South Carolina vs. Southern Miss

By a show of hands, who woke up this morning with a smile on their face? Yeah, me too. College Football season, in all it's splendor and glory, is finally here. We can all stop cruising those obscure websites and message boards to see which way that 2012 defensive back is leaning, because the real thing is finally here.

Southern Miss at South Carolina
Get out of my chair, hand me the remote, turn off the phone and make me a sammidge. ESPN is the greatest thing since sliced bread. I can watch this game on channel 206 or watch this game and brush up on my Spanish on channel 209. See what I mean?!

Steve Spurrier will try once again to have a breakout year at South Carolina and this game will provide a good opportunity for him to see where the Gamecocks stand. After last year's embarrassing beatdown by UConn in the PapaJohns.com Bowl, let's hope, as SEC fans, that they have a little more now than then.

I look for this to be a two score outcome with Spurrier trying to settle on a QB before next week's SEC opener. The debut of Marcus Lattimore and the absence of TE Weslye Saunders are the biggest storylines going in.

I'm picking South Carolina, uncomfortably close.

Also, I'm going to allow myself a mulligan this week in the remainder of the SEC picks and I will be posting those on Friday. It was reported late last night that North Carolina may be missing as many as 16 players for their Atlanta showdown with LSU. I get a different feel from the NCAA this year and it seems even more sinister than in years past. I'm speaking specifically to the cases of Marvin Austin and Marcel Dareus.

The NCAA seems significantly quicker to accuse and noticeably slower to punish or clear student athletes. The NCAA strikes me as the very last of the monolithic, military-industrial, secretive, and all powerful entities in America. In its present state, I believe it to be in it's last days.

Please view all 50 of my SEC Football Articles @ http://BLOG.IBLEED-SECSports.com