By RON HIGGINS, Scripps Howard News Service

So I dial the phone number of the Cotton Bowl, ask for the person I need to contact inquiring about Ole Miss' chances for a second straight trip to Dallas.

I'm put on hold for maybe five seconds and this is what I hear: "McCluster, in the Wildcat formation, takes the snap. . ."

It's an audio clip from last year's Ole Miss victory over Texas Tech in the Cotton Bowl.

It was everything expected of a battle of two top-10 Southeastern Conference football powers with a combined record of 15-1 entering Saturday's game.

A superb field position stalemate. Two defenses that wouldn't back down. Spine adjusting hits on almost every play, especially in the second half when trainers got winded from helping so many injured players off the field.

Top-ranked Florida solved one half of the Southeastern Conference football puzzle by beating Georgia on Saturday, 41-17, to clinch the Eastern Division title.

The Gators captured the Eastern championship earlier than anyone in the division since the Gators on Oct. 29, 1994. The last SEC West team to clinch the division earlier was Auburn on Oct. 30, 2004.

Every Monday has become the same old routine this football season at Southeastern Conference headquarters in Birmingham.

SEC commissioner Mike Slive talks to a football coach angry over officiating, tells the coach to shut his yapper and then issues a public reprimand.

There are several reasons Alabama has never had a Heisman Trophy winner.

Rewind to the days of Bear Bryant, and the legendary Crimson Tide coach didn't believe in putting any individual ahead of the team.

That's why for years Alabama never bothered to actively promote a player for the Heisman. And Bryant had plenty of players who could have won it.

Need a reason not to bet on college football?

Examine the strategies of both head coaches in No. 1 Florida's 23-13 victory over Tennessee on Saturday in Gainesville, Fla.

With the Gators a 30--point favorite, who would have predicted Florida's Urban Meyer and Tennessee's Lane Kiffin playing it so close to the vest?

The coach of a football team favored by 28 points actually said Wednesday, with unwavering conviction, about his upcoming game: "Everybody knows this will be a four-quarter dogfight."

Every Alabama football coach since the legendary Bear Bryant has created his own "first."

Ray Perkins was the first 'Bama coach to tear down Bryant's coaching tower. Bill Curry was the first to have a brick thrown through his office window.

Their bank accounts and free time have expanded, and their golf scores have shrunk.

They've taken fun trips with friends and family, visited college and pro football practices and re-introduced themselves to loved ones after years of being immersed in their jobs.

Few people are happier that it's finally game week than Gene Chizik, Dan Mullen and Lane Kiffin, the new head coaches respectively at Auburn, Mississippi State and Tennessee.

After months of selling their programs to their players, fans and recruits, it's time to put the product on the field.