The Kentucky Wildcats are number two in the nation in recruiting. 

In football. 

Really, this has happened. 

Stop with all your -- "But it's June!" -- Tweets and consider the accomplishment of first year head coach Mark Stoops. I don't care what month it is, did you ever think Kentucky would be number two in the country in football recruiting?

Put simply, Mark Stoops has done a remarkable job snagging talent early in his Kentucky tenure. 

Yes, Kentucky owes much of its rankings prominence to the fact that the Wildcats have more commits than many schools, but so does Texas, your erstwhile number one recruiting class in the country. In fact, Kentucky's 17 recruits actually have a higher average star rating than Texas's 19 recruits.  

Stop with your a lot changes between now and February Tweets and emails as well. Actually, a lot doesn't change. Over time, eighty percent of all verbal commitments are honored. So, yes, some recruits change their minds, but they're a substantial minority of the cases. Recruits who change their minds just get more attention than the recruits who make a commitment and stick with it throughout the year.

At the absolute worst, Kentucky should finish with a top twenty football recruiting class, something they've never managed before in their gridiron history.  

With one foot firmly in the business side of online sports media and the other foot firmly in the content creation business, sometimes I feel like a house divided against itself. 

On the one hand, every morning I check all our site metrics -- ad impressions, Google analytics for where our readers came from, Twitter shares, Facebook likes, desktop vs. mobile penetration rates -- to see exactly what Outkick looks like from a business perspective. Next I'll check individual stories and see how popular they were. Then I'll break out our numbers weekly and monthly and run some comparables from a year ago.

On the other hand my mind is constantly percolating, making connections, sifting for something to write about that will be original, smart, and funny and make this day pass faster for me and for you.

I get asked all the time what makes stories pop on the Internet and the boiled down answer is this: you need to be original, you need to be smart, and you need to be funny.

The truth is, that's hard to do consistently. Most people can't do it. If you can you can make a living on the creative side of this business, if you can't, you can't.

Popularity polls are the most hotly contested useless debate college football fans engage in every year.  Alumni and students work themselves into a frenzy all fall because "the media doesn't respect them." In reality, the only group of individuals with a vested interest in ranking teams accurately each week are the members of the linesmaking fraternity.

By Stevie Cocksman

Despite my passionate love of college football, I’ve always had a strong aversion to boys throwing a football in the tailgate parking lot. First, those that primarily engage in it – eight to eighteen year old boys – are not by nature a considerate group.

I love politics.

There, I said it.

This is despite the fact that my own political career ended after my first year of law school when I wrecked Nashville congressman Jim Cooper's wife's Volvo. Then when Jim Cooper unexpectedly had colon cancer surgery, I, who was then working as his body man accompanying him to all events, took a trip to New York City to visit my then-girlfriend, now wife, without proper vacation authority. 

I was fired by the campaign manager. 

Now I make a living writing articles about hysterical buttchugging press conferences. 

It's clear that I'm the big winner here.  

Last week news broke that a University of Tennessee fraternity member had been hospitalized after he buttchugged wine.

Today the entire fraternity stood behind their attorney to deny the buttchugging allegation.

I'd like to pick my favorite part of this video, but the entire video is a complete comedy pyramid. The attorney really does deny that the alleged buttchugger is gay and they really did have the press conference in the center of campus.

The lecture to the media is priceless.

Actually, the entire press conference is outstanding.

Just watch.

Seriously, you must watch this.

Vanderbilt’s position as the top academic institution in the SEC means that our reputation revolves more around libraries than parties. Yes, Vanderbilt students work hard. We had to. The school is packed with type A overachievers so things get competitive. But all of that stress has to have an outlet or students would be throwing themselves off parking garages regularly.

It’s been a while since I’ve publicly berated groups of individuals for making poor choices in social settings. I think the last time I climbed atop my soapbox was for an article I wrote about men’s footwear and how their shoe decisions drastically impact my everyday life. (In case you missed that one, here’s the Reader’s Digest version: Don’t wear CROCS if you enjoy female interaction in any form.)

via OKTC courtroom reporter Peter Matthews III

Bama teabagger Brian Downing, whose trial was set to begin this morning, has reached a plea bargain, agreeing to plead guilty to lesser charges. Downing pleads guilty to one count of obscenity, one count of amended obscenity (reduced from a sexual battery charge) and now faces two years in prison served concurrently on both obscenity charges. Downing will be sentenced in 45 days, but Matthews reports that the setencing is a formality and that Downing will definitely be sent to jail for two years. (Presumably Downing could be released from prison early with good behavior, but I'm not sure what the reduction in time might look like).

Downing, who teabagged a passed out LSU fan in the Bourbon Street Krystal's in the wake of Alabama's BCS title game victory over LSU, faced ten years in prison if he was convicted of the sexual battery charge. So he's decided not to try his luck in front of a New Orleans jury.

Yesterday Downing's attorney said his client's defense would be that the was drunk and stupid. That defense wasn't likely to play well considering the lead prosecutor is a diehard LSU fan.

We'll have more from our reporter Peter Matthews III as this story develops, but in the meantime, wow on the prison time.

As we enter October there are now six undefeated SEC teams remaining, five of them in the top ten. It's a sign of how dominant the SEC is that having half of the top ten teams in the country, and four of the top six, is just expected at this point. No one in the rest of the nation even blinks.

By late on Saturday night there's a good chance that there will be four undefeated SEC teams.  number will stand at four, as the two biggest games of the college football weekend are both in the SEC.

In fact, we've got a hell of a doubleheader on tap, LSU at Florida at 2:30 ct on CBS followed by Georgia at South Carolina at night on ESPN. That's a hell of an SEC tandem, the two biggest games of the day.

I'm giving you my picks early on this game, I'm taking Florida and South Carolina.

Now let's dive into the Starting 11:

It's Friday which means it's mailbag time.

Our beaver pelt trader of the week is the LSU fan who did this paint job. In particular, look at the way that ball cap perches right on the edge of Les Miles' head. This is some Michelangelo quality work by a corndog artist. 

Where was this picture taken? 

According to emailer Will, "Saw this outside a Shreveport casino at 10:30 this morning. LSU fans start early."

Yes, LSU fans are rolling up to Shreveport casinos at 10:30 am on Thursday morning to start partying for the Towson game weekend. 

No one who knows LSU fans is the least bit surprised by this. 

On to the mailbag: 

Nathan writes:

"Seriously, the fact that they felt they needed to make this video makes it amazing. Can they join the SEC?"