FAYETTEVILLE — The SEC is devouring itself.
Check out the results.
Kentucky toppled then-No. 1 LSU in three overtimes Oct. 13, then the Wildcats fell at home to Mississippi State 31-14 last weekend. LSU clobbered Mississippi State 45-0 in the season opener.
"This league this year, especially this year, is so crazy," Arkansas Coach Houston Nutt said.
It's a Dog eat Cat eat Tiger eatGator eat Vol eat Gamecock eat Dog kind of world this season for the South's favorite pastime.
"It's getting harder and harder to go through with only one or two losses," said South Carolina Coach Steve Spurrier, whose Gamecocks come calling on the Razorbacks on Saturday.
For the first time in league history, the SEC will enter Week 10 with 11 teams having five or more victories.
"We've never had more than nine teams become bowl eligible in the same season," said Charles Bloom, SEC associate commissioner. "To have no undefeateds and to have only two losses separating [SEC teams] one through 11 is tremendous in terms of parity."
"Everything has changed," Nutt said. "Top to bottom, you are looking at 11 teams that have a chance to go to bowl games. I'm not saying they will, but they have a chance."
Tennessee (5-3, 3-2 SEC) was in control of its destiny in the East before losing to Alabama two weeks ago, then regained the upper hand Saturday with its victory against South Carolina.
"This is a crazy league," Tennessee quarterback Erik Ainge said after his team's 27-24 overtime victory against the Gamecocks. "You are never out of it. We're back where we were two weeks ago."
In the East, everybody has at least two league losses but nobody has more than three. Firstplace Georgia, which does not control its own destiny as far as representing the East in the SEC Championship Game, leads lastplace Kentucky and Vanderbilt 1 by 1/2 games.
In the West, only Ole Miss is mathematically eliminated from claiming at least a share of the division title. The winner of Saturday's LSU-Alabama game in Tuscaloosa, Ala., would be in control of its division destiny as the only league team with one loss, but nothing is guaranteed.
"It's the most competitively balanced conference that I've seen in a long, long time," Arkansas Athletic Director Frank Broyles said. "From the 28th of September for about the last month, it's anybody, and I mean anybody, anytime, anywhere. Home or away, it doesn't make ference."
Every conference team has won at least one road game except for Ole Miss. Mississippi State has not won at home in league play, but the Bulldogs have two huge road victories at Auburn and Kentucky.
"I saw [parity] coming, just as the move came around in pro football," Mississippi State Coach Sylvester Croom said. "That's what the limits on scholarships were aimed to do, give the smaller schools a chance to build."
South Carolina (6-3, 3-3 SEC) would have controlled its own path to Atlanta by beating Tennessee in Knoxville on Saturday, but the Gamecocks fell one game behind instead.
"We could've been in very good shape in the Eastern Division, even though it would not have done anything except just put us in good shape," Spurrier said. "I guess mathematically we're not completely out of it yet."
Kentucky, despite a loss at South Carolina, was in great shape in the league after taking down LSU 43-37 in three overtimes, but the Wildcats have since lost to Florida and Mississippi State.
"The competitive balance in this league has probably never been like it is now," Kentucky Coach Rich Brooks said. "This isn't a seven- or eight-team league anymore. It's a 12-team league."
Arkansas hasn't won a conference game at home, but it pummeled Ole Miss 44-8 in Oxford and has actually outscored SEC opponents 118-100 despite a 1-3 record.
"It's such a competitive, competitive league each Saturday that anyone, anyone [can win.] I don't know if we used to could say that because Vanderbilt and Kentucky, you would say, 'OK, that's a W,' " Nutt said. "You can't say that anymore."
Sports, Pages 21, 24 on 10/31/2007