The 2013 Miami Heat are a wayward and fractious lot, riven by ego and feelings and constantly in need of affirmation. 

This year LeBron James hasn't so much become an indomitable force of basketball will as he has a psychologist, Dr. Phil sitting on a couch with his head in his hands nodding quietly and listening as his teammates pour out their misgivings.

The LeBron vs. Jordan debate has been ongoing for several years now, but most people have missed the essential difference between the two men -- their generations. LeBron's a millennial hugger, Jordan was an old school puncher. One man tries to work out his teammate's issues by listening, the other bristled at the idea that there could ever be issues. LeBron's more inclusive, Jordan was my way or the highway with his teammates. Once you get this distinction down, everything makes sense about why this debate doesn't quite connect, their talents are both luminescent, but their mental backgrounds are completely different.

Jordan vs. Lebron isn't a battle of basketball wills. 

It's will vs. Dr. Phil. 

Can LeBron's style of leadership, a gentler listening inclusiveness, pay off with a title? 

We've spent a lot of time talking about leaders willing their team to a title, but we've spent hardly any time talking about a player Dr. Philling his team to the title.

Yep, Bronco fans are really buying #15 jerseys and putting "Jesus" on the back.

After last night they'll sell even more.

Last night Tim Tebow Tebow'd the NFL. Every single person who watched him play four years in the SEC was not surprised at all when Tebow slipped outside the pocket on a Jets blitz and scored a rushing touchdown from twenty yards out. The play, the culmination of a 95 yard touchdown drive for the win, sent veteran NFL media into paroxysms of joy. But it also brought forth the haters once more. And for the life of me, I just don't get it. Why does Tim Tebow have so many haters?

Why?

Of all the people in sports you could hate, how can you really hate Tebow?

The only reason I can think of is his religious faith. Some people think Tebow's faith is a fraud. It isn't. Is Tebow perfect? I'm sure he isn't. But is he a welcome antidote in a sporting universe that grows more sordid each week? Yeah, I think so. And if you aren't religious, why do you care that other people are? Why can't you just shrug off his religion and enjoy him on the field? As I Tweeted last night, replace every Tebow God reference with the McRib. "I'd like to give all the glory to the McRib."

"The McRib gives me my strength."

Would the haters still be furious?    

The Game to Watch

Vanderbilt at Tennessee (7 ET/ESPNU) – Tennessee and Vanderbilt typically have little more than state pride on the line when they meet every November. Typically, Tennessee is a heavy favorite and  the Vols usually win when they face the 'Dores. This year has been anything but typical, though. Vandy rides in sky high, and for perhaps the first time in history, will walk into Neyland Stadium as a slight favorite. Tennessee is winless in the SEC, but the Vols will look to break this year's run of bad luck by claiming their sixth win in a row versus their I-40 rivals.

Pre-snap reads: Which team's bowl hopes will still survive after Saturday night? The post-season fate of both teams will likely be determined in Knoxville this weekend. A win for Vanderbilt not only gives them a year of bragging rights against their in-state rival, but it would also make them bowl eligible for the first time since 2008. The Commodores don't have to win against Tennessee to still make a bowl appearance in the 2011 season, but with a road trip to Wake Forest looming next week, there's no time like the present. They need to win one of two, and a case could be made that the Tennessee game might be a better opportunity. Tennessee must win out against Vanderbilt and Kentucky to avoid finishing with a losing season for the fourth time in the past seven years (2005, 2008, 2010.)

It's a sad day in the Vinnie Verno household. Not only is he forced to pick Vanderbilt -1 over Tennessee, but he's so confident of the result that he's wagering one of his prize possessions -- the Phil Fulmer autographed mini-helmet.

Say it ain't so, Vinnie, say it ain't so.

Wipe away your tears from the eyes and dive in below for his picks.

In the meantime, really want to make some money? Go check out my guys at Prediction Machine. They're nearly 80% against the spread this year and they'll also break down fantasy, survivor league odds, and more on the site. Check it out here.  

With last night's New York Times revelations of a growing Penn State cover-up, it's now beyond a shadow of a doubt that this story is the largest American sports scandal of all-time. The Chicago White Sox throwing the World Series, the SMU paying players scandal, steroids in baseball, all of them pale in comparison to the seaminess that is emerging in Penn State. The only real comparison is the Baylor murder scandal and cover-up, but the scope of Penn State's transgressions -- all the way to the college president and, potentially, the Governor's office -- and the sheer amount of time involved -- a decade or more -- in conjunction with the iconic nature of Joe Paterno and the hits to his legacy involved, takes this to a completely different and unprecedented level.

When else has a story rooted in sports been the lead story on the nightly news or the local morning shows for over a week? (O.J. Simpson doesn't count since he was just a sports figure who committed a murder. What's more, O.J.'s career was long over by the time this happened. Tiger Woods doesn't count since his story was more akin to a politician caught cheating. That is, his scandal had nothing to do with sports.) Penn State's inaction in the face of a child's locker room rape goes to the very essence of intercollegiate athetics -- a former coach, who very likely was fired from his job for molesting children after a 1998 investigation, was terrorizing children on campus and a college's leaders conspired to keep those acts secret.  

While Derek Dooley has been focused on growing nonexistent bamboo in Knoxville, James Franklin has been winning football games at Vanderbilt. In just his first season at Vandy, Franklin has notched the two biggest margins of SEC victory for the Commodores since 1971, come within a single play of beating both Arkansas and Georgia, and seen his team win more football games in his first season than it won in the previous two seasons combined. Along the way Franklin has refashioned the Commodore football program, grabbed the city of Nashville's sports attention with his insistent sales job, and beaten out Tennessee for at least two prime recruits in the state. Indeed, Franklin's most recent commit, Andrew Jelks, grew up a Tennessee fan and his parents are Vol season ticket holders. Franklin's recruiting class currently sits at #21 in the country. That's poised to become the best recruiting haul in the school's history.  

