This is Where the football season never ends! Bama News first, and foremost,
interesting SEC news, and salient football news Updated Daily

Alabama stays at No. 1 in CFP rankings-bamaonline

As I'm sure you know, win and we stay that way:

List of TV commentators for every SEC game in Week 14-sds

There’s nothing better than flipping on the television to watch your favorite team and find out that you’re favorite group of commentators are calling the game. If you’re like me, the game’s play-by-play and color commentator can make all the difference in how I enjoy the broadcast.

Curious as to who is calling the games for your favorite team this week? SDS has got you covered.

LSU at Texas A&M (7:30 p.m. on ESPN) — 11/27

Play-by-play: Joe Tessitore
Color commentator: Brock Huard
Sideline reporter: Shannon Spake

Arkansas at Missouri (2:30 p.m. on CBS) — 11/28

Play-by-play: Carter Blackburn
Color commentator: Aaron Taylor
Sideline reporter: Jamie Erdahl

Georgia Tech at Georgia (12 p.m. on SEC Network)

Play-by-play: Dave Neal
Color commentator: Andre Ware
Sideline reporter: Laura Rutledge

Kentucky at Louisville (12 p.m. on ESPN 2)

Play-by-play: Beth Mowins
Color commentator: Joey Galloway
Sideline reporter: Paul Carcaterra

South Carolina at Clemson (12 p.m. on ESPN)

Play-by-play: Steve Levy
Color commentator: Kelly Stouffer
Sideline reporter: Dawn Davenport

Florida at Florida State (3:30 p.m. on ESPN)

Play-by-play: Chris Fowler
Color commentator: Kirk Herbstreit
Sideline reporter: Heather Cox

Mississippi State at Ole Miss (3:30 p.m. on CBS)

Play-by-play: Verne Lundquist
Color commentator: Gary Danielson
Sideline reporter: Allie LaForce

Tennessee at Vanderbilt (4 p.m. on SEC Network)

Play-by-play: Tom Hart
Color commentator: Matt Stinchcomb
Sideline reporter: Heather Mitts

Auburn at Alabama (7:45 p.m. on ESPN)

Play-by-play: Brent Musberger
Color commentator: Jesse Palmer
Sideline reporter: Maria Taylor
All times listed in Eastern Standard time

A win for Kentucky is a win for the SEC-sds

Kentucky has a lot at stake in Saturday’s Governor’s Cup showdown with Louisville, and so does the SEC.

If Kentucky wins Saturday to snap a recent five-game losing streak, it would earn bowl eligibility for the first time since 2010. It would also become the SEC’s 13th bowl eligible team this season (assuming Tennessee takes care of Vanderbilt), which would mean as much to the conference as a whole as it would to the Kentucky program.
I shouldn’t have to explain why reaching a bowl game would be a huge accomplishment for Kentucky (evidence of improvement this season, extra practices, added national exposure, etc.), but for the SEC to be able to claim 13 of its 14 member programs as bowl eligible would be just as impactful.
The conference prides itself on being the best in the country, and most fans outside the conference love nothing more than to poke holes in that claim. The SEC has more ranked teams this week than any other conference in America, and it has two teams in line to reach the inaugural four-team College Football Playoff. The haters respond with cries of “SEC bias.”
But what isn’t biased is a team’s win-loss record, and if Kentucky wins on Saturday 13 of the SEC’s 14 teams would have .500 records or better. How does one counter that statement? You can’t claim “SEC bias” and you can’t claim top-heaviness. That kind of depth is unprecedented in college football. Two of the nation’s five power conferences don’t even have that many members.
Do you realize how dominant the SEC has been outside the conference this year to have that many even-or-better records? All 14 teams play two-thirds of their schedules within the conference, beating up on one another each and every week. No one will escape the conference this season without a loss.
With eight grueling SEC games holding every team back, 13 of them may still win as many games as they lose. And it’s not just the product of easy scheduling. Yes, every SEC team has a few cupcakes on the schedule, but the SEC is also 5-2 against other power conference teams, including wins over Wisconsin, Clemson, West Virginia and Kansas State.
If Kentucky wins Saturday you can add Louisville to that list, and South Carolina, Florida and Georgia will look to do the same in their intrastate SEC-ACC rivalries this weekend.
Most SEC fans are focused on who will win the conference’s two divisions and how many teams the conference will send to the playoff. But even if the SEC sends two teams to the playoff, a Kentucky victory would be just as meaningful in this sense — the playoff is subjective but records are literal. Fans can argue the SEC was “granted” two playoff teams by the collective opinion of 12 imperfect humans, but it can’t argue against 13 six-win teams.
Let’s compare Kentucky to the 13th best team in the other power conferences with at least that many members, the Big Ten and the ACC. The Big Ten’s 13th best team is either Indiana or Purdue.
I already know what you’re going to say.
Indiana beat Missouri! Indiana beat Missouri!
Yes they did. But all 13 SEC teams in question have at least twice that many wins in the SEC, while Indiana hasn’t won a single game in the Big Ten. Indiana was better than Missouri on that day. If it were a better team this season, it would have a better record than 3-8.
The 13th best team in the ACC is either Syracuse or Wake Forrest. Both are 3-8 overall and 1-6 in the conference, and both average fewer than 18 points per game (all 13 SEC teams in this discussion average at least 27 points per game).
This is all to say that Kentucky at 5-6 is far better than those aforementioned teams, and a win against Louisville would cement that fact.
In that sense, Kentucky is as crucial to the SEC’s argument for being the best conference as Alabama and Mississippi State, which have both spent most of the year ranked in the top 10.
Among all the rivalry games on the Week 14 slate, the Governor’s Cup is sure to be lost in the shuffle outside the commonwealth of Kentucky. Nevertheless, the Cats can quietly affirm the SEC as the deepest, and thus best top-to-bottom, conference in America.

