The South has made strides in overcoming its reputation for provincialism. It has exported NASCAR, country music and bass fishing to the nation at large. It has imported tech businesses, coffee houses and pro hockey.

Then you look at the 2000 Southeastern Conference football schedule and wonder if we've backslid to the George Wallace days.

	Andrew Zow is now Alabama's QB after an injury sidelined Tyler Watts last Saturday.

SEC teams will play 132 games this year. A total of two will be played outside the traditional geographical boundaries of the South. Alabama and Mississippi State are Marco and Polo, respectively: The Crimson Tide travels to UCLA Saturday and the Bulldogs play at Brigham Young on Thursday, Sept. 14.

"It's an upgrade of our schedule, it's what our fans wanted and I think it's helped us in recruiting," Bama coach Mike DuBose said of the UCLA game.

It also qualifies as death-defying boldness in today's timid SEC. No other league team is leaving "y'all" territory. Not a single school will block or tackle north of the Mason-Dixon Line.

Travel agents across Dixie are going broke. Not only are there almost no bona fide expeditions, there are hardly any non-conference road games at all.

The league leads the free world in home games. Of the 36 non-conference games it will play in 2000, 75 percent (27) will be at home. No other league plays such a high percentage. Four SEC teams -- Arkansas, Auburn, LSU and Mississippi -- play seven home games. No other league has more than two. And only Mississippi State plays fewer than the now-standard six home games.

This is called Scheduling For Dollars. It's not terribly courageous nor exciting, but it sure is lucrative. You don't have to be Alan Greenspan to understand that more home games means more revenue. It also means more victories, which means more teams go to more bowl games and brings more cash to the conference coffers, which in turn means that more coaches can be paid 10 times the salaries of tenured professors.

In recent years, the unofficial national scheduling template for teams playing eight conference games was as follows: two home games, preferably against chumps, with one road game against a respectable opponent.

Several SEC schools have taken that one step further, ditching the respectable opponent and making the non-conference slate straight cupcakes. Arkansas opens with Southwest Missouri State. Later it hosts Boise State (which might be more dangerous than imagined when scheduled) and Louisiana-Monroe. The Razorbacks don't play a road game until Oct. 14. Auburn brings Wyoming, Northern Illinois and Louisiana Tech to the Plains. The Tigers play all 11 games in the state of Alabama or an adjoining state.

In the 1990s LSU played the likes of Florida State, Texas A&M and Notre Dame. In 2000 it hosts Western Carolina, Houston and UAB. Ole Miss brings in Tulane, Arkansas State and UNLV. It doesn't play Florida or Tennessee anywhere. No wonder they're talking about winning 10 games in Oxford.

With scheduling like this, you don't have to be Beano Cook to predict seven or eight SEC schools will reach the bowl-eligible six victories. Nine SEC teams play at home this week, and all 12 are favored.

Call it the Kansas State Effect if you wish. The Wildcats built their program on the backs of I-AA schools and I-A dregs brought to Manhattan as cannon fodder. But K-State was a true football wasteland when it started scheduling that way. SEC schools don't have the same excuse.

True, football revenues are instrumental to the SEC's non-revenue sports successes. These home games help fund the league's powerful baseball, track, gymnastics, swimming, golf and tennis programs.

But wouldn't it be nice if every team mixed in a name non-league opponent once per calendar year? And maybe even went somewhere exotic -- like north of the Ohio River -- once in a while?

Is that too much to ask from a league that likes to call itself the nation's best?

Around the SEC
Alabama: Coach Mike DuBose said Andrew Zow is his starting quarterback, but backup Tyler Watts is a strong No. 2 and should see action. In other words, same situation as last year. ... DuBose anticipates taking three place kickers to Los Angeles and will make a "gametime decision" on which he'll use. A missed extra point help cost the Tide the Orange Bowl last season.

Arkansas: The Hogs are falling on their sword this week, imposing scholarship cuts for violating the NCAA's extra-benefits rules. The SEC found that at least 20 players received more than fair market wages for work done for Dallas booster Ted Harrod. Arkansas plans to cut three initial scholarships in 2001 and two more in 2002. Defensive end Randy Garner, the only current player involved in the infractions, has been suspended for the Hogs' opener against Southwest Missouri State. "It's a big blow," coach Houston Nutt told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. ... Star sophomore running back Cedric Cobbs can expect the football early and often, despite opening up against Southwest Missouri and Boise State. He won't be babied. "It's time to play," said Nutt. "We're guaranteed 11 games, so we're going to hand him the ball and get things going."

Auburn: The Tigers have been a positively wimpy short-yardage team in recent years, lacking the muscle to pick up first downs on third-and-one or fourth-and-one. That could change this season with 230-pound junior-college import Rudi Johnson teaming with 250-pounder Heath Evans behind QB Ben Leard. "We're not going to outrun a lot of people," coach Tommy Tuberville said. "But as the game goes on I think we're going to wear on some people pretty good." ... Sophomore Damon Duval will handle both the punting and kicking duties again this year and hopes to improve the latter while maintaining the former. Duval was third in the SEC in punting at 42.9 yards per kick but struggled with his placements. "We all forget that he was a freshman, including myself," Tuberville said.

