OK, very few people saw this Missouri thing coming, but with half the SEC football season behind us, regardless of how they got there, almost everyone is where we expected.

Alabama is unbeaten. LSU is 6-1, having lost at Georgia in a season where almost everyone predicted the Tigers to go 10-2.

And for all the other games and the battle looming on the Eastern side of the league between Mizzou, Florida and South Carolina, all that really matters is LSU at Alabama on November 9.

The winner plays for the national championship. It’s in the rules.

Against who?

Oregon is nice. Ohio State is good. Florida State is the real deal, at least on offense. Somehow it’s hard to take Clemson seriously and that may not be fair but when push comes to shove, it’s hard to imagine those other Tigers there at the end.

LSU goes to Ole Miss on Saturday and then comes home for that long-awaited, highly anticipated, much-touted Furman game. When LSU plays Furman, you can throw out the record books. Actually, you might need them, because when you consider that the Paladins are 2-4 and are coming off a 31-9 loss to Chattanooga, well, you know.

Then there’s a bye week and then this year’s Game of the Century.

Alabama has Arkansas at home next week and Arkansas is coming off a 52-9 drubbing by South Carolina. It was a rare SEC Saturday when two teams simply got crushed in league play, because Alabama also mangled Kentucky 48-7.

Anyway, Alabama then has Tennessee at home before also getting a weekend off before playing LSU.

In the meantime, you can ponder a number of LSU things.

Like is LSU’s defense all of a sudden way better, or was Florida’s offense horrendous?

In football, are there really hammers and/or nails?

Is LSU place-kicker Colby Delahoussaye the best-kept secret in the college game?

And, finally, why did so many people skip the best game on the home schedule Saturday? I live near Webb Park in Baton Rouge, think College and I-10, and I got to campus in like 12 minutes at 10:30 a.m. It was a pretty dead tailgate scene, compared to other big games like this.

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This week on Sports 225 former LSU football player, great NFL pro and head of the NFLPA Kevin Mawae will join me, we’ll have the week prep segment with Hunt and Cade and I took a stroll around Tiger Stadium before the game for a few laughs. We’ve also got an interview with Ivan Maisel of ESPN. Check it out.