5-at-10: SEC asked and answered, NFL power poll, Jameis Capone and Happy anniversary Sid's Slide

photo SEC Southeastern Conference

SEC asked and answered

Let's rank the SEC and review the questions facing each team (with record and Saturday's foe). Deal? Deal. And everyone expected the college football world to revolve around the state of Mississippi, right? Right?

1. Ole Miss (6-0, 3-0; vs. Tennessee, 7 p.m.): Is there a more complete team in college football? We say no, and yes, the national polls have the Rebels' Magnolia State rivals on top, but here's a vote that Hugh Freeze's bunch is more balanced with a defense that is excellent at every level, a senior quarterback and a fleet of wide outs that provide match-up problems for every team this side of the Cowboys. The Dallas Cowboys.

2. Mississippi State (6-0, 3-0; off): Has there been a better timed bye week in the history of college football? Most likely not, considering the Bulldogs have been three consecutive top-10 teams, including two physically draining foes in Auburn and LSU. It also give the program a chance to enjoy its spotlight in the sun and its first No. 1 football ranking in school history. More cowbell, indeed. Somewhere Will Ferrell smiles. Stay Classy, Starkville.

3. Alabama (5-1, 2-1; vs. Texas A&M, 3:30 p.m.): Which is the real Alabama offense, the bunch that was on a record pace through four games or the group that has scored 31 total points the last two weeks? It's hard to know, and yes, the increased level of competition certainly plays a factor. Also, those 31 points in a 23-17 loss to Ole Miss and a 14-13 escape act at Arkansas include a defensive TD. Alabama offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin is getting some heat for the recent downturn. Somewhere Johnny Vols Fans everywhere smile and nod.

4. Auburn (5-1, 2-1; off): Do we know what these Tigers? In short, no.

5. Georgia (5-1, 3-1; at Arkansas, 4 p.m.): Is this the last best chance for the SEC East to get a win over the SEC West? You bet it is.

6. Texas A&M (5-2, 2-2; at Alabama, 3:30 p.m.): Man, think we could get a deal on some of those "Kenny Hill for Heisman" T-shirts about now? The answer is yes and yes.

7. Kentucky (5-1, 2-1; at LSU, 7:30): Which is more impressive for a team on the rise, pulling the upset of Steve Spurrier or handling your business the following week against an overmatched foe? We'll say the former, but not by as much as you think. And the tests get much more complex moving forward for the Wildcats, but hey, right now, as Dennis Green says, you are what your record says you are. And besides, UK is going to be on CBS in 10 days - that means it has arrived. That said, a win Saturday at night in LSU would make believers out of all of us.

8. LSU (5-2, 1-2; vs. Kentucky, 7:30): If you were going to have an SEC coach detonate a bomb as the clock was winding down, Les Miles is the only choice, right? Of course he is. No brainer. (The question, not Miles.)

9. Missouri (4-2, 1-1; at Florida, 7 p.m.): What was that? Man, there are several players in the league who have gone from preseason building blocks to complete puzzles, and the list starts with Maty Mauk, the Missouri quarterback who was a trendy pick for all-SEC before the season and who could be on the hot seat halfway through the season.

10. Arkansas (3-3, 0-3; vs. Georgia, 4 p.m.): Is there a more snake-bit team in the country right now? Maybe not. If the Hogs could have stopped a 70-yard Texas A&M touchdown throw in the final minute in an OT loss and not fumbled going into the end zone in a one-point loss against Alabama, the Hogs would be the talk of the nation. Now, they are just starving for their first SEC win under Bret Bielema, who was visibly shaken and almost crying after Saturday night's defeat against Alabama.

11. Florida (3-2, 2-2; vs. Missouri, 7 p.m.): Was the loss to LSU the microcosm of the careers of WIll Muschamp in general and Jeff Driskel in particular? We think yes and overwhelmingly yes.

12. South Carolina (3-3, 2-3; vs. Furman, 12:30 p.m.): If this is the end for Steve Spurrier South Carolina, who in the world would you hire to replace him? There are whispers that the Ol' Ball Coach may be growing weary, and if that's the case, it's hard to fathom who would take the visor after him.

13. Tennessee (3-3, 0-2; vs. Ole Miss, 7 p.m.): Halfway in, do we think these Vols are a bowl team? You could say that 3-3 is where we expected them to be, but that was before we knew how bad Florida is and how winnable that game was. Looking forward, we know South Carolina and Missouri are not as tough as we may have thought in August but Ole Miss and Kentucky are markedly bigger hurdles. So, the answer about the Vols postseason possibilities are left on the same cusp as they were six weeks ago: Which two SEC games other than Vandy can UT win?

