The Checklist
Posted October 4th, 2009, 8:26 AM ET

We've played a month into the college football season, and I'm still trying to get a handle on the lay of the Southern Fried landscape.

The ACC, SEC, SoCon and even the East Carolina Pirates have been hard to figure out.

Let's start with the SEC.

We all knew Florida and Bama were loaded, and they both appear to be headed for a showdown in the ATL during championship week in December. The Gators and Tide will absolutely get a litmus test this upcoming weekend, as they both travel to hostile locales in Baton Rouge and Oxford, respectively.

Somehow, you get the feeling that they are destined for a rematch of last year's thriller....Florida can still use a playmaker at WR, and Bama will have to survive the tougher Western side of the bracket.

The rest of the conference appears to have slipped slightly, by their own lofty standard. Don't get me wrong; the SEC will still have a say-so in the national title and conference-strength debate, but even the most ardent SEC football fans will agree that this is somewhat of a down year for the league.

LSU is good, but not worthy of being ranked 4th in the country. But they will provide plenty of obstacles for top-ranked Florida this week, at Tiger Stadium.

Georgia, Auburn, South Carolina and Ole Miss all appear to be Top 25 caliber teams, but none of them look like Top 15 teams. Granted, those are 7 teams that are worthy of being ranked....it's impressive, but the SEC is not loaded with the typical three or four Top 10 worthy teams like we've seen in the past.

Everyone else is picking up the pieces. Arkansas is probably the best of the remaining lot, as Bobby Petrino has one of the league's better QB's, Ryan Mallet. Tennessee has been loaded with great Lane Kiffin quotes, but the Vols are an average team, and the Vandy, Kentucky, Mississippi State trio have nothing to offer.

The ACC is a mess....but somehow, we knew that going into the season.

The conference has been searching for national respect, but it doesn't seem like they are making any strides. But there is good news coming from a team that has been relatively dormant since joining the league.

Ladies and gentlemen, introducing ...."The U".

Welcome back, Miami. Where have you been hiding, all these years?

The Canes are off to an impressive and improbable 3-1 start. Not bad, given the fact that they played the toughest schedule in America to start things off. Granted, their only loss was a blowout to the ACC's best team, Virginia Tech in Blacksburg.

Between the Hokies and Canes, the league looks like they have two teams that they can count on. The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets might be the best of the rest...but that's not saying much.

The rest of the ACC is downright brutal. Take your pick, from the rest of the lot; sometimes they'll surprise you, most of the time they'll embarrass you. Of the nine remaining teams; Boston College, Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Maryland, NC State, UNC, Virginia and Wake, would you trust any of them?

Not me.

Florida State, North Carolina and Clemson have been disappointing, so far....but they are all capable of winning games in this league, due to its complete unpredictability.

N.C. State takes one step forward, one step backwards, too.

Some fans enjoy the helter-skelter; I just wish some of these programs would step up and become consistent winners.

Both Appalachian State and East Carolina have teased us, too.

Since they met each other in the season opener in Greenville, both teams gave us something to scratch our heads about. ECU jumped out to a 24-0 lead before ASU generated their initial first down. But by the end of the game, ASU fans felt better about their team, as they pushed ECU to the brink.

The season so far has fallen into that same mode.

ECU is 3-2, but has issues all over the field. Patrick Pinkney has been inconsistent, and their defense falls into lulls, too. The good news is that the defending CUSA champs are 2-0 in conference play, despite struggling on both sides of the ball.

App State, after an 0-2 start, still finds ways to win with the dynamic Armanti Edwards. The defending SoCon champs are finding ways to win, even though they appear to have issues, too.

What does all of this mean?

Keep watching....we're just starting to get to the good stuff. October is here, the weather is turning a little chilly, and the ball is going to start bouncing in some strange directions.