That Way-Too-Early Top 25 with Indiana and Texas Tech up there, and us sitting back in the pack, just makes me think about what the SEC has become. We used to have a real conference, with real rivalries that meant something for decades. Now it’s just a colllection of brands from all over the map, and the schedule feels like a random draw. I remember when playing Tennessee in October was a season-defining event, not just another game before we fly out to play some school from a different time zone. The soul of the sport was in those regional grudges, and they sold it all for television money. It’s a sterile, corporate league now, and no amount of portal acquisitions can replace that history they threw away.