Just going to repeat yesterday’s MACtion preview caption here: “Behold Jordan Lynch. Fear Jordan Lynch.” (AP)

• Northern Illinois 31, Toledo 24. We do so love what’s become an annual late-season scramble for division supremacy between the Huskies and Rockets, and last night’s contest did not disappoint. The Huskies, who have won 10 games for the third straight year, will represent the MAC West in Detroit for the third consecutive season, and will face either Kent State or Bowling Green once they get there. Quarterback Jordan Lynch threw for 407 yards (a career best) and rushed for 162 more. No, by himself. No, seriously. Lynch was sent here by the football gods to make sure we all properly appreciate MACtion for the weeknight blessing it is. Message received. [BOX | RECAP]

• Ball State 52, Ohio 27. The Bobcats trailed by four points heading into halftime and were nearly doubled up by the end of the game, thanks mostly to a 21-point fourth-quarter scoring barrage from the Cardinals. Ball State scored three touchdowns in less than nine minutes on a Horactio Banks run, a Kelly Page pass and a Jahwan Edwards run. Page replaced starter Keith Wenning, who left the game in the second quarter with an Achilles injury. Also, this happened. [BOX | RECAP]

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John L. Smith, SEC Media Days champion. (Landov)

We get asked a lot why we bother with SEC Media Days. Occasionally, we wonder ourselves. But every year we skip could mean missing out on the next Robbie Caldwell, which in 2012 happened to be Arkansas’ new head ballcoach. He tops our 2012 SEC Media Days Power Rankings:

1.  John L. “Johnelle” “John-El” Smith: He shook hands with the cameramen. He openly ridiculed questions at the podium. He introduced a nation to the slogan “GET YOUR PISS HOT.” He has extremely expressive hands, which we have named Butterscotch and Flibbertigibbey. Are we overly susceptible to folksiness? Probably. Do we care? Not a fig. LSU-Arkansas 2012 just morphed into a buddy-cop movie where both leads are the loose cannon on the force. Not a by-the-book buttoned-down type in sight, and we can hardly wait.

2. T.J. Moe: Mizzou’s leading receiver brought a rare burst of logic to the dreaded “how excited are you” question: ”We’re as excited as anybody. We’re the ones that actually have to go out there and do it.” Oh, and then he went and said this:

Mizzou’s T.J. Moe on SEC: “They say girls are prettier here, air’s fresher & toilet paper is thicker”

— Brett McMurphy (@McMurphyCBS) July 17, 2012

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Mark Richt’s giant likeness smiles beatifically at Mark Richt during the final round of interviews at SEC Media Days.

Mark Richt lamented the possibility of a playoff taking away from college football’s regular season. (AP)

HOOVER, Ala. — Tomorrow’s headlines today! Has Mark Richt lost control of Aaron Murray? Spoiler alert: He has not. Richt’s star quarterback won’t be appearing at SEC Media Days this year, owing to a prior commitment to help out at an Elite 11 camp. (Just putting this right up top in case any falsely inflated scooter-related arrest stories pop up later.)

Other highlights from Richt’s Q&A session, which was the final interview at Media Days (sometimes the snow comes down in June, y’all):

• Richt went on to basically call Murray a nerd, at least in terms of football: ”I think he loves preparing as much as he loves playing.”

• On the emerging playoff system and the value of the regular season: “I just hate to see a day where we might play Florida, and whether you win or lose, you still go to the playoffs, no one thinks it’s that big of a deal.  It is a big deal every game we play.  I don’t want college football to lose that.”

• On UGA’s strict-for-football drug infractions policy and whether he’s lobbied for stricter punishment standards within the league: “I think every university has the right to decide what’s in the best interest of their students. [...] When a guy makes a mistake, you want to stick him.  You want to hopefully have a discipline that would teach a lesson and be painful enough to where they wouldn’t want to do it in the future.”

• On the possibility of Malcolm Mitchell playing both ways: They’re trying to make it work, but he’s staying in all the defensive meetings so as not to disrupt Todd Grantham’s schemes. Yes: even Mark Richt fears angering Todd Grantham.

Hugh Freeze’s Ole Miss Rebels were the butt of the joke at SEC Media Days. (AP)

HOOVER, Ala. — Hugh Freeze and his program have suffered more slights from other coaches this year at SEC Media Days than have any of his peers. Most everybody here expends painful amounts of energy trying to be polite, so “more slights” in this case means “two.” Reminded by some of our fellow media chuckleheads that Dan Mullen called Starkville the best college town in the country and Steve Spurrier openly wished his Gamecocks could play Ole Miss instead of LSU, Freeze tap-danced smoothly past the possibility of bulletin-board material.

On Oxford as a college town, and specifically as a recruiting tool, Freeze had a fine retort prepared: “Have you been there?” And regarding Spurrier’s remarks: ”We will circle that date [the Rebels rotate back onto South Carolina's schedule in 2013] and maybe look forward to changing his perspective of what he thinks about Ole Miss football.” On days like this, we wish they could put three or four of the coaches up onstage at a time, just to jaw at each other.

Derek Dooley feels better about Tennessee’s 2012 squad than his first two teams in Knoxville. (AP)

HOOVER, Ala. – ”As if these weren’t painful enough, they added a couple more of us.” Derek Dooley took the stage at SEC Media Days with his typical grim humor, but professed to be more confident in his Tennessee Volunteers than in his first two seasons.

“It’s been a tough four years in Tennessee,” Dooley said. “The SEC has enjoyed taking advantage of our tough times.” But while he won’t say the Vols have arrived, ”I feel better today about where we are as a program than at any point since I’ve been in Knoxville. And I mean that.”

