SEC stumbles with early losses, near upsets
Still in title conversation, thanks to Tide
Associated Press
The mighty Southeastern Conference has taken more hits than usual in the opening week of the college football season, raising questions about the SEC’s status as the nation’s premier conference.
Red flags went up around the country after the SEC, which has won over 80 percent of its nonconference games since 2006, went 6-5 against non-league opponents. The first-week schedule ends today with No. 11 Ole Miss facing No. 4 Florida State of the Atlantic Coast Conference in Orlando, Florida.
No matter what happens in the Rebels-Seminoles matchup, it is too early to believe the SEC won’t be in the national championship conversation all year. No. 1 Alabama crushed No. 20 Southern California 52-6, No. 18 Georgia beat No. 22 North Carolina 33-24 and Texas A&M defeated No. 16 UCLA 31-24 in overtime.
Still, there were chinks in the SEC armor.
No. 5 LSU fell 16-14 to unranked Wisconsin at Lambeau Field in a result that gave more fodder for the argument the SEC wouldn’t fare so well in nonconference games if its teams left the South more often. LSU had won a Football Bowl Subdivi-
Tony Stewart’s final run at Darlington was not without controversy. At one point he tried to get past Brian Scott, who was several laps down, and when that didn’t work, Stewart looked like he nudged Scott’s bumper and sent him spinning. Scott thought Stewart was mad at him and ran into him on purpose. “I’m not sure if he thought I was trying to hold him up. I wasn’t,” Scott said.
Officials called Stewart and crew chief Mike Bugarewicz to their hauler at the end. When told of NASCAR’s demand, Stewart said, “Hey, man, made it 25 races, I’d say that’s pretty good.”
Stewart’s race ended short of the finish when his overheating engine expired 49 laps from the end.