No-brag Saturday

The alma mater did not pull off the grand upset again, though it made a kid named Michael Penix Jr. play hero ball to beat it. That's the update from Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, where the Blob went to watch his Ball State Cardinals give the old college try in a 34-24 loss to Indiana, and where the Blob also failed to pass Fight Song 101.

Which is to say, it doesn't know the lyrics any better than it ever did. As far the Blob knows, the lyrics consist of "Ball State, Ball State, Baaalll State," endlessly repeated.

(Michael Penix Jr., by the way, looks like an actual quarterback for IU. He's got an arm that ought to require nuclear launch codes, and he can run a little, too. Of course, this being Indiana, it would help if he had some receivers who could catch the football -- IU had four straight-up drops yesterday -- and a defense that didn't get pushed around by a MAC offense. But we'll see what transpires.)

Anyway ... this is not about Ball State or Indiana or the Blob ("Sure looks that way," you're saying), but about the first Saturday of the college football season. And mainly it's about the ongoing myth that the SEC is the greatest football conference in the history of football conferences, on account of Paul Feinbaum says so and, lookie here, we got us a a private network with ESPN.

The Blob's position is the SEC is Alabama and Georgia and maybe Florida and LSU, and then a whole lot of Conference USA. Let's got to the tape:

* Speaking of the aforementioned, 'Bama warmed up with a 42-3 ball-peening of Duke. Georgia handled SEC doormat Vanderbilt 30-6. Florida outlasted Miami 24-20. And LSU did what LSU is supposed to do to Georgia Southern, winning 55-7.

Ah, but then ...

* But then, there was this:

South Carolina lost to North Carolina, which was 2-9 last season and supposed to be a tuneup.

Tennessee was stunned at home by Georgia State, which was 2-10 last season.

Wyoming beat Missouri. Memphis beat Ole Miss. Arkansas wheezed past FCS Portland State by a touchdown.

The only thing saving the Greatest Football Conference In The Entire History Of Football Conferences was a freshman quarterback with the totally southern quarterback name of Bo Nix. Ol' Bo threw a touchdown pass with nine seconds to go to beat Oregon, one of the premier powers in the Pac-12. So good on ol' Bo.

Of course, this gave Auburn running back JaTarvious Whitlow the opportunity to do a little typical SEC loudmouthing, saying there's no way Auburn could let some sadsack like Oregon come in and beat an SEC school, because who was Oregon, anyway?

 "Nobody wanted to lose to Oregon," Whitlow said. "What are they, ACC? Pac-12? I didn't even know what they were. A Pac-12 team coming in and beating an SEC team, we can't take that."

Well, sure. I mean, it's not like they were Georgia State or anything.

Right?