Expansion and brisket are on the menu at SEC Media Days

What’s it going to be this week? Florida State and Clemson kick the ACC to the curb to join the SEC where, dadgumit, it’s where they belong? Texas A&M, in a 10-gallon tantrum, flees the approaching burnt orange eclipse and hitches its wagon to the Big Ten? Nick Saban leaves ESPN to return to coaching as an Alabama analyst?

It’s not that far-fetched. Saban “retired” because, though he still loves working with players on the field, he loathes some of the relatively new responsibilities that fall on a college head coach. Like contract negotiations.

Now that the NCAA is going to allow analysts to coach on the field – within the rules – imagine the fun and impact Saban could have mentoring Alabama’s defensive staff and players in a hands-on, “do your job” kind of way.

Hey, Southeastern Conference Media Days kicks off today in Dallas, the Football Capital of the Southwest, so polish your spurs and put your head on a swivel because anything is possible. If you don’t own any cowboy boots, buck up, pardner. They’re handing them out at the door in the exotic leather skin of your favorite team’s mascot.

Not really, but would anyone blink an eye if they did?

Politics has the October surprise, the game-changing news story that can sink one candidate and help another surge into office. College football, which suffers from no shortage of political intrigue in its own highly charged environment, has an equivalent bolt from the blue. It’s the kind of breaking news that tends to streak across the landscape this time of year with the power to focus talkin’ season on a single issue.