Skip to main content
Thursday, November 12, 2026Nov 12

Greeson: College picks with hopes of championship-level entertainment

Alabama offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin calls a play while head coach Nick Saban looks on. Jay Greeson writes that the SEC title game is so predictable, the only drama will be which comes first, Verne mispronouncing someone's name or Saban getting irritated at Kiffin.
Alabama offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin calls a play while head coach Nick Saban looks on. Jay Greeson writes that the SEC title game is so predictable, the only drama will be which comes first, Verne mispronouncing someone's name or Saban getting irritated at Kiffin. Alabama offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin calls a play while head coach Nick Saban looks on. Jay Greeson writes that the SEC title game is so predictable, the only drama will be which comes first, Verne mispronouncing someone's name or Saban getting irritated at Kiffin.

Hope your Thanksgiving was entertaining, and if you followed our recipe, it should have been.

Winners on four of seven holiday picks proved to be an entertainment payday. And we were thankful.

Still, it was a bittersweet success because two of our losses were tried and true friends of the show. The total on a Vanderbilt game went over for the first time this year after Tennessee opened up a can of whip cream on a Commodores defense that was exhausted from a valiant season-long effort. The other painful loss was Navy, which went to Houston and got ambushed in a way we did not expect.

Still, plucking some winners from rivalry games – Oklahoma and Ole Miss – made for an entertaining return. (That said, here’s hoping you exploited the early Christmas gift last week that was Florida State minus-3 against Florida. Egad. More on that in a moment.)

Now we head to conference championship weekend, and with a limited schedule we are forced to search extra hard for potential entertainment. Let’s explore.