At Long Last, SEC Football Is Back

SEC presidents, athletic directors, coaches and other administrators had the opportunity to celebrate another banner year for the league during its spring meetings in April.

While that euphoria will certainly carry over into the three-day Football Media Days that start Wednesday in Hoover, Ala., the spotlight will be focused on the sport that has single-handedly raised the national profile of the SEC.

And made it plenty of loot, too.

Finally, it's time to talk football.

FanHouse on Scene: Join us for SEC Media Days Live Blog at 2:30PM ET

The SEC, regarded as the most competitive in the country, looks to continue its crazy success with the opening of practice in two weeks. Florida won the conference's third straight BCS title last January. Overall, the SEC has won four BCS titles since 2000, more than any league this decade. The Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-10 -- and the 1979 Bo Derek film "10," for that matter -- can't argue with the SEC's results and good looks.

The Gators are the overwhelming choice to capture their third national title in the last four years as they return quarterback Tim Tebow, all 11 defensive starters and head coach Urban Meyer, who will surely address the constant rumors that he might, despite his emphatic denials, leave Hogtown to take over the Notre Dame program in the near future.

Speaking of green, the league also recently signed 15-year television contracts with CBS and ESPN totaling $3 billion that go into effect this fall, making the SEC the richest conference in the NCAA. Love to channel surf? Good. Every SEC game this season will be televised by CBS, one of the many ESPN networks or a television partner.

Even the coaches are playing patty-cake after SEC commissioner Mike Slive scolded them -- specifically Tennessee's Lane Kiffin, South Carolina's Steve Spurrier and Meyer -- three months ago for shooting spitballs at each other.

One topic of conversation over the three days expects to center on the league's quarterbacks.

Eight of the 12 teams will have a new set of warm hands underneath center. Tebow, Jevan Snead of Mississippi, Mike Hartline of Kentucky and Jonathan Crompton of Tennessee are returning starters, though Hartline and Crompton each split time with other players last season. Some fans might have grown weary of Tebow's shtick, but there's no denying the big lefty in the designer suits and specs is a gladiator on the field.

There's team intrigue, too.

After winning the Cotton Bowl in January, Ole Miss is one of the favorites to win the SEC West and contend for its first conference title since Beatlemania ended. Snead, however, wants to make sure the Rebels are not one-hit wonders. Ole Miss certainly has a manageable schedule with no UF, no Georgia and Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee and LSU at home.

"The way I look at it, I am just doing my job and doing everything I can to help us win," Snead told FanHouse earlier this summer. "It's exciting that fans and the community are behind us and we realize this is a great opportunity. But, like I said, we need to go out there and prove that we can win."

The SEC has proven that point with an exclamation mark as a conference. It is 7-2 in BCS bowls since 2003 and 28-13 in all bowls over that same span.

Slive, the SEC's captain since 2002, agreed in March to an extension through 2012. Slive ended the spring meetings by announcing that the league will distribute about $132.5 million to its 12 schools for the 2008-09 fiscal year. That's a 4 percent increase from last year.

His tone will surely be just as upbeat when he opens Wednesday's session with his state of the union address to the media -- a record number of nearly 900 credentials has been granted, according to reports.

The opening session features the respective head coaches and selected players from Vanderbilt, Arkansas, Mississippi State and Kentucky. On Thursday, Alabama, Georgia, Ole Miss and Florida take center stage. Auburn, South Carolina, Tennessee and LSU round out the football fun on Friday.

Friday's session will also include the naming of the All-SEC Preseason Team as voted upon by the media and the predicted order of finish in both the East and West Divisions as well as the league champion.

Who''s your pick to win it all? UF? Ole Miss? LSU?

Mine?

Easy. That would be the Gates.