The Southeastern Conference is better than ever at the top – LSU and Alabama, 1-2 in America; solid in the middle – South Carolina, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida and Auburn; and poised to break out – Tennessee and Mississippi State, even Vanderbilt. At the bottom, Kentucky has been awful.

Unvarnished truths at midseason.

Kentucky record is 2-4, but worse. Two touchdowns scored in last 12 quarters of football while surrendering 48, 35 and 54 points is unacceptable, ruinous.

The last three Saturdays have shown fans and recruiting prospects that Wildcat football is no nearer competing for SEC front row than it was five or 10 years ago. And, the addition of Texas A&M has the same indications it will dominate Wildcat football as South Carolina has since it moved to the SEC.

That the departure of two playmakers, Randall Cobb and Derrick Locke, has dialed Kentucky’s offense back to zero, is alarming.

That Joker Phillips gambled good will and fan support on a single quarterback who has not shown he can play SEC football, is embarrassing.

These things were made more glaring last week when Steve Spurrier reached into his depth chart, installed Connor Shaw at quarterback and the kid became a star. Using All-SEC tailback Marcus Latimore not at all, Shaw shredded Kentucky.

In a bitter irony, Spurrier’s 54-3 humiliation reminded me of Adolph Rupp. Half century ago the old Baron took basketball teams into SEC towns and humbled home teams end line to end line, relentlessly, sending the same message Spurrier did last week – improve your program up to our standards … or this is what you can expect!

So, what ray of sunshine for Kentucky football?

A bye week and the remaining schedule can be viewed as hopeful.

Meanwhile, a few ideas…

• Phillips ought re-visit the depth chart at all positions on offense.

• Demote Morgan Newton. His popularity contest at quarterback cost Kentucky Ryan Mossakowski. Steve Spurrier showed what can happen when he dumped Stephen Garcia last week and found Connor Shaw.

• Look inside the suicide squad special teams and find a fierce offensive lineman or two who moves his feet instead of his lips about protecting his quarterback.

• Demote LaRod King. Dropped passes aside, the self-professed go-to-guy in preseason has not been.

• Defense: Find a pass rusher able to move and pressure a quarterback occasionally instead of not at all.

When a team has scored three touchdowns in three weeks, is on a four game skid and Big Blue Madness at the door, all ideas are good ones, seems to me.

RUPP ARENA

Consider Carol Martin ‘Bill’ Gatton. Consider him for what?

A Nobel Prize for Economic Sanity. If there were an equivalent in Kentucky, Gatton should get it.

A University of Kentucky board of trustee member, Gatton’s voice for fiscal sanity rang out of the wilderness last week in what amounts to a rejection of Mitch Barnhart extravagance.

Gatton opposes building a new basketball arena in Lexington and is against installing luxury suites in Rupp Arena too. All for the right reasons possible, protecting the rights of Wildcat fans.

By way of the Lexington Herald-Leader, Gatton said he believes executive suites “would be a mistake.” Would mean fewer seats for “core fans.”

Luxury boxes are horrible, he said, and a distraction from basketball, and suggested those who want them, (led by Barnhart), “… let them join country clubs for socializing.”

Man after my own heart, Gatton.

Last year Barnhart launched a ‘study’ to affirm (his) need for a new basketball arena in Lexington. UK’s director of athletics reasons its necessary to keep the men’s basketball program as the gold standard of college basketball.

Translation? 1. Keep a hand on your wallet. 2. Realize Barnhart may be the only man on the planet who frets about UK’s place at summit of college hoops. 3. He IS the one man in Kentucky willing to spend your money for a new basketball house.

About the person who just whispered in your ear, “… but Barnhart says it would be built with private funds,” don’t swallow it. UK notification would arrive in your box soon enough saying your privilege for the privilege to renew your tickets has increased. If you don’t like it, step aside, please.

Single game ticket buyers? 1. Luxury suites in Rupp mean fewer seats for you; 2. Fewer seats means a premium and so, another ticket price hike.

UK-HERALD LEADER

After a mini-flap over an interview dispute last week, freshman basketball player Michael Kidd-Gilchrist is off limits to one media outlet, the Lexington Herald-Leader, an e-mailed statement from UK said.

The newspaper clarified its position, but UK demanded a public apology, didn’t get one, and so …

You get the punishment.

While an interview ban with an 18-year-old won’t cause earth tremors, you lose. Selective strong arm tactics by UK is not new, but it should remind fans that UK sports information department deciding who will and won’t have access to report on student-athletes is contemptible.

The villain here is not reporter Jerry Tipton, but UK’s department of athletics. Fans should not indulge in killing the messenger.

JUST WONDERING

Amid last week’s Bizarro World absurdities in sports came an idea out of Memphis that Kentucky’s basketball coach is driven by jealousy for his counterpart at University of Louisville.

Really?

Maybe I missed something. Why would a mortal who banks more than $333,000 a month, or $4 million a year; is the celebrity at Flagship University and winningest program in history; is a media darling on first name basis with Andy (Katz), Tony (Kornheiser), Jay (Bilas), Dicky (Vitale) and a host of others … why would John Calipari be jealous of Rick Pitino?

And so it goes.