AC

STARKVILLE and OXFORD, Miss. -- In the week when Mississippi will take its rightful place as the epicenter of the college football world, the Magnolia State is beaming with pigskin pride. And why not? There are two games, featuring four of the nation's top 12 teams, being played on Mississippi soil. No. 6 Texas A&M travels to No. 12 Mississippi State, and No. 3 Alabama visits No. 11 Ole Miss as both Mississippi schools sport a 4-0 record in the same season for the first time. In another first, ESPN's "College GameDay" is setting up shop in the Grove in Oxford. It's almost too good to be true for a state that treats football as nothing short of a religious experience. Of course, the great irony is that even some of the most impassioned Mississippi State and Ole Miss fans would have guessed that only divine intervention would have positioned both programs to make this kind of noise in the big, bad SEC West. Not since 1958 have both teams been ranked...