By RON HIGGINS, Scripps Howard News Service

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.

Rolando McClain figured it was always good enough to lead by example, especially since he was extraordinary in his first two years as an Alabama linebacker.

The Southeastern Conference appears to be recession-proof.
As the league's annual football preseason media days kicked off here at the Wynfrey Hotel Wednesday, a record 950 media members are on hand to interview the conference's 12 football coaches and two players from each school.