Expanding Number of Teams in SEC Gets Off to Boring Start

Without certain characters, downright dislike of different programs of past, first two days of Media Days short of entertainment

Oklahoma coach Brent Venables speaking at Omni Dallas Hotel. / Brett Patzke-USA TODAY Sports

DALLAS — This SEC Football Kickoff has been, for lack of a better term, rather tame in comparison to a lot of them. Gosh, it's easy to miss Steve Spurrier because he was always able to interject some life into these things.

Considering the lack of excitement this year, those who adore straight nothing-but-football talk are lving the dream. Lane Kiffin of Ole Miss didn't even inject some life into this thing.

When he could play off Nick Saban every year, it brought a little bit of flair. Shoot, you could fill up a couple of columns just trying to sort out what Ed Orgeron said when he was at LSU.

Even Saban brought his own flavor because he had an opinion on just about everything going on in the world of college football. It was entertainment, and, in comparison, this year's Media Days is downright dull.

There once was a time when coaches were served legal papers when they pulled up from the airport at the Wynfrey Hotel in Hoover, Ala. Now everybody is pretty much saying only the nicest things about each other.

All they have to do is put Alabama and Auburn on the same day or now Texas and Oklahoma and there's the possibility of entertainment. Oklahoma's Brent Venables didn't think he and Texas' Steve Sarkisian shared a whole lot of information this year.

"Probably not," was Venables' answer when asked about the Sooners-Longhorns' rivalry. "It's as deep-seeded and hate-filled and emotional of a rivalry as there is in all of college football. I don't see how the conference affiliation will make a big difference. That's one of many games that you're going to have to find a way to grind it out. If you think that one is emotionally taxing, you're going to go into a lot of venues that the pageantry is going to be real, the stadiums are going to be completely full and a lot of people are going to hate your guts for three hours or so. I don't see it diminishing that series and the emotion and the pageantry, the intensity of it whatsoever."

Every schools as it's own lunatic fringe of fans. They hate whomever is coming to play their team and will root against them even when it costs their school a potentially larger share of the playoff championship money.

Arkansas won't arrive in Dallas until Thursday on the final day. Because of the location, many of the media are coming in on the day their school appears, then getting out of town (which will take a while if you're not familiar with traffic flows in the Dallas area).

By the time Sam Pittman hits the stage, there will still be a large number of folks in attendance, but look for Wednesday to be a really big day. That's when Texas comes in.

No, the Longhorns don't anticipate trying to run things the way they have in conferences in the past, but there will be a lot of media in attendance and however many fans can get in the door. Don't expect Sarkisian to say anything controversial or throw the Sooners under bus.

The coaches all appear to get along well in public. Whatever their personal feelings are for another coach stays private these days.

Nobody really criticizes anyone. As a result, there's just not a lot of excitement.

Some enjoy the straight football news talk, but there's only so many times coaches can say it's going to be a tough schedule. Everybody's got one and putting a degree of difficulty on it now isn't news.

There is hope, though. There are two more days before the media officially start laying down the predictions for next season. Since nearly all will be fairly similar, that may be just as boring.

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