14. Vanderbilt (2-5, 0-4; off): If you are Derek Mason, what do you tell your team after a nip-and-tuck 21-20 win over Charleston Southern? At at loss for words, huh? How about: "Guys, enjoy the win... it's the last one we'll get this year. Hey, it's been real, it's been fun, but it hasn't been real fun."

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NFL Power Poll

A wise reader of the 5-at-10 said about three weeks ago that you know very little about the NFL until you're six weeks in.

photo Football tile

Well, we're six weeks in and the divide between contenders and dreamers seems to have started to grow. There are as many as a third of the NFL's 32 teams that are fatally flawed to the point that, sadly, there seems to be very little chance for a playoff chase for any of them.

In addition to the one-win or worse quintet listed in the bottom five below, Atlanta, Miami, Tennessee, Minnesota and the New York Jets are so blah-tastic across the board or have such imbalance between offense and defense that any playoff chase seems as likely as Sasquatch riding into Roger Goodell's office office on a unicorn and praising Goodel's leadership during the recent domestic violence issues.

Yes, the NFL is built or parity, and that generates TV ratings and gambling interest. But the steps of balanced schedules and hard salary caps can not account for terrible management decisions - a common trait among the bottom five and the next tier of stinkihood - or an inferior quarterback in a quarterback driven league.

Of the bottom 10 teams in the NFL

1. Dallas (5-1): If there's reason to hope for the teams circling the current NFL's drain, well, how 'bout these Cowboys? Dallas was terrible in week one after having a historically bad defense a year ago. From there, five straight wins and the images of Jerry Jones actually listening to others have left the league stunned by the results.

2. Denver (4-1): We know Peyton Manning is on the cusp of setting the TD pass record, and that's cool. We know the Broncos have but one goal - winning the whole enchilada. We get all that, and it's important. Still, let's review arguably the biggest, craziest and luckiest regular-season covering of the spread in recent memory. Denver was a 7.5 favorite over the New York Jets last Sunday. The Jets were down 24-17 and had the ball deep in its own territory in the final seconds and quarterback Geno Smith threw an interception to Aqib Talib because a) he's Geno Smith and b) Talib was wide open. Talib falls to the ground catching the ball and gets up and runs for a spread-covering TD with 15 seconds left. Wow. Among those collecting was renowned gamblers and boxing champ Floyd Mayweather, who cashed a betting slip worth $1.44 million because of the play.

3. San Diego (5-1): Did you realize that Phillip Rivers was the best quarterback in the league so far this year? Crazy right? OK, Rushmore of Rivers: Phillip, Joan, Doc and Mississippi. Thoughts? Seriously, Phillip Rivers has posted a quarterback rating of 120 or better in each of the Chargers' six games. Nice.

4. Philadelphia (5-1): Here's a tip of the visor to Chip Kelly, who won the division last year and has the Eagles in prime position this year despite letting DeSean Jackson go and despite not getting the expected production from Shady McCoy. When you can win in the NFL when your stars are playing average, you have a chance to win a lot of games. Side note: The female Eagles fan who stole a fellow fan's prosthetic leg Sunday night was apprehended. It's always funny in Philadelphia.

5. San Francisco (4-2): Man, the 49ers have drafted well. They come at you in waves, and Monday night may have been Colin Kaepernick's best game. Also, it shows some major league gumption for a team to fall behind 14-0 on the road on a Monday night and rally for a 31-17 win. There's real potential here for a legitimate "Us-against-the-world" type of rallying cry as they deal with all the Harbaugh discussion and background noise.

Bottom five

28. Washington (1-5): We blame Daniel Snyder and we credit karma for Washington's continued stinkiness. That is all.

29. St. Louis (1-4): Want to know the swing piece that is the quarterback, look at the mess that is St. Louis right now. There are lot of pieces to like - side note: If you are a fantasy football player, pick up Tre Mason right now and thank us later - but the inadequacies at quarterback become a hurdle too great to clear.

30. Tampa Bay (1-5): Only Jacksonville has a worse points differential, and that's large part because when things go bad, for these Bucs, they go so far south so quickly, that the NFL should consider a running clock in the second half. So far this year, the Bucs have trailed 42-0 at halftime against a flawed Falcons team and 35-0 a minute into the second quarterback against Joe Flacco.

