In case you haven't heard, the people of Georgia have yet to choose a U.S. Senator. As their decision is of some interest to those of us in the press, there will be no posting Tuesday afternoon/evening. Things will resume Wednesday evening, which is also when the final regular season SEC Power Poll will go up at Garnet and Black Attack.

So, we'll give you an open thread of sorts. How did Team Speed Kills' first half a season go? What did you like? How could the site improve? (And if your answer is "More conversations between Joe Kines and Ed Oregeron" -- we're working on it, we're working on it.)

1. Florida
I think the initially line for the SEC Championship is at 117.5 right now. Which is stupid, but what are you going to do?

2. Alabama
Hooray! A blowout! Too bad it came against perhaps the worst offense in modern history.

3. Mississippi
These guys are playing as well as any team in the conference not named Florida or Alabama. Houston Nutt's done an incredible job.

4. Georgia
Wow. From national championship contender to Capital One Bowl contestant. Yeesh.

5. South Carolina
A good team on its good days, a below-average team on its worst days, an average team on its average days. Pretty much like everyone else except the Top 4.

6. LSU
Les Miles will not be eating any taffy for a while.

7. Arkansas
The Hogs could surprise some folks in 2009.

8. Kentucky
This might be the worst 6-6 team in the history of the SEC. Oh, wait a minute. Vanderbilt's also 6-6.

9. Vanderbilt
This is the worst 6-6 team in the history of the SEC.

10. Tennessee
A nice emotional boost for the Vols can't hide the fact that they've had an abysmal season.

11. Auburn
Just fire everyone. Including the players.

12. Mississippi State
Consider this: The Bulldogs went from losing 45-0 to LSU last year to losing 45-0 to Mississippi this year.

1. Everybody calm down. That includes me. One of the reason's I've waited until now (Monday evening) to post my thoughts is because any earlier attempts would have come out RARR!!!RARRRR!!!SMELLEY BAD!!!!RARR!!!! Take a step back. Think about this for a minute. Last year, we were all pissed about an 0-5 finish that put the Gamecocks at 6-6 and out of a bowl game after an unforgivable defensive collapse against The Team from the Upstate. This year, South Carolina finished 7-5, bound for a better bowl than the Gamecocks probably deserve (almost certainly the Outback, but maybe the Peach) and with some returning talent, even if we lose Jared Cook in addition to Kenny McKinley. (And I hate to say this, but keep an eye on Eric Norwood.) I'll have a lot more on a later date, but just to put things in perspective: This is the first time South Carolina has had four non-losing seasons since it entered the SEC. The last time was 1987-1990, when Joe Morrison and Sparky Woods went 8-4, 8-4, 6-4-1 and 6-5 as an independent. This has been a pretty good stretch by South Carolina standards.

2. Chris Smelley must never again start for South Carolina. It's that simple. This was "Bad Chris" at his worst, and comparing his performance to Blake Mitchell is an insult to Blake Mitchell. (And I say that as one of Blake's most consistent critics.) A fumbled quarterback sneak, overthrowing leaping receivers by two or three feet, almost getting intercepted when he tried to throw the ball away -- it was awful. Four interceptions and a 46.8 percent completion rate do not begin to tell of the horror that was watching Chris Smelley play quarterback. Brandon Cox would have been a marked improvement. Smelley's had some good games, but he also has a tendency to disappear or regress at the worst possible times: against Vanderbilt last year, against Kentucky this year and, then, this past weekend. Smelley's show against Ole Miss was just one of those illusions -- redshirt sophomores don't usually get better overnight. It's time to let it go and go with Stephen Garcia. (An aside: If "Tommy [Beecher] doesn't want to play," then his scholarship should be revoked. I'm not being mean about this. If you get an academic scholarship and you don't bother to show up to class, you fail and you lose your scholarship. Why should athletes be any different?)

3. Third down defense. All the nice things I've said about Ellis Johnson and the Gamecocks defense, and they follow up the 56-point waxing in the Swamp with a "performance" that included The Team from the Upstate converting eight of 14 third-down opportunities. In all, the Tigers gained 64 yards on third down, or about 4.6 yards per play. Worse yet, 56 of those third-down yards came in the second half -- when South Carolina most needed a stop to preserve clock and get the ball back. You can't blame the entire defensive effort for this game -- when your quarterback gets picked off four times, there's not much the defense can do to win it. But a few third-down stops might have changed momentum and the final score.

