This column is usually designed to focus on the SEC, however there is a polarizing issue resonating in the Big 12 and expanding into pop culture. Last weekend, Oklahoma St. gave up a school record 718 yards of total offense but defeated Texas Tech in a shootout 49-45. That, however, is neither where the story begins nor where it ends.

The University of Tennessee’s football team has certainly had a rough month of September. The schedule did not do Phil Fulmer’s young team any favors by having to face two of the Top 6 teams in America on the road.

Having finished my three day football odyssey, it’s time to get down to making my preseason hoops prognostications. Without further delay, here are the official Hatvol SEC East predictions:

I was in line at one of my favorite pizza joints on the planet last night in Lexington, Kentucky, and a Kentucky fan actually held the door open for me. I can only assume that he saw that I was wearing my favorite Tennessee hat, and felt a little sorry for me.

The empirical data suggests that the Tennessee football program has fallen from the conference elite into more of an SEC middle class. The numbers speak for themselves. Tennessee is the fifth best team in the SEC since 2001.

As I pack for the beginning of my Footballapalooza ‘07 Tour, I’m confronted with a question many Tennessee fans are facing today: How do you identify a college program in decline? After some thought, here are Hatvol’s Six Signs Of Program Apocalypse.

I have always wanted to be a meteorologist, and now I am considering making it a second career. Imagine how much UT fans would pay for a forecast of the next “Perfect Storm”. After the Florida game the realization began to creep in rather quickly.

Our small group of Gator fans walked briskly through the burnt orange crowd, heads slightly down, eyes averted from contact. “Do nothing to provoke them”, I told my friends, “They are already pissed off”.

The polls list USC as the top team in the country and it’s tough to argue that unless you have seen LSU play this year. I understand that USC is an unbelievably talented team that has rolled off quite a run over the last few years. USC is 60-6 since 2002.

So now it begins. The Gators and the Vols embark on another battle for supremacy in the SEC east. Too bad that Coach Fulmer’s arch nemesis may once again have a say, when it comes to the SEC Eastern Division Crown. South Carolina will be in the hunt for the east.