Note: Week 8 of the college football season is here. Make your picks for Joe vs. the Pro and the Hero using this link or with the embedded form at the bottom of the column. Each week, winners of the 6-0 Challenge will be celebrated in Joe’s weekly newsletter, “SPORTS! Happy Hour.” Don’t forget, picks are against the spread.

This is an opinion column.

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Georgia’s Kirby Smart, the SEC’s breaking-bad football coach, gave Mississippi State’s quarterback a forearm shiver during a game and got away with it.

Smart is a fool if he thinks anyone believes his excuse. The visor-wearing coach said he didn’t realize he did it until reviewing the film after the game.

Coincidentally, this is what I tell my wife when me and the dogs eat ice cream and cookies after she goes to bed.

“No, I’m sorry, but we don’t know who ate the ice cream and cookies. We’ll have to review the film from last night because neither me, Dubs for the Win nor Tali Terrific have any recollection of those events.”

Who looks more pathetic this week going into No.5 Georgia’s big matchup against No.1 Texas, Smart or SEC commissioner Greg Sankey?

Unlike the cops in Athens, Ga., who apparently have their hands full with late-night street racers, Sankey let Smart off with a warning.

It is against the rules of the SEC for a coach to hit, shove, move or otherwise aggressively touch an opposing player during a game. Smart’s momentary amnesia shouldn’t matter here. The rules don’t offer any exceptions for failure to not remember. Smart should be suspended for at least one game for the incident, and if Smart truly doesn’t remember what happened then perhaps he should enter concussion protocol until cleared by a team of medical professionals.

I wrote in the preseason that Smart is the SEC’s new Urban Meyer, but I had it wrong. Turns out Smart is the SEC’s Walter White.

There’s an episode in the hit TV show “Breaking Bad” when main character White, a high school science teacher turned drug dealer, is kidnapped by an unhinged crimelord named Tuco Salamanca.

White’s wife doesn’t know her husband is a criminal. She just believes him to be a dorky science teacher who has cancer.

But White’s alter ego is Heisenberg. Heisenberg is cooking crystal meth on the sly and building an empire.

White doesn’t come clean after being kidnapped. He escapes Salamanca and hatches a half-baked plan. He strips naked in a grocery store and later claims that perhaps he suffered from dissociative fugue on account of all his chemotherapy. Known as fugue state, dissociative fugue is a rare form of temporary amnesia. It’s like a break from reality suffered by the cognitively unwell, husbands everywhere and, apparently, their beloved ‘Dawgs.

I appreciate Sankey’s attempt to get as many teams from the SEC into the College Football Playoff as possible, but at some point his lack of leadership is going to start eating away at the SEC’s integrity. We all know who runs the SEC. Fugue-state Smart is apparently the SEC’s real commissioner.

As they say in the song, and I’m paraphrasing here, but, man, it must feel mighty fine to be a gangster.

Georgia (5-1, 3-1 in the SEC) needs a win against Texas (6-0, 2-0 in the SEC) to keep its hopes alive for a spot in the SEC championship game. The Bulldogs haven’t looked great this season, and their 41-31 victory against Mississippi State underscored the team’s problems. Quarterback Carson Beck had two more interceptions to give him five on the season and Georgia’s defense allowed 6.1 yards per play. Mississippi State quarterback Michael Van Buren, Jr., managed to throw for 306 yards and three touchdowns despite being roughed up by Georgia’s players and head coach.

Hopefully Smart is feeling better after his break from reality, but good on him for calling Mississippi State’s coach to apologize for smashing through Jeff Lebby’s quarterback during the game.

That conversation must have been awkward.

“Yeah, coach, listen, I don’t remember doing this, but they tell me I gave your quarterback the People’s Elbow during the game. Oh, by the way, I’m stealing your quarterback for next season.”

PLAYOFF CHASE

It was supposed to be Southern champagne and chandelier tailgate parties all the way to the playoffs for the University of Mississippi. Instead, also-ran Ole Miss is out of the playoff hunt early after its 29-26 loss to No.8 LSU in overtime.

The Rebel Land Shark Black Bears blew it after leading 23-16 with about three minutes left in the game. Ole Miss (5-2, 1-2 in the SEC) started out the season ranked No.6 nationally and then rose to No.5 before losing two of its last three games. His team was once a favorite to make the College Football Playoff, but now it all feels like cosmic justice for coach Lane Kiffin.

Kiffin’s team has been accused of faking injuries during games this season to stifle the momentum of opponents. Kiffin is the SEC’s merry prankster, and his personality is great for the league, but maybe this time the karma police got their man.

Will Georgia be out of the playoff picture with a loss to Texas (6-0, 2-0 in the SEC)? That’s tough to project, but Georgia’s victory against Clemson might not be enough if the Bulldogs keep losing against Top 5 teams. One thing feels certain, No.7 Alabama (5-1, 2-1 in the SEC) needs a victory at No.11 Tennessee (5-1, 2-1 in the SEC) to keep the Tide’s playoff dreams alive.

No.14 Texas A&M (5-1, 3-0 in the SEC) is the current leader of the tougher conference in sports. First-year Aggies coach Mike Elko suddenly has a clear path to the playoffs despite that Week 1 loss to Notre Dame. The Aggies get LSU (5-1, 2-0) at home in two weeks, and then close out the season with arguably the biggest home game in school history against No.1 Texas.

Would a two-loss Texas A&M get into the playoff over a two-loss Alabama?

And here’s a question that should put league commissioner Sankey and the Birmingham instant replay crew on high alert. How many two-loss teams can he fit into the College Football Playoff? My guess at this point in the season is no more than three unless Vanderbilt (4-2, 2-1 in the SEC) runs the table and upsets Texas in two weeks.

In this league, opportunity swings open like a door for those lucky teams who can catch unprepared heavyweights at home.

MAILBAG

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MAKE YOUR PICKS

It’s Week 8 of the 6-0 Challenge. Make your picks, fellow sports donks and college football geniuses.

Joseph Goodman is the lead sports columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of the book “We Want Bama: A Season of Hope and the Making of Nick Saban’s Ultimate Team.”