Scouting the nation: after a handful of seasons on the slide, the SEC will reclaim its place as the best conference around.(College Football Preview)(Southeastern Conference)

Oh, Vanderbilt. Those poor saps bang heads week after week with the brawny, bawdy boys of the Southeastern Conference, only to have fans mail the league offices and demand the removal of the dead weight in the next conference shakeup. Go after West Virginia. See if Louisville is interested. And you've got to believe Marshall would surely throw a scare into a few teams every season.

This is all the SEC has to worry about--well, and a few NCAA investigators. Yet that outside minutia--and don't kid yourself, that's what it is to folks in this stodgy, storied league--is taking the edge off the excitement that this loaded conference is primed to break through again on ...