4. This is Spurrier. If there was a major criticism of Steve Spurrier's time in Gainesville, it's that he didn't do well against Florida State. Including bowl games, Spurrier went 5-8-1 against the Seminoles. Spurrier didn't make his name beating ACC rivals to make the fans happy; he made his name beating Georgia and Tennessee and winning SEC championships and a national title. True, those options weren't available to him, and the Team from the Upstate was the team South Carolina faced this weekend. But get used to the fact that beating the Tigers is not Spurrier's first goal, nor his second and probably not even his third. Personally, I want him focusing more on the SEC. That's not sour grapes; I hate losing to The Team from the Upstate. I'd still trade it any day for an SEC championship.

5. How would you like to have the Vanderbilt game back? Or the Georgia game? A special-teams blocker in a different place, a smarter play by Mike Davis ... But, no. We have to get past moral victories, get past a "this was an improvement," get past seeing the glass half-full when it's 60 percent empty. The Spurrier Era, in my mind, has been good for South Carolina, but not yet successful. This should have been an eight-win, maybe a nine-win, perhaps even a ten-win season. Again, don't misinterpret: This is a 7-5 team. You are whatever your record says you are. And until South Carolina starts winning more than seven games a year, it will always be a good team -- but a team that's just not good enough.

GRADE: F
Sorry, there's nothing to redeem this game, and all the time in the world can't change that. It was an all-around collapse.

Oklahoma.

By the very, very thinnest of margins, Oklahoma has done slightly better than Texas this year. And, of course, I have charts.

First, the schedule chart. I've changed my mind about having FCS teams in there, because putting them as the worst win actually hurts a team more than leaving them out altogether.

Of course, if you wanted to be more concise, you could wrap it up like this:

Oklahoma has outscored opponents by about three points more per game against a schedule that's about equally strong. And now, Texas and Oklahoma against common opponents that were not each other.

Oklahoma State and Texas Tech were clearly better wins for Oklahoma, Kansas was better for Texas, and they both defeated Bayor and Texas A&M by too many to give one a clear advantage.

All that swung the vote ever so slightly to Oklahoma. Even at this point, I'm not sure that's who should be No. 3, so I'm open to any comments you have about this.

Despite all of that, I still think Texas and not Oklahoma should play in the Big XII Championship Game. A lot of what helps Oklahoma in those first two charts are nonconference games. While Oklahoma had the better year overall, Texas probably had the better year in the Big XII and might be the better team. (Remember, I'm a resume voter, not a power poll voter, when it comes to the BlogPoll.)

In any case, I'm not voting for Big XII Champion. I'm voting for which 25 teams had the best seasons. One would hope that's what the USA Today and Harris poll voters are doing. If so, it's ridiculous and wrong to use that to determine who should play in the league's championship game. And the conference should be ashamed of itself for letting that happen.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Florida	--
2	Alabama	--
3	Oklahoma	1
4	Texas	1
5	Penn State	--
6	Southern Cal	--
7	Utah	--
8	Texas Tech	--
9	Ohio State	--
10	Boise State	--
11	Oklahoma State	--
12	TCU	14
13	Missouri	1
14	Cincinnati	1
15	Georgia Tech	3
16	Georgia	3
17	Mississippi	6
18	Ball State	1
19	Boston College	1
20	Florida State	4
21	Pittsburgh	5
22	Iowa	1
23	Oregon State	9
24	Oregon	2
25	Michigan State	1

Dropped Out: West Virginia (#19), Miami (Florida) (#22), Northwestern (#25).

TCU moved that high because I have some reason to hate almost everyone else on the ballot. Missouri is a question mark: It wasn't a "bad" loss and it didn't come against a "bad" team, so maybe moving them down one isn't too little punishment, even though it seems to be that way. Oklahoma State lost by about what one would expect them to. If you want me to move them, suggest a replacement. Everything else is pretty much self-explanatory. Yes, I did keep Oregon State ahead of Oregon, and the reasons are: Southern Cal and Cal, which are two good wins that Oregon State has and Oregon doesn't. Northwestern moves off the ballot because TCU, Pittsburgh and Oregon had to go somewhere.

Same question as always: Where am I wrong?

