A sampling of what writers around the nation and are saying about SEC football: RON HIGGINS Commercial Appeal

(Memphis ) It doesn’t take AutoZone Liberty Bowl Executive Director Steve Ehrhart long to do the math. The SEC has six bowl-eligible teams with three weeks left in the regular season. Ehrhart’s bowl picks sixth or seventh, paired with the Music City Bowl, to get an SEC team to play probable Conference USA champ Tulsa in the 50 th annual AutoZone Liberty Bowl on Jan. 2. Right now, if you hypnotized me I’d say Florida and Alabama get BCS bowl bids, Georgia goes to the Capital One, South Carolina to the Outback and LSU to the Cotton. That leaves bowl-eligible Kentucky and soon-to-be-bowleligible Ole Miss (if it becomes eligible this weekend with a victory over Louisiana-Monroe to improve to 6-4 ) for the Chick-fil-A, AutoZone Liberty and Music City bowls.

Here’s what I think is going to happen. Kentucky will beat Vandy this weekend to improve to 7-4 (with one game left at Tennessee ) and ensure itself of a Chick-fil-A bowl bid.

That would leave Ole Miss, if eligible, to play Tulsa in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl. The prospect of Rebels Coach Houston Nutt playing his former Arkansas offensive coordinator, Gus Malzahn (now at Tulsa ), would provide the hook to sell tickets.

But here’s where it could get tricky for the AutoZone Liberty Bowl. If Vanderbilt becomes bowleligible and finishes 6-6, the Music City Bowl isn’t going to want its hometown team. The mission of any bowl is to boost the local economy with out-of-town fans. So Vandy would end up in Memphis playing Tulsa, which frankly wouldn’t be great box office, since the Commodores would have lost the bulk of their last seven games after starting 5-0. And if Ole Miss has its choice, it might rather play in Nashville than Memphis, because Nutt might want to avoid the rehashing of his relationship with Malzahn and Malzahn’s departure.

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GENTRY ESTES Press Register

(Mobile, Ala. ) Coach Sylvester Croom has a chance to return to his hometown Saturday night and pull off what is unthinkable there. What if it actually happens ? What if Croom’s three-touchdown underdogs from Mississippi State stun No. 1 Alabama for the third consecutive year, destroy budding BCS dreams and cause rampant heartbreak for a campus and much of the state ? “To go back into that stadium, it brings back a lot of feelings and memories to stand on that sideline,” Croom said. “It means a lot to me to have a chance to stand on that sideline as a head coach playing against my alma mater. I never dreamed I’d have that opportunity.” The 2004 game, a 30-14 Alabama victory famously hyped as Croom’s first return to Alabama as an opposing coach, is now remembered for something else: A 4-yard pass from former Crimson Tide quarterback Spencer Pennington to fullback Le’Ron McClain with 5: 29 left in the fourth quarter. Alabama has not scored an offensive touchdown since against Croom’s Mississippi State program, a streak that has reached more than 12 quarters and counting.

ERIC LINDSEY

Kentucky Kernel When, and if, UK teams are raising championship banners to the rafters this winter, they could look back to this week as the start of their championship runs. The rest of this week is that big when it comes to UK athletics. What happens over the next few days could determine the postseason fate for many; for others, it could determine the beginning of a new reign. Here’s a quick rundown at what’s at stake in Big Blue Nation: The obvious is the UK football team. The Cats are coming off their most heartbreaking loss of the year, but they still have the opportunity to do something that hasn’t happened since 1984 — that’s win eight regularseason games. Saturday’s game against Vanderbilt doesn’t seem that huge on paper, but it could be the deciding factor in where both teams end up for the bowl season. UK currently sits at 6-4 and is dangerously close to heading back to the Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl in Nashville for a third consecutive year.

The Music City Bowl has been an ideal destination for the Cats the past two years, but the players are yearning for a bigger bowl, and that usually means farther south. Winning the final two games would all but ensure UK of a warmer bowl game, most likely the Chick-fil-A Bowl.