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It's a three-day event at the Wynfrey Hotel, a nice enough place enhanced by its being attached to the Riverchase Galleria. Media schlubs like yours truly will descend upon this fine venue and badger players and coaches with endless inane questions, the same questions we've been inundating you dear readers with all summer on our blogs.
Actually, this can be a fun and informative time. Last year, for instance, we learned (confirmed?) that Tim Tebow was a virgin, found out who dared snub Tebow on the coaches preseason All-SEC team (Steve Spurrier) and got to watch Dan Mullen tweet from the podium (that's, um, Twitter-speak).
Who knows what kind of earth-shattering stuff we'll learn this time around. But there are story lines aplenty, and let's look at one for each SEC team.
- Alabama: I hear in lieu of Nick Saban, his statue will make an appearance. Might be hard to tell the difference.
But seriously, the Tide is trying to defend its national championship, so we don't even have to try to find an angle with this team. And Heisman winner Mark Ingram is back. Yawn, next, please.
- Arkansas: Garnering more headlines this offseason than Ryan Mallett's arm has been Ryan Mallett's foot. The big quarterback missed spring drills after breaking said foot, but on the upside, he didn't drown his sorrows in libation, at least not publicly.
If Mallett's foot wrecks his season, expect Bobby Petrino to catch a train out of Fayetteville by mid-October.
- Auburn: Gene Chizik had a surprisingly strong debut as head coach, leading the Tigers to an 8-5 finish and victory over Northwestern in the Outback Bowl. But as long as diabolical genius Arthur Gustav Malzahn III is running the offense, Chizik won't get a whole lot of credit.
- Florida: The mighty Tebow is gone, and into his prodigious shoes steps John Brantley. He's a fine quarterback; then again, Dick Sargent was a fine actor, but "Bewitched" was never the same after Dick York left.
- Georgia: Mere days after now-former Georgia athletics director Damon Evans was arrested for DUI (while safeguarding a lady friend's unmentionables), two Bulldogs were cuffed for alcohol-related offenses.
At last year's gathering, Georgia QB Joe Cox (since graduated) said that "you're not a grown man if you're making decisions that are going to hurt your team." Looks like the Bulldogs need a few grown men.
- Kentucky: New coach Joker Phillips will try to keep the Wildcats' streak of four consecutive bowl appearances going. A New York Times college football writer called UK's bowl streak "one of the proudest accomplishments in the SEC's proud history."
He's either Looney Tunes or dead-on with that statement. Not sure which.
- LSU: This could be a crucial season for Les Miles, as far as his time in Baton Rouge is concerned. The Tigers only went 9-4 last year and finished second in the Western Division to national champion Alabama. Pathetic!
I'm sure LSU fans wouldn't mind a nice dose of perspective, as long as you mixed it with Old Crow.
- Mississippi State: Who will be the man at quarterback, Chris Relf or Tyler Russell? Or can they work in tandem to bring MSU back to respectability (and a bowl game)?
And what MSU fans really want to know: Will the referees prevent it from happening?
- Ole Miss: Maybe this won't be THE story line, but we all want to know what the Rebels think about the new mascot, right? Did Houston Nutt and his players put in their two cents?
My thought: If Stanford can have a tree for a mascot, why can't Ole Miss use a batch of kudzu?
- South Carolina: It should be noted that incumbent QB Stephen Garcia will not be one of the three players accompanying Spurrier to media days. This relationship is not going places, nor are the Gamecocks.
- Tennessee: Hi, Derek Dooley, welcome to the SEC, which is a million miles from Ruston, ain't it? I don't believe Rabb's even had a VIP section. Good luck, chief.
- Vanderbilt: This year, the SEC is allowing the Commodores to play all their games on NCAA Football 2011. An 11-year-old boy named Dylan, from Franklin, will man the controls, and his best friend Coulter will call the plays.
Brad Locke (brad.locke@djournal.com) covers Mississippi State for the Daily Journal and blogs daily at NEMS360.com.