Sorry to start your morning with an SAT-style analogy, but the answer to the query posed in our headline should be quite simple.  With Louisville cutting down the nets in Atlanta last night, the Commonwealth of Kentucky is to basketball as the State of Alabama is to football.

The Yellowhammer State is home to the last four BCS championships.  After Alabama won the national crown in 2009, rival Auburn followed up in 2010.  Since then, Bama has captured two more titles.

The Bluegrass State won its first title since 1998 last year under John Calipari.  Last night, their rival, Louisville, won the NCAA Tournament.  Rick Pitino was behind last night’s run and a ’96 UK title, for what it’s worth… becoming the first college basketball coach to ever win national titles at two different schools.

Moving forward, expect both states to be named favorites to keep the hardware within their state boundaries next season.

Alabama under Nick Saban has become the winningest dynasty since Nebraska won or shared national titles in 1994, 1995, and 1997.  The Crimson Tide inked another highly-ranked signing class in February and there’s little doubt that — despite playing in a tough conference — Vegas will make them the BCS favorites in college football again this fall.

Next basketball season, Kentucky and Louisville should both be among the top title contenders as well.  The Wildcats aren’t likely to do another bellyflop, especially not after signing six McDonald’s All-Americans in what some are calling the greatest class in the history of college hoops.  Louisville will lose Peyton Siva, but the Cardinals are bringing in a four-man signing class that’s loaded with backcourt talent.

Chemistry and injuries should serve as caveats to any speculation regarding future national titles.  Calipari’s team had issues with both this past season.  Saban’s 2010 squad didn’t have the same mental makeup as his 2009 team, opening the door for Cam Newton and Auburn to capture their crystal football.

But on paper, Alabama, Kentucky, and Louisville should once again be back in the mix for their respective sports’ national crowns in the 2013-14 academic year.  For that matter, as long as Saban, Calipari, and Pitino are coaching those programs, they will likely be in the mix for a national championship just about every year.

Alabama in football and Kentucky in basketball.  When it comes to college championships, SEC fans don’t have to look to other regions to see where the finest programs reside.

CORRECTION — Kentucky’s last NCAA Tournament win came in 1998 under Tubby Smith, not in 1996 under Rick Pitino as initially noted.

The ACC scored an expected win yesterday when a North Carolina judge refused to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the league against the University of Maryland.  The school had argued that that a court in the Tarheel State — which happens to be the home state of the ACC’s league office — held no jurisdiction over a school in the state of Maryland, meaning the league’s $52 million lawsuit/exit fee should be tossed.

Yesterday’s ruling simply sets the stage for another court case.  Planning an escape to the Big Ten, the University of Maryland has no intention of paying the $52 million exit fee the ACC agreed upon last year.  A spokesman for Terrapins’ lawyer Douglas Gansler said last night that “the state is going to be considering its options in light of this ruling.”

Gansler had stated when filing his motion to dismiss that the ACC’s enormous exit fee was “an antitrust violation and an illegal penalty.”  He had also said that his motion “in North Carolina will insure that a Maryland court will rule on the case.”

D’oh.

Multiple sources have told MrSEC.com that Virginia and Georgia Tech have had conversations with the Big Ten, but all parties involved are waiting to see the outcome of the ACC/Maryland battle before deciding to wed.  There have been other reports that the Big Ten has had contact with North Carolina and Duke as well.

Jim Delany’s league and any ACC schools on its wish list could announce plans to wed before Maryland’s case is settled, but at this point that seems unlikely.  So this not-so-unexpected delay in the courts might slow down — for a bit — the inevitable expansion/realignment shuffle to come.

To date, conference exit fees have been negotiated down as schools have found legal loopholes.  But keep in mind, they’ve been negotiated down.  They’ve not been thrown out altogether.  Schools have found enough reason for leagues to believe they could lose a court battle… so rather than risk a court defeat, force schools that want out to stick around, and slow their own re-growth plans, conferences have been willing to negotiate lower settlements.  But the ACC’s exit clause might be more ironclad than other leagues’ contracts.  Again, the exit clause was re-worked last year after the ACC saw school after school talk their own settlements’ down with other conferences.  It’s possible the ACC learned something by watching those other leagues buckle.

