The LA Times‘ Chris Dufresne has a piece up laying out the ten college football games he can’t wait to see this season. It’s a fun list with a lot of compelling games – at least they look compelling in May. I’m going to steal the idea, but get more parochial with it by just listing games involving Southeastern Conference schools.
So here’s my group of the ten regular season games involving SEC teams that I want to see most right now. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re the ten best conference matchups, or that they’ll be the ten most memorable games of the year. They’re simply the ones that I have the most interest in watching today.
10. Mississippi State at Auburn (9/12). The first newbie coach vs. newbie coach game of the season. Early prediction: the final score will not be 3-2.
9. South Carolina at Tennessee (10/31). A home stop on Junior’s “Can You Feel The Love?” tour, this is a game that Spurrier needs to win if he wants his program to be considered relevant in the SEC East. Or at least more relevant than UT’s.
8. UCLA at Tennessee (9/12). I think this is going to be a fascinating game, and not just because last year’s debacle turned out to be the beginning of the end for Fulmer. A Tennessee win means that Vol Nation starts crowing about how it proves that the Laner’s the right guy. You’ve also got the Norm Chow-Junior face off, and you know the pupil would love to school the master here.
7. LSU at Georgia (10/3). It’s a measurement game for both schools, right?
6. Florida at LSU (10/10). We should know who the national contender is after this game.
5. Virginia Tech-Alabama (9/5). Big non-conference season opener for both teams. After last year’s big win against Clemmins, you’d have to think that ‘Bama has at least a psychological advantage coming in.
4. Florida-Georgia (10/31). With a bye week, you gotta believe.
3. Alabama at Mississippi (10/10). It’s Ole Miss’ first big test of the year. How does the Nuttster handle the spotlight?
2. Georgia at Oklahoma State (9/5). It’s weird to be putting an OOC game this high. But aside from it being the season opener, it’s Big XII vs. SEC and it’s also an opportunity to see if Mark Richt has figured out how to survive losing two stars in the first twelve picks of the NFL draft.
1. Tennessee at Florida (9/19). The thing about this game is that you’ll watch even if it gets out of hand. My prediction is that UT gets soundly beaten, but not as badly as last year, and Junior loudly proclaims the result to be a moral victory proving that the Vols are on the right track and that the Gators have something to fear. That’ll irritate the hell out of Meyer and the Gator Nation. If you’re Kiffin, you take your victories where you can this season.
Get The Picture 
USC/ND could only be of high interest to West Coast fans and Domers. No contest. Ditto with UF/TN and Texas/TT. Georgia/Florida, Georgia LSU, LSU/Ole Miss and Florida/Ole Miss all will play a major roll on the SEC, but will likely have some national implications as well. It does make you think longingly about the Fall though so all is good. Less than 15 weeks to go…..we may just make it guys.
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Predictions on Top Ten List:
10. MSU @ Auburn: Offensive battle 10-7 Sneakers win v. Limos. Chizik fires Malzahn in post-game press conference. Says he’s a man, he’s forty.
9. South Carolina @ Tennessee: Spurrier administers beatdown, suggests that Lane needs to go back to the West Coast where football doesn’t matter like it does down here.
8. UCLA @ Tennessee: Neuheisel and Chow administer beatdown, suggest that Lane headed for nowhere and football on the West Coast matters unlike it does down here.
7. LSU @ Georgia: Richt outcoaches The Hat with extraordinary special teams play. Just kidding. But we win though despite having no special teams because they’re breaking in a new QB too.
6. Florida @ LSU: Tebow as newly minted pro-style QB being compared to being somewhere between Dan Marino and Matt Stafford. Intercepted five times and LSU beats down Gators in Red Stick. In post-game press conference, Tebow cries, pledges to return to being a single wing running back. Corch cries. Tebow bites Mike the Tiger’s paw off and circumcizes him. Percy Harvey, standing Gator sideline in civvies because it’s a Cincinnati Bengals open date, takes another hit. Go Gator!
5. Va. Tech – Alabama in Dome: Beamer extends Sabin’s losing streak to three. Extra shipment of Brasso Fed Exed in to replace emergency usage of all Brasso available to polish Nick’s nuts up so they can still resemble the polished nuts on the statute of The Bear. Other than having a stinging sensation in his nuts, the good news for Nick is that he picks up several five star commitments from metro-Atlanta during post-game press conference. Richt wonders if Meyer could do same thing too if WLOCP moved from the Papermill Town to the Downtown ATL. Richt wonders if Brasso could do the same thing for him as it does for Nick.
4. Georgia – Florida: We win one we aren’t supposed to for a change. Momentarily shuts up various and sundry crackpot loudmouth Georgia fans such as Dog in Florida who are even more dazed and confused than they usually are and now have to find something else to bitch about. Hope that it is not Tennessee Tech next week.
3. Alabama @ Ole Miss: Sabin busts a Nutt.
2. Georgia @ Oklahoma State: In opening game, Richt has not figured out how to survive losing two stars in the first twelve picks of the NFL draft. T. Boone Pickens interrupts Richt’s postgame press conference to hawk some windmills.
1. Tennessee @ Florida: It’s so weird to want Meyer to adminster beatdown, but he does and suggests that Lane is a bad deal for Lane, Urban won’t forget about Lane and Urban will write a book about Lane. Urban suggests Lane will never eat lunch in Pahokee again. Richt momentarily relieved because Wrath of Urban not directed at him for another month and a half.
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“With a bye week, you gotta believe.”
I like your style, sir.
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I have no interest in any Ufk games. They are going to suck, and be bad while sucking. The only thing to watch is Eric Berry.
Oh, also, UCLA is going to suck too.
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“4. Florida-Georgia (10/31). With a bye week, you gotta believe.”
I’m thirsty… can someone pass the Kool-Aid…
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