By: JJ Lanier

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

SEC Media Week is a lot like Chinese food. While it’s taking place you absolutely love it and can’t seem to get enough. Once it’s over though you realize that you feel utterly unfulfilled.

There is nothing of any substance that you take away.

There is however, a whole lot of entertainment.

The one thing that fans will remember from this year’s week is the gladiatorial match between Paul Finebaum and Nick Saban. Well, maybe it wasn’t so much gladiatorial as it was more like two four year olds fighting over with SpongeBob episode to watch, but you get my point.

I’m not usually a huge fan of Finebaum- I tend to like my radio hosts a little more outrageous and not so level headed- but I love him bringing Saban to task on national television.

I thought Paul was dead on in what he saying, and his response was about what I expected. But, I will say this: Saban’s response just solidified another #1 recruiting class for next year.

Who wouldn’t want to play for a team that will be in the running for a National Championship and for a coach who will go to bat for you, as long as you’re a Cam Robinson type player, no matter what kind of crap you pull.

Of course the caveat is, he’ll stick up for you as long as you don’t get charged by the police. In the end it was a hell of a piece of entertainment to watch unfold live, but again, did we really learn anything new.

Hugh Freeze fared a little better I guess, although I felt like I was sitting through a class of “Coach Speak 101” the whole time he was talking.

Obviously I’m paraphrasing a bit, but it was basically “Sure something happened, but it was kind of out of our control and the culprits have been dealt with harshly. Of course we don’t condone these type of things and I will run around Oxford wearing Mississippi State undergarments if anything like this were to ever happen again.”

All that was left was for him to do was dedicate this upcoming season to a former player who has fallen on hard times and he would’ve graduate from CS101, Summa Cum Laude.

But nobody, and I truly mean nobody, finished the week looking any worse than Dan Mullen. As a matter of fact, if he was caught running around Starksville wearing Mississippi State women’s clothing, it would’ve been 10 times better than what he went through.

It’s bad enough when you try to justify keeping a player on your team when there’s video of that player beating a women. There aren’t a plethora of things you can say that will really smooth that over, nor should there be.

When you’re asked how you would act if that was your own wife or daughter though, and to basically dismiss it and say you “Don’t like hypotheticals”, you might as well just pack it up and head to the house. There is nothing that can come out of your mouth to help recover from that one.

Look, there may not be much of anything new you learn from that particular week, but when you line up the coaching personalities within the SEC you can always count on its entertainment value and getting a good laugh.

Unfortunately, sometimes during the sports doldrums of the summer months, that is all you have to get you by. I mean, what else is there to talk about? The Atlanta Braves?