LSU: Nick Saban has named Josh Booty as his starting quarterback against Western Carolina over Rohan Davey, but said Davey will play. Davey sat out the spring with a knee injury. "Josh has made a significant amount of improvement every day," Saban said. "He's made an outstanding commitment to getting better and getting the team to rally around him."... Tigers fans are among the most fervent in America -- at least until they're given something to complain about. When LSU went to sell 70 new luxury suites costing from $35,000 to $95,000 a year, 66 sold the first day. Tiger Stadium has now been expanded to 91,600 seats.

Mississippi: The state of Louisiana has probably inflicted the greatest gridiron distress on Mississippi of any state -- specifically, LSU star Billy Cannon's punt return on Halloween Night 1959 that denied the Rebels an undefeated season. But lately Ole Miss has had the last laugh. The Rebs have won three straight against LSU and eight straight against their opponent Saturday, Tulane. They've also won the last two Independence Bowls, played in Shreveport, La. ...Quarterback Romaro Miller is making the 22nd start of his college career on Saturday. By the end of the season he could own most of the school's passing records. He's currently fifth in career passing yards and total offense.

Mississippi State: The Bulldogs open at Memphis, which has not been an impediment in the past. Jackie Sherrill has beaten the Tigers six straight and is 3-0 in road openers. ... State strength coach Mike Grant is starting to earn a reputation with his unorthodox training methods, which include truck pushing, rope climbing and performing situps with logs on the players' midsections. There's also the occasional two-mile jog across campus at 6 a.m. "Our players like Mike, because Mike's right there doing it with them," Sherrill said.

Florida: Mega-touted freshman Brock Berlin will not start at quarterback against Ball State but will not be redshirted, Steve Spurrier said. Jessie Palmer is the starter, backed up by Berlin and redshirt freshman Rex Grossman. "We plan on playing three quarterbacks this week, if everything goes well," Spurrier said. Ball State, 0-11 last year, figures to comply. ... Spurrier on what he wants to see Saturday: "We're going in working on trying to play well, trying to play hard and play smart. Things we haven't done so well the past couple of years."

Georgia: Fallout from a player phone-card scam apparently will cost the Bulldogs five players Saturday against I-AA Georgia Southern. Included in that group are defensive starters Richard Seymour (tackle), Charles Grant (end) and Kendrell Bell (linebacker). Two others suspended by the school will miss a later game, and on Monday senior receiver Michael Greer was suspended five games for an unrelated (and unspecified) violation of team rules. "We're a wounded animal right now," coach Jim Donnan said. ... Donnan expressed frustration with the league office in determining which games players can sit out: "Every day they tell us a different way we can utilize these suspensions. We had a lot of problems there discussing what the rule really is."

Kentucky: The Wildcats debut their jumbo quarterback at arch-rival Louisville, 275-pound (at least) redshirt freshman Jared Lorenzen. (Scuttlebutt says Lorenzen actually hit the scales at 295 when he reported for fall camp.) One of his backups is true freshman Shane Boyd, who reported at a hefty 238 pounds himself. "If he (Boyd) keeps eating, he might weigh enough to play here one day," coach Hal Mumme joked. ... Mumme, who presented himself as Mr. Laidback during his first three years at UK, lost that title this fall by shutting the media and fans out of practice and refusing to speak to reporters for two weeks. When he finally made himself available in a Monday press conference, Mumme said, "I've missed you guys -- I really have."

South Carolina: The Gamecocks might lead the nation in urgency this Saturday, as they seek to end a horrific 21-game losing streak, longest in the nation. But coach Lou Holtz is trying to maintain perspective: "Every game is a must game, you approach it that way. But by the same token, this isn't going to solve the Mideast crisis." ... Holtz said the commonly held truth during his tenure at Notre Dame was that the Fighting Irish got every team's A game. Now he's not so sure. "They really get fired up to play South Carolina, because they think they can beat the daylights out of us. And in the past, that has proven to be true."

Tennessee: How young are the Volunteers? Two offensive linemen will start in their first college game: sophomore Anthony Herrera, who was not eligible to play last year; and Michael Munoz, a true freshman and the son of Hall of Famer Anthony Munoz. In all, 17 players on the 44-man two-deep roster have been with the program two years or less, including seven true freshmen. ... The quarterback position, in the sure hands of Peyton Manning and Tee Martin the past six years, falls Saturday to sophomore Joey Mathews and freshman A.J. Suggs, but multipurpose player Erick Locke might get a few snaps there as well. Locke is listed as a wide receiver but could line up at QB in the shotgun as well. "He gives us a different look offensively," coach Phil Fulmer said. "He's been quite dynamic. And he's not just a runner, he's a passer."

Vanderbilt: It's been a tumultuous week for the Commodores, who had one player survive a 90-foot fall down an elevator shaft and lost two defensive stars to university-imposed suspensions for NCAA violations. (Yes, at Vandy). Freshman linebacker Luke Hammond is in critical but stable condition and had his spleen removed after falling while trying to climb out of a stopped elevator. "It's a miracle he wasn't killed," coach Woody Widenhofer said. Widenhofer was less upbeat about the loss of All-America linebacker Jamie Winborn and cornerback Jimmy Williams for two games apiece for receiving free financial planning advice and help with establishing individual lines of credit from a bank. Athletic director Todd Turner said Winborn and Williams were guaranteed credit lines through Vandy alumni without their knowledge. The NCAA may investigate further and assess its own penalties.