ShareThisWhile the Southeastern Conference Championship Game on Dec. 6 in Atlanta is now set between Alabama and Florida, there's still jockeying for the SEC's nine bowl tie-ins.
Currently, the SEC has six bowl eligible teams (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU and South Carolina). And if the SEC places two teams in BCS bowls, it could be a two or three teams short of filling all its bowl slots.
Ole Miss (5-4) can become bowl eligible on Saturday with a win over Louisiana-Monroe, as can Vanderbilt (5-4), which has been stuck on five wins since Oct. 4. The Commodores play at Kentucky (6-4) on Saturday.
If Ole Miss wins, it will take a 7-4 record into its Nov. 22 game at LSU, which will likely be 7-3. The scuttlebutt among bowl scouts is that the LSU-Ole Miss winner will go to the Cotton Bowl and the loser to the Chik-fil-A Bowl.
The Rebels becoming bowl eligible this weekend seems more certain than the Commodores, who haven't scored more than 14 points in a game during their current four-game losing streak.
Kentucky, which already is bowl eligible, knows the Commodores are getting to the desperate stage.
"I don't think there is any question they are going to be pumped up and they will have plenty of motivation," Kentucky coach Rich Brooks said. "Some of that can be revenge, because we have kind of kept them out of the bowl picture a little bit (in previous seasons)."
The Wildcats need another win to climb the SEC bowl ladder.
"I think that this game is what I would call a do-or-die game," Kentucky defensive end Jeremy Jarmon said. "We've kept (Vanderbilt) out the past two years for bowl eligibility. They needed a win against us to get their sixth win, and we've gotten our sixth or seventh against them.
"They're going to come out fired up. We have to match their intensity because this game is going to determine the future of both teams."
STEAMING SPURRIER: Nearly 20 minutes after his team's 34-21 win Saturday, South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier was still steamed about Chris Culliver's ejection for fighting in the fourth quarter.
After Emanuel Cook recovered Arkansas' onside kick attempt with 1:18 remaining, several players from both teams started shoving each other. Culliver, who was on the onside prevent team, took a few swings at the helmet of an Arkansas player. When Spurrier met Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps after the game, he brought up Culliver's ejection to the man who won eight gold medals at the Beijing Games.
"I told him I was a little upset at our number 17," Spurrier said. "I said it'd be about like you right before the big meet going for one of those gold medals to go cuss out one of the officials and get ejected."
EXTRA POINTS: With three games (and maybe a bowl) left in the season, Ole Miss senior Mike Wallace already holds the school single-season record for kick return yards with 674. His 25.9 yards per return average is the fourth-best in the SEC. "We've had a great wedge all season long giving me great holes to run through," Wallace said. ... Virgil Starks, Auburn's senior associate athletic director in charge of academics and student services, died Saturday night when he suffered cardiac arrest while driving home from the Auburn-Tennessee-Martin game. He was 46. "Words can't express the feelings of sorrow and mourning that we have at the passing of our dear friend Virgil Starks," said Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs. "Virgil was passionate about all facets of his life and cared for Auburn student-athletes as if they were his own children. He will be dearly missed by all that he touched." ... Arkansas starting kicker Shay Haddock abruptly quit the team last week, a university official said Sunday after Haddock was arrested on two alcohol-related charges. Haddock, 20, was arrested and booked on misdemeanor charges of public intoxication and being a minor in possession of alcohol. He was released at after posting a $305 bond. ... Tampa Bay Bucs coach John Gruden told St. Petersburg Times sportwriter Rick Stroud why he isn't interested in the soon-to-be-vacant Tennessee head coaching position. Gruden was a one-time graduate assistant at Tennessee in 1986-87. "I've said it from the beginning, this is the only job I've really ever wanted," Gruden said. "As long as the Glazers (the team owners) will have me, I'll be here. I've got a lot of respect for Tennessee. I grew up down there a little bit. My wife is from there. But this is where I want to be and I can only make myself that clear."
(Ron Higgins writes for The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn.)