Not exactly what we had in mind.

If the title of this post has a familiar ring to it, that's intentional. Back in mid-October, after Florida blew LSU out of the water in a 51-21 shellacking, the weekly wrap-up was titled "So Much for Western Supremacy."

As damaging as LSU's loss was to the notion that the SEC West was the stronger half of the league, Saturday's triple defeat at the hands of the ACC was an even worse setback for the idea that the SEC is the best conference in the land. Just moments after South Carolina fell 31-14 to Clemson, Georgia ended a 45-42 loss at the hands of Georgia Tech. Wake Forest's 23-10 victory over Vanderbilt hours later clinched a losing record for the SEC against its neighboring BCS league, a conference that national and local pundits alike had mocked for weeks.

Is the ACC better than the SEC? Probably not. Given the up-again, down-again pattern followed by most of ACC's teams, all three of those games could end differently if the games were played again this week. And the weekend was not the kind of head-to-head match-up that would have seen the top-rated ACC team take on the top-rated SEC team and on down the line.

But the games will not be played this week, and no such SEC-ACC tournament is scheduled. The best conference in America does not go 4-6 against the ACC in a season, nor does it go 1-3 in a weekend. You'll have to look for someone else.

Florida, in the meantime, was Florida. They amassed 502 yards to Florida State's 242, ran the ball 46 for 317 yards (6.9 ypc) and, as usual, had scored enough points by late in the first half (21 at the 5:33 mark) to win the game. The final margin -- 45-15 -- was proof that the Gators are playing on a different plane than anyone else in the SEC, save Alabama.

Not that everything came out the way the Gators had hoped: Percy Harvin is questionable for the SEC Championship Game. Though, as Nick Saban points out, that's not exactly a reason for Alabama to hold a parade.

"They really have three players. ... No. 1 (Harvin), No. 2 (Jeff Demps) and No. 3 (Chris Rainey). It's easy to remember. They're all outstanding players with big-play ability. They also have outstanding receivers and a Heisman-winning quarterback (Tim Tebow). They utilize all those players in different roles.

"Certainly, we respect Percy Harvin as a great player. But they have some other great players, too."

Alabama, for its part, dismantled Auburn 36-0 on Saturday, gaining 412 yards to Auburn's 170, earning 21 first downs to the Tiger's eight and finishing off Auburn's talk of various thumbs and fingers. The most suprising statistics in the game: Mario Fannin's longest rush was for eight yards, as was Brad Lester's. Ben Tate's long run was for three yards. A 13-yard run by Kodi Burns would be the longest run of the day.

There's not much more to explain from this weekend. For the time, at least, the SEC is a two-team league. Those teams will meet Saturday, in the game everyone has anticipated now for weeks. Everything else is detail.

OTHER WEEKEND RECAPS AT TSK:

And Phil Fades Away -- Tennessee 28, Kentucky 10

Thanks for the memories? Doubtful -- Arkansas 31, LSU 30

Where did that come from? Ole Miss 45, Mississippi State 0

Okay, so it's a down year. But we can't beat the ACC?!? Apparently not. The SEC was 3-3 against its purportedly inferior competitor coming into Saturday, then watched Georgia and South Carolina upset by in-state rivals and Vanderbilt lose to Wake Forest. Those games and the triumph by Florida against Florida State left the SEC 4-6 against the ACC. More on this tomorrow, but how badly does this damage the reputation of the SEC?

Bowl schedule: More muddled. Everything would have been much easier had Georgia and South Carolina just won -- but they didn't, so here where are. Let's assume both Florida and Alabama make the BCS, which seems like a safe bet at this point. My best guess would still put Georgia in the Capital One Bowl, but the Orlando postseason matchup could decide to take Ole Miss. For the moment, we'll say they choose the Dawgs. That would put Ole Miss in the Cotton Bowl and probably keep South Carolina in the Outback (deserving or not). Now the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl can select Kentucky, LSU or Vanderbilt. This is where the chaos starts. Go with Vanderbilt, and you've got an angry LSU that gets kicked down to the Music City Bowl while Kentucky goes to the Liberty. Go with LSU in the Peach, and you've got an angry Music City Bowl forced to choose from a home team that won't sell hotel rooms (Vanderbilt) or a team that's been there, done that -- the last two years. Whoever gets left out in that scenario goes to the Liberty. But put Ole Miss in the Capital One Bowl and LSU in the Cotton Bowl, and then things get real interesting. Georgia and South Carolina are suddenly fighting for the Outback Bowl, with the loser hoping to go to the Peach and giving us the angry Music City Bowl. Welcome to parity. Where am I wrong?

