Fear Not SEC Fans: The 2011 College Football Season Is on Its Way

It is a tough time to be a sports fan.  The NBA and NHL playoffs are done. The novelty of this year’s Major League Baseball season has faded, and the pennant race will not be interesting until August. Not only is there is no NFL free agency to track, at the moment, there is no NFL season at all.

Let's face it: June is a sports wasteland.

But fear not.

While NFL training camps may or may not start next month, college football, where the participant teams already keep all incoming revenue for themselves, is lockout proof. Quietly, this fall’s schedule has been trickling out in recent weeks.

It is not too early to start planning your weekends this fall. In fact, the expectation of what’s to come might be the only thing that gets you through until Labor Day. So, as this brutally hot summer drags on without sports to distract us from the stresses of our daily lives, let us refresh out spirits by highlighting two SEC games to look forward to each Saturday this September.


September 3: LSU v. Oregon; Boise State v. Georgia

The only two compelling matchups of this season’s first Saturday are, unfortunately, scheduled for the exact same time (8:00 p.m. EDT). You can take the corporate powers of the Mouse Network for this piece of lunacy. But just because we can’t watch both games at the same time does not mean we cannot look forward to them both.

LSU’s matchup with Oregon in Dallas essentially serves as a title elimination game between two teams that will likely begin the season ranked in the Top Five.

Sure, the loser could go on to run the table and work themselves back into the title picture, but realistically, that never happens. When a team loses a high-profile game in the first week, the emotional toll generally forces at least one other unexpected loss to follow soon thereafter. Look at Boise State last year. Or Clemson two years before that.

There are only about six teams who can realistically hope to win the national title next year, and this game will eliminate one. That’s worth watching.

The stakes may be even higher for the night’s other feature game. If Boise wins, the program will officially have come of age. Critics could dismiss Boise’s success over the last two years as a product of an easy schedule. They could even attribute Boise’s Fiesta Bowl win over Oklahoma as a product of fluky plays and a lack of Sooner motivation. But if Boise can beat a traditional SEC power in a regular season game in its home state, the critics will have run out of excuses.

Boise will have arrived and will no longer be automatically ranked lower than every BCS-league team with the same record from this point forward.

The direction of Georgia’s program is equally in flux. With a win, Georgia head coach Mark Richt will make a strong statement that the struggles of the last two seasons were but a blip on the radar. If Georgia loses, panic mode will set in among the fanbase, and Richt may not be able to recover from the negative momentum.


September 10: Alabama at Penn State; Mississippi State at Auburn

The rivalry between Alabama and Penn State traces back to Sugar Bowls of the 1970s. Even though these two teams discontinued their annual meetings in the 90s, there remains a respectful intensity to this rivalry. Each program wil see the other traditional power as a geographically-removed version of itself.

The rivalry between Mississippi State and Auburn is at least as intense, but noticeably less respectful. It also traces back mostly to the recruitment of Cam Newton and the accusations made in its aftermath. The signs in the stands drawn up by Auburn fans eager to bask in the success some believe Mississippi State tried to derail, should be reason alone to watch this one.

Despite the differences in the nature of the rivalries, both these games should be fun.

The game in Happy Valley will be the first real test for an inexperienced, yet unnamed, Alabama quarterback. Meanwhile, a Mississippi State loaded on paper will try to prove it has elevated itself to elite status and will provide the first potential stumbling block to Auburn’s quest to defend its national title.


September 17: Tennessee at Florida; Auburn at Clemson.

Week 3 traditionally feels like the real start to the SEC season. The Florida/Tennessee game usually provides a clear front-runner in the East: CBS starts broadcasting its afternoon game of the week and non-conference “scrimmage” games against overmatched Sun Belt teams mercifully begin to disappear.

There’s something lacking in the schedule this year, though. With both Tennessee and Florida facing apparent rebuilding seasons, this game lacks its usual flair. Still, this game goes on the list for its symbolic value, if not its game appeal. But if it turns out to be a stinker, there is nothing wrong with flipping away from the SEC game over to Oklahoma’s game at Florida State.

Just don’t tell anyone.

Auburn is also scheduled to visit Clemson in Week 3, but they might just as well take a trip to the twilight zone. There are not two more similar college programs in America.

Watching these two orange-clad Tigers compete will be like watching a team scrimmage itself through a funhouse mirror. Not only do both teams wear orange and use the same mascot, each is located in a small southern state and are named after the city in which they are located.

Both face the disadvantage of competing with an in-state rival boasting the name of their respective states. These are the same school, in two different conferences.

In fact, if fans of the losing team squint hard enough and turn their eyes away from the scoreboard, they could probably convince themselves it is their team celebrating when the game is done.


September 24: LSU at West Virginia; Arkansas at Alabama

LSU plays a ridiculously difficult schedule this season. Even if they survive an opening Saturday battle with Oregon and a dangerous Thursday night trip to Starkville, they still must travel to West Virginia for a non-conference game. With three difficult games in their first four weeks, will this road trip be the straw that broke the Tiger’s back? Or will it be further evidence of the SECs modern domination of college football?

Meanwhile, Arkansas’ Tyler Wilson gets a chance to live up to his preseason hype against an experienced Alabama defense filled with future NFL draft picks. Last season, Arkansas blew a winnable game against Alabama that they probably should have won. This is their chance for revenge.

As for Alabama, a win here alone will not erase the bad taste from last year’s disappointing losses to LSU and Auburn. But a win would set the table for Alabama to do so by beating those teams later this fall.

Speaking of which, the rest of this fall's schedule will be examined in weekly installments over the next few weeks. By the time we are done, September will almost be within reach.