HOOVER, Ala. -- There were changes here this week for SEC football media days, but nothing earthshaking or unexpected.
The SEC Network took over more space and broadcast from within the room where 500 or so reporters interview coaches and players and craft their prose for the next day's paper.
It wasn't a distraction.
Although the SEC Network did schedule a news conference to announce more programming, and when the lady making the announcement said, "We are fans too" there was almost a groan in the huge ballroom.
Most of the news media, especially the newspaper folks, consider themselves objective journalists more than fans.
It is highly doubtful that the SEC Network will ever have much, if any, hard news. It prefers features that tug at the heartstrings over reporting something that might cast a shadow over the league.
However, one of the recurring questions this week has been about the league's drought of national championships.
After winning seven consecutive BCS championships, a two-year absence doesn't seem like a bona fide drought, especially when you consider that two years ago Auburn played for the title and lost by a field goal to Florida State.
Last season Alabama lost in the semifinals of the first College Football Playoff to Ohio State, which went on to win it all.
Alabama Coach Nick Saban said Wednesday that something happened to his team's chemistry between the SEC Championship Game and four-team playoffs. One of the excuses he offered was that the NFL released the status of players who were leaving college early to enter the NFL Draft.
That sounds like an excuse, considering Saban makes more than $7 million a year to prepare his team and that it wasn't the first time he had to address that subject with a handful of guys who might have been distracted to learn where they might be drafted.
Obviously, the league's championship hopes ended the past two seasons when teams from Alabama were defeated, but one of them should have a chance to redeem itself this season. Alabama and Auburn appear to be the two early favorites to make the playoffs, or at least one of them should.
There is a chance a two-loss team could make the playoffs. One such scenario would be if Georgia lost to Auburn on the road and to Alabama at home but managed to win the Eastern Division and then beat Alabama or Auburn in the SEC Championship Game.
Georgia is the only team in the East that has to play Alabama and Auburn. Of course every team in the West has to face those two powerhouses, which is why the Western Division remains the toughest division in the country. That was proven last year when it became the first division in all of college football to land all seven teams in bowl games.
On a more local note, Arkansas quarterback Brandon Allen showed a lot of maturity and poise during his run through the media gauntlet Wednesday.
After all the official duties were completed, Allen, Jonathan Williams, Keon Hatcher and Coach Bret Bielema held a private news conference for the reporters who cover the Razorbacks on a regular basis, plus a few national writers.
Allen and Bielema were a few minutes late because of appearances on an SEC Network show, and when the questions finally focused on Bielema, the three players grouped up and began to tease one another.
They were all dressed in suits and ties, and there seemed to be a very real chemistry among them.
That's always a good thing in football and at SEC media days.
Sports on 07/17/2015