Croom is gone. Who in the world would take the Mississippi State job? I mean, really; do you think any prominent head coach is going to answer a call from the Bulldogs? The more I think about this, the more I begin to wonder if this wasn't a bad decision by whoever made it. Croom had his issues, and the program had stalled, but now you have to start over without a clear candidate for the job.

It's a three-way tie in the Big XII South. Who should go to the championship game? Remember, it's Oklahoma, Texas AND Texas Tech. Also outside the SEC: Wouldn't Rick Neuheisel like nothing better than to keep Southern Cal from getting the Pac-10 crown? More importantly, can he? And if Southern Cal wins the Pac-10, who gets the other BCS berth: Ohio State or Boise State? Oregon State -- America hates you.

Say what you want about Phil Fulmer -- and we all have said quite a bit during his lengthy tenure as head coach at Tennessee -- but the man loved his players. When Erin Andrews came out to interview him after the end of his last, emotional game against Kentucky, he asked her to wait a moment and allow him to pray with his players. After that, he resumed the interview and then was carried off the field on the shoulders of his players.

As it should have been. What happened to Fulmer in the last few years at Tennessee is hard to diagnose. Maybe he didn't recruit enough high-quality talent. Maybe he was never the same coach without David Cutcliffe. Or maybe the game has, to use the cliche, passed Fulmer by.

Yes, there were good times, too, Phil. National championship, SEC titles, etc., etc.

In any case, the irony is that Fulmer had finally found a way to win with this year's team: Run the ball until you can't run it anymore. And then run it again. The Vols ran the ball 53 times for 210 yards against Kentucky and attempted just eight passes, six of them completions that netted 101 yards. It was the second straight SEC game where Tennessee completely abandoned the pass -- and their second straight SEC win.

On Monday, we are told, Lane Kiffin will take the reins at Tennessee. And, at least for the present, Fulmer will be largely forgotten, unless he gets job somewhere else. (In Starkville, perhaps?) But, in our later years, it's likely that many of us will once again have something to say about Fulmer.

"I remember when ... "

Until then, he went out a winner of his final game. Love him or hate him, that's also how it should have been.

Over the last five years, the fans in the SEC have had a lot of fun at Sylvester Croom's expense. After all, his teams were usually awful: 3-8 in 2004, 3-8 in 2005, 3-9 in 2006.

Then came the 8-win, luck-fueled season of 2007, and it seemed that Croom might be able to get enough time to get something started.

No such luck.

The windows of Starkville are safe with Croom's voice gone.

To be fair, there were problems at Mississippi State before Croom arrived. Jackie Sherrill went 3-8 in 2001, 3-9 in 2002 and 2-10 in 2003. But save last year's fluke, Croom did nothing to remedy those issues. Yes, he was saddled with NCAA sanctions from the Sherrill Era, but no one who's watched this team over the last few years can see any tangible signs of progress.

Probably not even Croom, were he honest.

It's not a surprise that Croom resigned; there was no one Mississippi State could fire the first black coach in the SEC. But expect that to still be an aspect of the coverage. Fair or not, this is the Deep South we're talking about, and Croom was the SEC Coach of the Year last season and just had that 8-win season. It wil come up.

For that reason, I wonder if the Mississippi State administration tried to avoid this. There was a good deal of talk about the possibility of Croom being asked to fire offensive coordinator Woody McCorvey and the likelihood Croom would resist getting rid of his most loyal and trusted assistant. Perhaps Mississippi State gave Croom that ultimatum and he declined, leading to a request for the head coach's resignation. All of that, though, is likely to come out over the next few days.

As to who might appear in Starkville for next season -- who knows? Bobby Johnson is a possibility, I suppose, though a long shot. Any Bulldog fan who thinks the school can draw a "name" coach is probably in for a rude awakening, unless Tommy or Terry Bowden qualifies as a name coach. Both could be considered here, though Terry's name will likely be quickly removed from the list. Then there's always Bobby Petrino ...

Weekend Open Thread