31. Oakland (0-5): It's of little consolation for a proud franchise that has been invisible since Rich Gannon was involved, but these Raiders play hard. And there is some young hope. Derek Carr could be a legit quarterback in the league.

32. Jacksonville (0-6): Well, there's something to be said for consistency right? Hey, you stay classy Jacksonville. Think of it this way, there's a real chance you are going to get to add some serious weapons around Blake Bortles in the next draft. And yes, they may be better than receiver Cecil Shorts. (If you were Cecil Shorts, what would the other name options be: There's Gene Shorts, which is awesome in its awesomeness, Bermuda Shorts, Short Shorts and maybe a Kenneth Shorts, who grow up to be a writer and his by line would be By Kennie Shorts... Wait for it... Thank you.)

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Autographgate, part II

photo Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston.

Hey, Jamies Winston has found controversy. Stunning, right?

So there are apparently as many as 900 signed items available for purchase through the same sports memorabilia house that has the items that put Todd Gurley in NCAA purgatory.

A large quantity of these items are sequential in authentication - an industry signal that they were signed and authenticated for the dealer rather than signed for fans than then acquired by the memorabilia dealer.

It is the latest - and potentially last - misstep in Winston's great on-the-field and gross off-the-field career that has been in cohort the things that are the best and worst about the modern college football world in which we live.

He's amazing talent with supreme gifts, but those gifts have allowed him chance after chance and we're now to the point that who can blame Winston for feeling bulletproof? Dude has had a half-dozen chances after an array of run-ins with various authorities that ranged from felonious to pranks. And almost every time the FSU football program has made sure his career - and their program - was protected. (The one time was when he made a stupid and vulgar attempt at comedy on campus.)

Now, the NCAA signing police is on the case, and in a strange twist of fate, his final act - and something that likely is on the Big 5's review panel for their new, self-serving, self-policing rulebook -may be the one that most people think should not be against the rules anyway. (We, however, stand firm in our belief that it is against the rules and to say it's a bad rule does not excuse the fact that's still a rule.)

Actually, Wintson is the NCAA's Al Capone, a career criminal who got caught on tax evasion of all things.

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This and that

- Gang, great input yesterday, and raise you hand if you believe Jomo was quite pleased with his anti-UT post. (And everyone's hands gone up... and they stay there and they stay there.) We meant to circle around and say our peace on who won the weekend. You could easily peg the state of Mississippi or the Dallas Cowboys. We'll go with the Georgia Bulldogs, who turned the page on the controversy of losing their best player and delivered the best defensive performance since maybe Erk Russell was involved. As for the weekend's loser, we'll go with NBA fans. An NBA without Kevin Durant for two months is not good for anyone.

photo United States basketball player Kevin Durant arrives to watch a women's beach volleyball match between USA and Austria.

- It will be interesting to follow the Alabama pot case, where 112 grams of marijuana and more than $4,600 in cash in tight end Kurt Frietag's dorm room. That does not seem like just a recreational stash, but what do we know? That's roughly 4 ounces of pot, and an ounce is worth roughly $700 depending on market and quality. Live free, Moon Dog.

- Some big names have landed in IR this week in the NFL. Among them are former SEC stars such as Dolphins RB Knowshon Moreno (Georgia) and Pats LB Jerod Mayo (Tennessee) and RB Stevan Ridley (LSU).

- The PGA of America has formed the "Ryder Cup Task Force" that includes three former captains, three PGA officials and five players in an effort to figure out how another Ryder wreck can be avoided. The past captains on the committee are Davis Love III (2012), Tom Lehman (2006) and Raymond Floyd (1989). Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, Steve Stricker, Jim Furyk and Rickie Fowler. (Psssttttt, old guys - we needed a couple of more guys, you know, under 40, who actually may have another decade or more in the event. We would have asked Justin Speith what his schedule was like, too.)

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Today's question

There are no wrong answers, but today is the anniversary of arguably two of the most memorable moments - especially for some large fan bases - in the last 30 years of baseball.

Today is the 22nd anniversary of Sid's Slide and of Bartman deflecting the ball at Wrigley in 2003.

Crazy, right?

What's your Rushmore of where were you baseball moments in the modern era (say, since 1985)? Mine includes Gibson for sure and Buckner and Sid's Slide for sure, and we have several candidates for the last one. Thoughts?

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