“For the first time, we have a solid roster. We have a full 85 on scholarship. We have 19 starters back.” Dooley cited the offensive line as a “microcosm” of the rest of the team: Two years ago Tennessee fielded a combined three starts on the offensive line; it has a combined 106 heading into 2012.

One notable exception is projected starting left tackle Tiny Richardson (whom you might remember from our spring visit to Knoxville), who exceeded Dooley’s expectations in spring prep but “hasn’t been out in the fire yet,” said Dooley. “He hasn’t been sitting there on third-and-eight … he’s gonna have some growing pains.” How much bigger a 6-foot-6, 329-pound lineman can expect to grow is perhaps best left to the imagination. Then again, reminded Dooley, when considering the freshmen-laden rosters Tennessee has worked with the past couple seasons, as a rising sophomore Richardson is “really a wily veteran.”

Nick Saban spoke in favor of a nine-game SEC schedule at Thursday’s Media Days presser. (AP)

HOOVER, Ala. — There’s a surprisingly tiny throng of coach devotees in the lobby this morning, especially considering Alabama’s slot in the first rotation of interviews. The obvious question: Are Alabama fans growing tired of Nick Saban? It has been more than six months since the Tide won a national title. Just something to think very, very seriously about.

Saban always begins his SEC Media Days appearances by thanking the media, with an appearance of sincerity we’re not sure we could manage in his position. Even his gripes go down smooth: ”The fact that they moved this up a week made me have a great summer, and I hope you had a great summer.” He made this sound completely genuine. This is his power. Highlights from Saban’s early Q&A session:

• BIG BREAKING NEWS: Alabama has had “a really good offseason.” The Tide have some really good football players. You might have heard about some of them!

• ALSO BREAKING: “We’ve had a lot of national exposure that has really enhanced our program.” Saban credited ‘Bama’s high-profile neutral site games with raising the Tide’s national profile.

• Gary Pinkel, beware: Saban knows you informed the general public that you are younger than he is. Saban paid brief tribute to the league’s older coaches, saying he looks up to Steve Spurrier and explaining why he doesn’t wear a visor like Spurrier’s on the sideline: ”I’m afraid I’d throw it.” Nick Saban’s thrown visors could be shredded and sold as religious artifacts for a lot of money, it goes without saying.

• Iron Bowl mayhem aficionados, don’t worry, Saban was talking about his assistants here: “The idea that you have to dislike somebody to compete against them is not something I’ve ever bought into.”

• Saban is in favor of moving to a nine-game conference schedule, ensuring that every team plays every other team at least once in a four-year span. And a parting shot at the criteria for playoff-eligible teams: Saban said proponents of limiting playoff participation to conference champions are “against the SEC” and “against conferences with more than one good team.” We hope that clears things up.

LSU’s Les Miles called Twitter a “fine, pleasant pastime” during his Media Days appearance. (AP)

HOOVER, Ala. — Les Miles, it will not surprise you to hear, opened his session onstage at SEC Media Days by talking about fast-pitch softball and other pleasures of softball. Moving on!

• On his now-famous “You’re like a son. A Tiger son.” ad: “The lines were narrow so that I could perform them effectively.” Miles praised Mike the Tiger for “working the camera.”

• On Tyrann Mathieu’s highly emotive social media tendencies: “I do recognize that there’s some verbal squabble, if you will, at times.” Miles isn’t about to ban his players from Twitter, however: “I will tell you that no game is won on the Twitter page. It’s a fine, pleasant pastime, like Media Days.”

• On the also pleasant pastime of playing an SEC West schedule: ”We play everybody but the Green Bay Packers.” No word on what Miles or the LSU administration has to fear from the Green Bay Packers.

Gene Chizik leaned heavily on the “dangs” in discussing new SEC teams Texas A&M and Missouri. (AP)

HOOVER, Ala. — For as long as he’s been in the SEC, Gene Chizik has displayed an amazing skill for not only dealing in the most fluent coachspeakisms, but for dispensing them so quickly and seamlessly that the overall effect is one of sitting in front of a wave machine. A wave machine wearing a particularly dapper pinstriped suit.

From his opening statement on the second day of SEC Media Days, we recall only that Chizik opened by giving thanks for the public outpouring of support following the June shootings that claimed the lives of two former Auburn football players. Everything after that is just a soothing blur. Until!

“These are two dang good football teams with dang good football coaches.” In complimenting the two newest additions to the SEC, Chizik leaned hard on the “dangs.”  This may have been a coded swipe at Kevin Sumlin and his DAMNs. We cannot be sure, but it’s such a perfect example of that coded blessyourheart/backstab combo move that makes this conference great that we’re calling it anyway.

Joker Phillips isn’t running from Kentucky’s basketball success; he’s embracing it. (AP)

HOOVER, Ala. — In the thankless slot before lunchtime on the longest of SEC Media Days, they scheduled the guy with the up-hilliest job in the SEC. Highlights from Joker Phillips’ time at the mic:

• Phillips talked up the Wildcats’ streak of postseason appearances. In football! Kentucky once put together a five-bowl streak in the twenty-first century. FIVE. This might astonish you, but it is an actual fact. Three Music Cities, a Liberty and a BBVA Compass. The ‘Cats are 3-2 in those games.

• A really interesting question: Did Kentucky winning the national title in basketball this year reinforce the second-class status of the football team at UK? As a native Kentuckian and alum, Phillips said he has no reason to separate himself from basketball. ”I’m selling our basketball program. I’d be crazy to try to fight that.” He described the schools’ hoops prowess as a boon overall for the athletic department. ”We want to hitch our wagon to our basketball program. Who doesn’t want to see those guys play?”

• The inevitable hot seat question popped up, but Phillips had a response at the ready: “I’m not sitting down right now. There’s nothing hot.”