It began Wednesday in the Wynfrey Hotel lobby in Hoover, Ala. The start of Southeastern Conference football media days still more than two hours away, more than 300 Alabama fans already were stuffing the place, their arms overflowing with footballs, helmets, shirts, stuffed elephants and ballcaps, and enough Sharpies to have all items permanently signed.
"What makes the SEC special?" said ESPN.com columnist Pat Forde. "Start in that lobby. I've covered every other league media day but the Big East over the years, and nothing comes close to this."
The numbers overwhelmingly support that statement. A quick call this past week to media relations directors of the Big 12, Big Ten and Atlantic Coast conferences found not a single one of those leagues expecting as many as 400 to attend their preseason football media gatherings.
The SEC hosted more than 1,000.
But it's the fans those sports writers, broadcasters and bloggers attempt to inform and entertain that make the league SECond to none.
Forde recalled seeing a Crimson Tide loyalist asleep on a Wynfrey lobby sofa, his fingers wrapped around a Sharpie, his autograph dreams no doubt centered on Bama boss Nick Saban.
"You know he was just waiting on Saint Nick," Forde continued. "This is Christmas Eve for these folks."
There's a point to be made there, if not three or four. Summer and summer interests - cookouts, swimming, boating, gardening, quality family time - pretty much ended for a lot of Southerners when media days began.
"Oh, I'm ready now," Florida fan Kevin Payne said as he strolled through Hamilton Place on Saturday with his wife Amy and infant daughter.
Said Amy: "We have to stay at home all the time on Saturdays during football so he won't miss anything,"
Added the 29-year-old Payne, tugging at the Gators cap atop his head: "I've never been to a game in the Swamp, but I saw them win in Tallahassee two years ago. Everybody's worried about losing (quarterback) Tim Tebow, but John Brantley's going to be just fine. I don't think we'll lose but once all season, maybe to Alabama in the SEC title game."
That scenario, of course, is pretty much how the media picked it in Hoover. The one shocker was Kentucky being chosen fourth in the SEC East over fifth-place Tennessee.
Given that UK hasn't beaten the Vols since 1984 and that this year's game is in Knoxville, we in the media should probably be under more scrutiny than BP.
Then there's Vanderbilt interim coach Robbie Caldwell, who may have had an even better week than Shirley Sherrod.
No one much outside the VU coaching staff and offensive linemen knew who Caldwell was before media days, given that he'd been in charge of the Commodores about one week after Bobby Johnson's shocking retirement.
But after delivering more down-home Southern humor to his print media session than Jeff Foxworthy and Jerry Clower combined, Caldwell dialed down the temperature on his whoopee cushion from broiler to warming drawer.
One example: Caldwell's first paying job was inseminating turkeys. That led to further duties involving our Thanksgiving friends. Or as Caldwell said, "If I told some of these ladies what they put in lipstick - oh, my goodness. I debeaked, blood-tested, vaccinated."
Tough as Alabama figures to be in defending its national championship, the Red Elephants could be detusked by a schedule that even Auburn coach Gene Chizik might have felt guilty about.
Not only must the Tide travel to Arkansas, South Carolina, Tennessee and LSU, but they must host Penn State on Sept. 11 and Florida on Oct. 2.
There's also a potential hiccup at Duke the week after the Nittany Lions visit. Former UT assistant David Cutcliffe went to Alabama but never was seriously considered as head coach there on at least three occasions when it came open. Think he wouldn't like to prove his alma mater wrong?
Tough as Alabama is, its schedule might be tough enough to deny the Tide a third straight trip to the SEC title game.
All of which leads us to Arkansas, with its 18 returning starters, including quarterback Ryan Mallett, and huge home games against Bama and LSU.
Yes, road games at Georgia, Auburn and South Carolina are a bear, but the Razorbacks dodge Florida and never play two straight league games on the road.
Morever, the following quote from Mallett should shake up opposing defensive coordinators everywhere.
Of the need to improve his .558 completion percentage from 2009, he said, "If I just take what I do in practice to the game, we might (complete) 100 percent every game."
If that happens, no one will need to borrow some of Caldwell's lipstick to make the Hogs pretty enough to win the SEC. Instead, they just might celebrate Christmas a wee bit early in the Ozarks by dethroning Saint Nick.
E-mail Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com