What we think we know: Week 5

1. If this were "Survivor," the SEC would have voted off Vandy, Georgia and Tennessee by now. Any league would be wounded when traditional powers like the Dawgs and Vols take a page from a Stephen King novel and plunge into "Simultaneous Suckage." LSU is the worst or luckiest unbeaten of the last decade. And there's the great mass of mediocrity or worse category for just about everybody else. In summary, this may be the weakest year in the conference in decades. Yet it still offers the overwhelming favorite for the national championship.

2. Can anybody truly argue that Alabama and Auburn aren't the SEC's two best teams? Florida has talent but seems caught in an identity crisis (This word of advice to Gators everywhere -- from a member of a fan base who sets the standard for gazing into the past: He ain't coming back!!! AU must still play a heavyweight on the road, but it's looking more and more like that won't happen 'til Tuscaloosa. Alabama? The Tide enters the absurd portion of its schedule, when five consecutive SEC opponents having two weeks to prepare. It starts Saturday at Columbia, and UA fans may fret the roosters far more than they did Florida. Here's something for South Carolina to ponder: Alabama's first half Saturday night was its best of the season.

3. Where are the chat rooms burning hotter: Georgia or LSU? Let's call it a tie for now, which is amazing in its own right. Georgia is 1-4; LSU is 5-0. But Les Miles is taking just as many shots as Georgia's Mark Richt. Miles treats the criticism as if it's just another game clock he can ignore. Richt keeps responding with gridiron platitudes -- preaching effort and trust and hard work -- that have his critics howling even louder. In that, however, Richt has an advantage over Miles, who not only runs the most disorganized team in America, but hasn't shown much affinity for complete sentences either.

4. Thirteen players? Really?

5. An ACC note: The North Carolina free fall has reached the scary stage. It's bad enough that former assistant head coach John Blake had a longtime and extensive financial relationship with an agent, it appears now that he was recruiting players for that agent -- including Alabama's Marcel Dareus. Up to now, coach Butch Davis has floated just above the floodwaters. But the charges against his kids and former top assistant have reached the saturation point. If more allegatons surface, Davis could very easily go under.

mg