Coming in to Saturday's game in Knoxville, Franklin has accomplished the unbelievable -- his Commodores are a favorite over the Vols in Knoxville for the first time in modern history.  

Put simply, James Franklin is Vanderbilt football's own Bruce Pearl.

According to WZTV, the Fox affiliate here in Nashville, Vanderbilt safety Andre Simmons was involved in the armed robbery of a fellow Vanderbilt student yesterday. According to the WZTV article: "A Vanderbilt student was held up in his dorm room yesterday and robbed of about $5,000. The Davidson County affidavit states that two men armed with a handgun came to the room at Lupton Hall and knocked on the door. When the door was opened, the two men said they wanted the money from the safe. A fight ensued and the victim was struck in the head with the gun. The suspect with the money ran, while the other suspect, Andre Leigh Simmons, 19, stayed behind to keep the victim in the room."

Andre Leigh Simmons is a sophomore safety for Vanderbilt. While he is not identified as a member of the football team in the linked article, OKTC reached Vice-Chancellor David Williams for comment early this morning after a tip that Simmons was a member of the football team.   

Last night Bob Costas interviewed Jerry Sandusky via telephone. Airing at 9 central, the interview was must-watch television. Why? Because it's altogether likely that Jerry Sandusky will never take the witness stand in his own defense. Not after this performance with Costas. Sandusky appeared scatterbrained, slow, and his answers lacked specificity. When you're asked whether or not you're sexually attracted to young boys, your answer has to be no. Quickly. That's not a difficult question for most of us. At least if you profess your innocence. Instead it took Sandusky over sixteen seconds to get around to acknowledging that he wasn't really attracted to boys.

Costas's questioning was direct and confrontational. This was, for all intents and purposes, likely to be Costas's "A Few Good Men" moment, when he turned Sandusky into a stammering liar. But at least Colonel Jessup equaled the fire with brimstone of his own, Sandusky's meandering, grandfatherly answers, weren't those of a monster; they were merely those of a man who appears to have no understanding of the seriousness of his peril. It's no surprise that anyone who read the grand jury report could consider Sandusky a monster, but it is a surprise that Sandusky still doesn't seem to realize that the rest of the country considers him a monster.

What's he been doing for the past week? 

That lack of self-awareness was the overwhelming message that reverberated throughout the interview. Sandusky sounded like a man charged with speeding through a school zone one time instead of a man accused of terrorizing school children for decades. 

Here's the video for those of you who didn't see it, and then ten more thoughts about Sandusky's legal defense and more.    

With Oregon's whipping of Stanford and Boise State's shanked field goal against TCU, LSU moved into a nearly guaranteed title game appearance even if it loses to either Arkansas or Georgia. How so? Because if LSU lost one game, there would only be one undefeated team. (That's assuming Oklahoma State wins out. Houston isn't making the big game). Of the one-loss teams LSU beat Oregon and Alabama head-to-head so neither of those teams are going in front of LSU. Oklahoma's loss to Texas Tech was too bad. Meanwhile, if Arkansas beats LSU it still has an Alabama whipping on the books, so can you really make an argument that Arkansas would deserve to be in above Alabama and LSU? Especially when, and this is key, LSU is going to represent the SEC West in Atlanta even if it loses to Arkansas. 

I'll discuss the three-way SEC West tie scenario below, but suffice it to say that even if Arkansas wins LSU and Alabama are both going to be ranked above Arkansas in the final BCS standings.

Lose to Arkansas and LSU would get a chance to redeem itself in the SEC title game against a top-ten ranked Georgia team. Lose to Georgia and LSU would still have three top ten BCS wins. Either way the Tigers will be in the Sugar Bowl unless they lose to Arkansas and Georgia. And I don't see that happening.  

I haven't seen anyone else point out that LSU has a national title game mulligan right now, but they do.   

Two Games to Watch

Auburn at Georgia (3:30 ET/CBS) – The Deep South's Oldest Rivalry convenes again this weekend in Athens as Georgia looks to essentially lock up a trip to Atlanta with a win. The Bulldogs need to beat Auburn and Kentucky to punch their ticket. A split and a South Carolina loss to Florida would also do the trick, but the easiest path to an outright Eastern Division title is to just win, baby. Auburn enters the game riding a modest wave of momentum after enjoying a bye last week and dominating the second half against Ole Miss the week before en route to an easy victory.

Read part one of OKTC's Kirk Herbstreit profile here.

The day before LSU and Alabama take the field for the biggest regular season game in SEC history, ESPN's College Gameday crew sits around a horseshoe shaped table inside Bryant-Denny Stadium. Desmond Howard, Chris Fowler, Urban Meyer, David Pollack, and Lee Corso sit alongside one side of the table, on the other side are Erin Andrews and two producers. In the center of the table sit Tom Rinaldi, Kirk Herbstreit and Gameday producer Lee Fitting.

Herbstreit has an iPad propped in front of him, he's typing notes and discussing the next day's two-hour Gameday show.

It's not even noon, but already Herbstreit's orange tie has provoked a minor Twitter storm. Some Alabama fans are convinced that Herbstreit's orange tie is a coded message designed to send a message of solidarity to Auburn fans.

When he hears this Herbstreit groans.  

"Will you Tweet out that it's just an orange tie, it isn't an Auburn tie?" he asks.