Great Article..

Rich get richer
South Carolina's rise gives SEC yet another top team

When Steve Spurrier's South Carolina Gamecocks went into Sanford Stadium last Saturday and took down Georgia, it further confirmed just how tough the Southeastern Conference is this season. And by tough I mean ridiculously deep.

Coming into the season, there were six consensus teams that appeared in nearly every preseason top 25 poll -- Florida, LSU, Tennessee, Georgia, Auburn and Arkansas. It says something about your league when two coaches with national-title rings, Spurrier and Alabama's Nick Saban, happen to be coaching what are considered the seventh- and eighth-best teams in the conference.

Of course, conference predictions rarely shake out as predicted, and it was only inevitable that at least one of the predicted outsiders (in this case, South Carolina) would prove to be better than expected and at least one of the touted teams would tank. We don't know yet which team(s) that will be, but Tennessee, Georgia and Auburn all have a loss already.

Saban's Crimson Tide -- which put together an impressive defensive performance in last week's 24-10 win over Vanderbilt -- have a chance to make their own statement on Saturday against Arkansas. Throw in high-powered Kentucky, which will do its best to outscore in-state rival (and equally defensively challenged) Louisville this weekend, and you've got as many as nine teams that could make an appearance in the rankings at some point.

Now, at least a couple of these teams will turn out to be frauds (with Auburn and Arkansas my current leaders in the clubhouse), but I'm guessing South Carolina won't be one of them. Most of us assumed that by this, the third year of Spurrier's tenure in Columbia, that the Gamecocks would have morphed into a high-flying passing team as is Spurrier's forte. But to the Ball Coach's credit, he's recognized his team's true strength rests with its defense and is game-planning accordingly. Against the Bulldogs, South Carolina jumped to an early lead, then kept Georgia's defense on its toes throughout with an efficient mix of runs and high-percentage passes (QB Blake Mitchell finished 20-of-31 for 174 yards). It was Spurrier doing what he does best: calling the right plays.

Spurrier's team debuts at No. 18 in this week's Power Rankings, while Georgia -- which, in retrospect, I prematurely bumped to the top 10 last week following an impressive opener against Oklahoma State -- falls to 20th. Expect both to remain part of the mix the rest of the season, though with no shortage of jostling as they take turns both knocking off and getting knocked off by their comparable SEC peers.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/stewart_mandel/09/11/power.rankings3/