Can 2014 Muschamp pull a 2004 Zook?-sds

Ten years ago, an underdog Florida squad led by lame duck head coach Ron Zook went into Tallahassee and beat Florida State – something Zook’s predecessor Steve Spurrier never did.

In 2014, Will Muschamp has an eerily similar opportunity. Like Zook, Muschamp followed a national championship winning head coach. Like Zook, Muschamp’s players love him.
While the Zook-Muschamp comparisons are quite common, many fans forget the context of the Florida-Florida State rivalry in 2004 and how it compares to today.
While the Seminoles of 2004 were not kings of college football led by a Heisman Trophy winner, they were a team that had had the Gators’ number in recent years.
During the rivalry game the year before, in 2003, FSU quarterback Chris Rix tossed a 55-yard game-winning touchdown with a minute left to crush Gator Nation. Did you purposely wipe your memory of this play? Allow me to jog your memory:

Sorry to bring back such horrific memories, Florida fans. Many of you likely remember watching that play and throwing something at your television.
While Jameis Winston might be Public Enemy No. 1 today, let’s not discount the villain status at the time of Chris Rix, at least here in the Sunshine state. The cockiness combined with the legendary stories of Rix passing out business cards to females which stated “Chris Rix, Quarterback” made Florida fans boil with hatred toward Mr. Rix.
It was the reputation of Rix and the consecutive losses in 2002 and 2003 that helped set the stage for Florida fans heading into the 2004 game.
As the Gators traveled to Tallahassee in late November 2004, they were unranked with a 7-4 record. Head coach Ron Zook had been fired a few weeks earlier after losing to Mississippi State. The ‘Noles were ranked No. 8 in the country with an outside chance at getting into the BCS.
It was also a special night in Tallahassee as the field at Doak Campbell Stadium was being named “Bobby Bowden Field” in honor of the legendary FSU coach.
As we all know, Zook’s Gators squad ruined the festivities for the ‘Noles that night and helped redeem his three year run as the head coach in Gainesville. I can still see the face of Ron Zook as his players carried him off the freshly named Bobby Bowden Field into the tunnel and out of sight. It was the last time Zook took the field for the University of Florida. Not a bad way to go out.
The parallels are obvious as we look at Will Muschamp entering his final game as Florida head coach. While Florida is an underdog similar to 2004, this year’s Florida State comes in with a 27-game win streak – the longest active streak in college football. Florida State hasn’t lost since Muschamp’s Gators beat the Seminoles to finish the 2012 regular season.
With that said, Florida State is beatable in 2014. This isn’t the 2013 squad which crushed its opponent each week.
Last year’s championship squad ranked a ridiculous 1st nationally in scoring defense and 2nd nationally in scoring offense. Compare that to 29th in scoring defense and 26th in scoring offense for the 2014 season – respectable, but not nearly as dominant.
Make no mistake about it, Auburn played an outstanding Florida State team last year in the BCS Championship Game. But that team is gone. Rather than blowing out its opponent each week as they did last season, this season’s Seminoles have been escaping with narrow wins week after week against average teams.
Interestingly, former Florida coach Steve Adazzio may have helped soften up the ‘Noles last Saturday and provide the blueprint for Florida to pull the upset. Adazzio’s Boston College team lost narrowly 20-17 in Tallahassee with a very Muschamp-ish formula: 11 pass attempts, 51 rush attempts.
Add in some rivalry fuel and player motivation for Coach Boom’s last game, and you might have the makings for a special day in the Florida-Florida State rivalry.