Also, seeing as most believe Maryland’s departure could be the first domino to fall in a potential ACC collapse, John Swofford’s league might be more willing to fight this thing in court than other conferences would be.

The irony is that representatives from ACC schools are talking to other conferences about exiting at the exact same time those schools are trying to prevent Maryland from exiting.

(CORRECTION — The original headlines said the “NCAA” won’t dismiss the ACC’s lawsuit.  Total bungle on my part.  Had just been reading up on the NCAA/Miami case and my brain did its typical early morning flub thing.  Apologies.)

New Texas A&M co-offensive coordinator Clarence McKinney made it clear yesterday that he has no intentions of hindering Heisman-winning quarterback Johnny Manziel:

“We’re going to let Johnny do what he does best.  We’re not going to try and control him.  We’re going to give him the system and let him play football…

I don’t see a reason to change much.  We’re going to add some things to get better, but our philosophy offensively is to take what the defense gives us.”

McKinney has been with Kevin Sumlin since serving as his running backs coach at Houston.  In other words, he knows the offense and he knows how Sumlin wants it run.

Listen closely and you can hear a deafening sigh of relief emanating from College Station.

(CORRECTION — An earlier version of this story said that McKinney came to A&M from West Virginia after serving on Sumlin’s Houston staff.  In fact, it was Jake Spavital — the other co-offensive coordinator — who was hired from Dana Holgorsen’s staff.  Apologies.)

Memphis coach Josh Pastner has put himself front and center this week by repeatedly stating that he would kill off the Memphis-Tennessee basketball series after the two teams meet tonight in Knoxville.  No surprise.  He’s been saying for the past couple of years that he doesn’t want Arkansas, Mississippi State, Ole Miss or Tennessee coming into his city, playing basketball, and possibly wooing a recruit or two while there.

A few of Pastner’s quotes regarding the Tigers-Vols series:

1.  “The facts are, this will be the last year of the series unless we play them in the postseason.  Now obviously, if any of my bosses want to play them, that’s… Me, as the head coach, the series is over, the contract is over, let’s move on.”

2.  “We will not play Tennessee anymore as long as I’m the head coach and I’m doing my scheduling.”

3.  “The contract’s ending, we have a new athletic director and he and I are on the same page with it.”

Three strikes, you’re out.

Someone might need to get a spatula to help Pastner get the egg off of his face.  As it turns out, Memphis AD Tom Bowen said yesterday — one day after Pastner’s Quote #3 above — that he and UT athletic director Dave Hart are still discussing a continuation of the series.

Bowen told The Memphis Commercial Appeal, “We are re-evaluating everything.”  He added: “The Tennessee game is important.  They’d come to our place next.  So there’s an advantage there.”

D’oh!

Pastner’s response when The Commercial Appeal caught up with him about the apparent flip-flop: “I’d rather you call Tom Bowen on that.”

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A few thoughts and tidbits that ran through the noggin during Louisville’s 33-23 win over Florida in last evening’s Sugar Bowl:

*  Florida fans shouldn’t complain too much about the loss.  No, really.  They shouldn’t.

Because they didn’t take Louisville any more seriously than the Gator players did.

That won’t actually prevent grumbling, of course, but the fact is, many Gator fans moaned about having to play a Big East team.  UF also failed to sell out its bowl allotment by a pretty good chunk.  So if a fan — who could afford to go — didn’t take the Cardinals seriously and didn’t go to the game, I don’t see how that fan can whine too much about his team not showing up, either.

*  Florida went 11-1 against the season’s toughest SEC schedule.  They did so with a heckuva defense and a penchant for taking care of the ball (they were plus-17 going into last night’s game).  In our game preview, we wrote that with Florida’s depth and talent, turnovers were the only thing that could undo the Gators’ chances in New Orleans.  One fumble and two interceptions later — including an INT returned for a touchdown 15 seconds into the game — and UF had another loss on its ledger.

UF went 11-0 when it turned the ball over two or fewer times in a game this past season.  The Gators were 0-2 when they turned it over more than twice (six turnovers versus Georgia, three versus Louisville).  Even simpler, Florida was 11-0 when it won the turnover battle, 0-2 when it lost it.  Which goes to show…

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