By now you've heard that SEC West members LSU, Alabama and Arkansas are sitting 1-2-3 in the current BCS rankings, and you may also have read any number of stories about how any two of these three still have a good chance of playing in the national championship game based on what happens over the next couple weeks. Should Arkansas win this Friday, leaving us with an Arkansas-beat-LSU-beat-Alabama-beat-Arkansas Möbius strip, here's an idea: Pick one name out of a hat, that team gets a bye, and then the other two play each other with the winner facing the first team in the national championship. Sounds fair, right?
Well, we've got two more weeks to figure this out. For now, here's this week's Power Poll ballot, with the full tally coming Wednesday on Team Speed Kills.
1. LSU -- Not only does Les Miles seem headed toward a date with the national championship trophy, he also deserves some kind of humanitarian award for taking knees on the Ole Miss 1-yard line with five whole minutes left on Saturday night.
2. Alabama -- Nick Saban's pregame speech to his team last week (I assume): "Y'all just go out there and do some stuff and score some points so I can come up with ways to torture Auburn."
3. Arkansas -- Not sure I buy them at No. 3 in the nation, but on the heels of three straight 40-point efforts (and three straight beatdowns) against SEC competition, I wouldn't be overlooking them if I were LSU, either.
4. Georgia -- Their two worst games of the season have come against Vanderbilt and Kentucky. Nice to see that while some things are turning around in Athens, some long-standing traditions (i.e. playing down to the level of the opponent) are standing firm.
5. South Carolina -- Arguably a better team than last year's in a number of ways; just picked a bad season for Marcus Lattimore to get hurt (and for Georgia to be enjoying their first hint of a resurgence in several years).
6. Auburn -- Yeah, the Tigers beat the Gamecocks earlier in the season, but nobody who's watched Auburn over the past couple weeks will dispute that there's a big dropoff between No. 5 South Carolina and No. 6 Auburn on this list.
7. Florida -- Would Furman over Florida in the Swamp have been the biggest upset in SEC history? The fact that we're even talking about this kind of indicates the dire straits the Gators are in as a program right now.
8. Tennessee -- Was the overtime win against Vanderbilt the biggest win in Derek Dooley's UT career? The fact that we're even talking about this kind of indicates the dire straits the Volunteers are in as a program right now.
9. Vanderbilt -- The pre-James Franklin Commodores may have lost a ton of games, but at least they didn't bitch and moan about it.
10. Mississippi State -- Given the current state of the Rebels, Dan Mullen can basically name his score for a third straight Egg Bowl win, yet that all seems strangely unsatisfying after this season.
11. Kentucky -- Hung in a lot longer than they should have against a sleepy-eyed Georgia squad, but the future does not look especially shiny in Lexington.
12. Ole Miss -- You hate to cast aspersions on the unknowable thoughts of a bunch of teenagers, but this team has just plain given up. There just aren't many other plausible explanations for the way they've played the last three weeks.