The difference between the over-ballyhooed SEC and the WAC and MWC is that schools in the latter two conferences are generally willing to play anyone, anywhere, while most big-name SEC schools like, I daresay, Florida, usually play eight games at home, and rarely if ever play a road game more than one time zone away from home.

(To be fair, LSU did play at Washington in September to open its 2009 season, and Alabama did play at Hawaii in 2003 and 2004.)

I mean, when was the last time you saw the Gators play a non-conference regular season road game either north of the Ohio or west of the Mississippi? Only last season, Georgia embarked on its longest road trip in over 40 years when the Bulldogs flew 1,700 miles nonstop from nearby Atlanta to play at Arizona State. To hear Georgia coaches subsequently whine about that apparently ghastly experience, you'd have thought the entire team and entourge had been compelled to travel by wagon train.

In 2007, eventual WAC champ Hawaii was roundly criticized by more than a few pundits for having Northern Colorado and Charleston Southern on its non-conference schedule. But what most of those same critics failed to even acknowledge was that those schools were actually last-minute replacement games. Both Michigan and Michigan State pulled out of contracted games with the Warriors only six months prior to the start of the 2007 season, the latter paying UH $500,000 for the privilege.

Presumably, neither school wanted any part of the UH passing attack, which in the prior season under QB Colt Brennan shredded opponents' defenses like knives through butter. The Warriors' 2006 schedule, in addition to WAC powers Boise State and Fresno State, included such powder-puff BCS schools as Alabama, Purdue, Oregon State and Arizona State.

Funny, but I don't hear much if any criticism of Florida for having scheduled the very same Div. I-AA Charleston Southern as its home opener this season. Pundits in the know instead just oohed and awed at how awesomely awesome the totally awesome Gators looked in their most awesomely easy 62-3 win.