Things change quickly in the SEC. Two weeks ago, Alabama was ranked No. 1 in the nation and Tennessee No. 4, and their traditional rivalry game — called “Third Saturday in October,” and you can probably guess when it’s scheduled — was setting up to be a battle not just for SEC dominance, but national preeminence.
Well, Vanderbilt and Arkansas made statements, and then South Carolina and Florida threw some punches, and suddenly what had been a battle of titans is now a scrabble of desperation. Two teams on similar paths — dominance, a shocking loss, an uninspiring bounce-back game — meet Saturday in Knoxville, and the stakes for both are huge.