College Football Week 5 Scores: Florida and South Carolina Muck Up SEC East Race

So you thought you had it all figured out in the SEC East. South Carolina would be shaky but reign supreme, thanks to a relatively favorable conference schedule. Florida would come on strong, but then get their lunch money shaken out on a trip to Columbia on November 12.

Meanwhile, Georgia would remain out of sight and out of mind, with Mark Richt earning his walking papers hot off the presses.

But this is college football, in the country's most cut-throat conference, nonetheless. Nothing ever goes quite as scripted. The best laid plans of men are often trumped by those of mice.

The Gamecocks came out of the shoot looking ready, willing and able to give up some winnable games. They entered the season with the quarterback situation unsettled between Connor Shaw and Stephen Garcia, they needed a furious third-quarter rally to erase a double-digit deficit to East Carolina and they won back-to-back games by three points apiece at Georgia and at home against Navy.

Of course they were going to lose to Auburn. Haven't you read the manual on how things work with Steve Spurrier at the other USC? Never easily, I can assure you.

Then the Gators went ahead, gave their fans some glints of hope with a strong showing out of the shoot against Alabama, in Gainesville no less, before getting it handed to them by the stronger, faster and more physical Crimson Tide.

Meanwhile, the Bulldogs moved back to 2-1 in SEC play with a 24-10 win over Mississippi State (a.k.a. the league's other Bulldogs) to throw an even bigger wrench into the whole establishment.

Heck, even a Vandy team that's 1-1 in conference play might have a shot...until next week, when the Commodores travel to Tuscaloosa.

Avert your eyes, Nashville. You won't like what you see.

And so it goes, the SEC East devolving into a wild-and-crazy free-for-all among has-beens, will-bes and have-nots.

The great shame, as you well know, is that whoever emerges victorious from the mucked-up melee will simply be served up as cannon fodder for the winner of the rugged SEC West in the conference championship game; another stepping stone by Bama or LSU on the way to the league's sixth consecutive BCS National Championship.

Then again, who's to say the West won't turn out to be just as wild?

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