FanHouse Mike Hartline

SEC presidents, athletic directors, coaches and other administrators had the opportunity to celebrate another banner year for the league during its spring meetings in April.

While that euphoria will certainly carry over into the three-day Football Media Days that start Wednesday in Hoover, Ala., the spotlight will be focused on the sport that has single-handedly raised the national profile of the SEC.

And made it plenty of loot, too.

Finally, it's time to talk football.

FanHouse on Scene: Join us for SEC Media Days Live Blog at 2:30PM ET

Wednesday, the annual circus known as the SEC Media Days kicks off in Birmingham, Ala. As college football has become a year-round sport, the three media days down in Birmingham have become the official launch date for SEC football fans, a time when our region's football obsession officially begins anew. Even if, you know, it never actually dies. Last season then-Tennessee coach Phil Fulmer arrived and was immediately served with a subpoena in a lawsuit brought by my favorite people on Earth: disassociated Alabama boosters. Getting disassociated from the Alabama football program is like being the only guy in a prison who no one will share a table with.

This season, 25 radio stations will be broadcasting live from inside the event, and over 800 members of the media have been credentialed. It's like Woodstock for people who use the word, goll-durn. And we'll be there for the ride. Goll-durn.

Today the SEC released the Coaches' Preseason Football Team. There were three unanimous selections: Tennessee safety Eric Berry, LSU offensive lineman Ciron Black, and Alabama wide receiver Julio Jones. Noticing something surprising? Yep, someone didn't vote for Florida quarterback Tim Tebow. And before you throw Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt under the bus, assuming he voted for his player, Jevan Snead, over Tebow, keep this in mind, coaches weren't allowed to vote for their own players. So presumably someone other than Nutt left Tebow off the first team.

Wow.

But that's not even the most surprising detail.

Poor phrasing, I know -- our headlines cannot be widowed, as they say in the industry. Let me try and save this sinking ship of an entry: Kentucky has dismissed (we're over the limit for use of the term "booted" at FanHouse today) would-be starting quarterback Curtis Pulley, seen at right having his lunch money taken away.

Why? Wildcat coach Rich Brooks only deigns to hint as to why.

"There is basically a little more as I delved into it than I was aware of at the time,'' Brooks said.

That could mean anything. What we do know is that "at the time" Pulley was merely in the doghouse for a series of run-ins with the law including traffic charges and a citation for marijuana possession. Anyway, out the hook came to drag Pulley off stage and into the likely abyss of "Football Championship Subdivision" football. Who wants to play D-I football anyway?

Insert new starter Mike Hartline at his disingenuous best.

"But in the end it's all about what you have and how you plan to move on. Since he's not on our team anymore, it's tragic and everybody wants him on our team, but we can't really dwell on it."

The Andre Woodson era is over, and I gotta believe people in Vegas are now in a mad scramble to unload whatever minimal investment they've put into Kentucky football this year.