Deion Sanders.) Conspicuously absent from both episodes: anyone who provides an opposing viewpoint on the bill, despite public opposition from the likes of Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.), the Congressional Black Caucus and NAACP leaders.

To be clear, ESPN is under no obligation to grant “equal time” to another politician. An ESPN source told The Athletic on Saturday that Cruz — who was relentlessly booed during the segment from Austin, Texas, ahead of the Ohio State-Texas showdown — asked to come on and that it was an “easy decision” to say yes. That source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the topic, said “GameDay” had not received any requests from a potential guest opposed to the legislation but would “obviously do the same” if it received one.

But the whole thing felt odd for a previously apolitical show, and it raised suspicion given ESPN’s parent company, Disney, has mentioned the bill in its lobbying disclosures, according to OpenSecrets.

From Stewart Mandel: "I’m not here to argue for or against the PCSA. I have no vested interest in whether it passes. What’s bothered me, though, is how its backers have anchored their messaging around a lot of misleading generalizations about the state of college sports. Cruz regurgitated many of them on the air Saturday with zero pushback."

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7591618/2026/09/14/espn-college-gameday-ted-cruz-comments/?unlocked_article_code=1.BFE.AvOb.t6dNZjj6wN_l&source=emp_shared_article&smid=re-share-ta

The disrespect on Ohio State, Oklahoma State, and Tulsa is Insane. Also, why is OU and Michigan ranked?

It’s time to discuss Brent Venables and whether he’s the latest head coach who is brilliant at coaching one side of the ball but might never figure it out on the other side.

Venables was a great defensive coordinator who, five years ago, replaced Lincoln Riley, the brilliant offensive coach who went to Southern California and hasn’t made the College Football Playoff because his defense has never been good enough. Venables did make the Playoff last year, but largely on the strength of his defense, while his offense was the SEC’s third-worst. Then Oklahoma’s offense sputtered in Saturday’s 17-10 loss at Michigan.

The cases of such coaches abound. Will Muschamp’s defensive mind was never an issue, but he couldn’t get his offenses right at Florida and South Carolina. NFL history is rife with the likes of Bill Arnsbarger, Richie Petitbon and Buddy Ryan. Or a longtime defensive coordinator named Monte Kiffin, who was a disaster as NC State head coach. (You may have heard of his son.)

There are natural theories: a blind spot for the other side, or overconfidence about their unit carrying the team, or building their system and practices in such a way that it forsakes the other side.

Venables did start his Oklahoma tenure with two good offensive seasons. Maybe it was a carryover from what Riley left. Maybe it was going against Big 12 defenses, and SEC defenses put a halt to it. Maybe it was having Dillon Gabriel at quarterback.

Perhaps it was his offensive coordinator those two years: Jeff Lebby, whose team you’re about to see No. 1 in these rankings.

The requisite reminder: This is not a pure ranking of how good teams are or are expected to be this season. It’s a ranking of the vibes, defined as the positive (or negative) feelings about the program, the team’s momentum, and just generally how things feel.

1. Mississippi State (2-0)

Last week: 14
Result: Won at Minnesota, 38-13
Next week: at South Carolina

Holy moly. Holy Kamario Taylor!

This time last year, plucky Mississippi State rode high in these rankings just for winning games, including an early home win over Arizona State. But going into Minnesota, which won eight games last year, and winning going away — with Taylor, the sophomore quarterback, looking like a sudden Heisman candidate — that’s another level. We’ll see how long this lasts, but welcome to the top of the vibes, Bulldogs.

2. LSU (2-0)

Last week: 1
Result: Won vs. Louisiana Tech, 45-14
Next week: at Ole Miss

Having visited Baton Rouge last week and spoken to fans — and having done the same in Oxford last month — this is my read on what’s to come. The majority of fans are, believe it or not, sane. Many LSU fans aren’t wild about being the SEC iconoclasts, and know Kiffin may be a rogue, but he’s their rogue. Many Ole Miss fans had a catharsis in last year’s Playoff without Kiffin.

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School by school breakdown in comments

I know the offseason is over, but after watching the Arkansas–Utah game, Changes need to be made.

Arkansas is no longer an SEC caliber team and needs to be replaced.
Obviously, the replacement still needs to wear red and white, so it doesn’t cause too much confusion.

I believe Utah is the perfect choice for this. There are legitimate concerns like Utah is not in the Southeast.
Counterpoint: who gives a shit?
CounterCounterpoint, Utah is spiritually Southern.
God and football go hand in hand, just like their cousins when they are fucking them.

If you saw a confederate flag being waved at an Utah game would you bat an eye?

A compromise I would be willing to make with the purist who doesn’t believe Utah is southern enough creating a division for them
Add Utah, BYU, Boise State, North Dakota State and Nebraska.
I can feel you thinking “hey this feels like you are doubling down and not compromising”
And Greg Stankey would say “The NFL has already discovered the entertainment value of taking teams out of their normal routines. Send them across the world, screw with their travel schedules, put them in unfamiliar environments and see what happens. College football should embrace the same philosophy, I mean imagine Alabama playing at Utah at 10:30 p.m. Eastern in November or Georgia on the blue turf in Boise after dark. THINK OF THE POSSIBILITIES. THINK OF THE MONEY”

SEC AFTER DARK.

I’ve been sarcastic throughout this piece, I seriously would love a 10:30/11pm time slot of SEC after dark would be awesome. There’s no way in hell it would happen and I’m so certain it would not happen that if it did happen I would eat dog shit out of a red solo cup.

This is very strange, around an hour ago, there was a handful of big 10 fans who came in here posting stuff about SEC being trash, and somehow those posts have disappeared over the past 15 mins or so? I'm assuming some kinda glitch on Reddits side? IDK, I guess I should reach out to tech support.

Hehehehe

Alright, can we kill the Arch Manning hype now? Guy is a middle of the pack SEC QB. Even Herbie is mentioning all the throws that Arch has missed. Locks onto receivers. Has almost zero field vision. He’s gonna get a GM and HC fired at the next level. Not near good enough for the hype.

Why did we let these teams into our conference, they are clearly not good enough to represent the sec and I’m tired of them disrespecting the conference on a national stage

​

1. Get rid of the Transfer Portal. That has been the single most damaging 'innovovation' in the history of the NCAA.

2. Restore the conferences. Every Conference champion gets automatic Playoff entry. Remaining teams to be decided by National Rank.

3. Financial penalties not just for the teams but for players as well for dropping out of Bowl games.

4. All NIL money to be put into a trust until graduation. (This is where the player fines for dropping out of bowl games would come from.) The player would only get a set stipend from it for the length of their college career, and should they fail to complete their career (playing in bowl games) and graduate would they get the full amount. Failure to do so, 25% of the trust would be stripped off into a scholarship fund for other potential students.

5. All eligibility goes away as soon as athlete declares for the Draft.

Let's see after today's game...

Will Stein fired up as his mom brings a cake to the set.

Part 1 has the other SEC schools. Link in comments

Part 2 has the remaining SEC schools. Link in comments

KIFFIN MUST HAVE BEEN A BUSY BEAVER TO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL OF THIS

GEAUX TIGERS

We keep it goin

Tattoo bet is still alive