SEC

Over the next few weeks, there will be a delicate dance between local television affiliates throughout the southeast,  and the SEC itself.

The conference enacting a new policy, which will limit media access to press conferences, game highlights...

My latest take...

Last week the Southeastern Conference, under the dark of night, started to implement their plan for world domination.

Is this overly dramatic? Of course. Is it far off?

The Vols/UCLA game has been over for less than 20 minutes, and I am already reading tweets and facebook messages from Vols fans, saying that the 2009 Tennessee football season is done.

Of course, they still have a minimum of 10 games left to play, but that is besides the point. Will Tennessee respond to their 19-15 loss to the Bruins with a win at top-ranked Florida next weekend?

Probably not.

Last week I was asked by a friend if I would be going to Gainesville for the Tennessee/Florida game. I said no, 6 Sports Director Jim Wogan would be making the trip south.

Even if Jim had decided not to go, there was no way I’d be there. My wife Jennifer was in the motherly way, and had a due date of September 28^th.

Emily Ann couldn’t wait that long.

Some major empty pockets in the stands at Neyland Stadium, and that is not a major surprise. The weather and the opponent (Ohio) combining to make the less than capacity attendance a reality.

6 Sports Director Jim Wogan is at the game, and tweets that there might be 65,000 in the house.

The Bobcats kicked off to Tennessee, and the Vols started things on their own 31 yard line.

Last year I had the misfortune of witnessing perhaps the worst quarter of offensive football in the history of the Southeastern Conference.

Tennessee and Auburn set football back about 75 years with their performance.  That 4th quarter can be summed up in the following few words...

"Three and out..."

The Vols would punt, then the Tigers would punt, then the Vols would punt and, well... you get the idea.

Today the Florida rivalry is tops to a majority of Vols fans, but few football rivalries can complete with the history, the tradition, the respect and dis-respect of Tennessee/Alabama.

The series started all the way back in 1901. The Crimson Tide currently hold a 46-38-7 advantage.

I've never been able to explain to my friends up north just how large a state Tennessee is. 

Memphis and Knoxville share the same "TN" after the comma, but the cities are as far apart, and as different as can be... as are the football programs that represent their respective universities.

(Editor's note.  Using the word "as" four times in one sentence...

I have gone back and forth on this prediction all week. 

The Vols had momentum heading to Oxford.  They had won three out of four games, including a 56-28 pounding of Memphis.  A defeat so devastating Tommy West lost his job immediately thereafter. 

Then three Vols freshman football players, Mike Edwards, Nu'Keese Richardson and Janzen Jackson, were arrested early Thursday morning for attempted armed robbery. 

The year was 1984.  "Who's The Boss" debuted on ABC.  Prince's "Purple Rain" is released, and Carl Lewis wins four gold medals in track and & field at the Summer Olympics.

And Kentucky's football team beat Tennessee's football team.

Since then, Tony Danza stopped cleaning houses in Connecticut, Prince changed his name to a symbol and then back to Prince, and Carl Lewis had a memorbale turn singing the National Anthem before an NBA game.

And Kentucky has yet to beat Tennessee again.

Former Vols star Tee Martin broke the news on his facebook page late Wednesday night.

"NSD is a wrap and it's time for change. I will be headed to Kentucky very soon,  joining the staff there. It's SEC time!!

I was there... on February 7th, 2006.

Bruce Pearl's Vols were on their way to a 22-8 record, and a first place finish in the SEC's Eastern Division, something that has become a common occurrence now.

But back then, Tennessee fans were still in a state of bliss.  A team which had spent four mediocre years under Buzz Peterson, was suddenly in the national rankings.

When Bruce Pearl arrived in Knoxville in 2005, a friend asked me what I thought he'd be able to accomplish in his first season.

I remember telling my friend that Pearl would be lucky to get the Vols into the NIT, considering that they were losing two of their best players in Scooter McFadgon and Brandon Crump.  That team didn't even have a .500 record in Buzz Peterson's final year.

Well, I was mistaken.  Tennessee won the SEC East, and earned a 2 seed in the NCAA tournament. 

Remember the scene from Broadcast News?  Where the producer makes a sprint thru the newsroom to get a story on the air?  That isn't just something that happens in the movies...

On a road trip?  Even more challenging.

Tonight I was at the team hotel, waiting for the Vols to arrive here in Providence.  The plan was to get a quick interview with Bruce Pearl, feed the story back to WATE-TV6, and call it a day.

Slight problem.  An estimated time of Tennessee's arrival of 9:45pm turned into 10:10pm.  I had to feed at 10:40pm from the

On Saturday I stood outside a gate at Neyland Stadium, waiting for the Vols scrimmage to end.  When it did, local sports anchors, reporters, writers, photographers and bloggers were waved inside by representatives of the football team.

You see, media is not allowed to attend Vols scrimmages.  Honestly? That's fine with me.  It is the perogative of Tennessee head coach Derek Dooley to run the program as he sees fit.