[Tuck4Bama]

BATON ROUGE -- Time was when the Florida-Tennessee game was the be-all, end-all game in the Southeastern Conference's Eastern Division.
When the schools lock horns Saturday in Gainesville, Fla., it will help set the tone for what looks like a wild scramble.

"It's two sledgehammers going against each other," Florida Coach Urban Meyer said during Wednesday's SEC coaches teleconference. "It's early in the season, and it obviously gives one team an advantage in conference play."

Just an advantage, not a huge advantage as in past years.

During the first 10 years of SEC divisional play (1992-2001), Florida or Tennessee won the East title, and only once did the loser between the schools do so.

But since 2002, Georgia has won the division three times, and now South Carolina is trying to crash the party after beating Georgia last week.

"It became the big game for Florida because Georgia wasn't very good in the early '90s," said South Carolina Coach Steve Spurrier, a former Gators coach.

"We're 1-0, and we're in better shape than Georgia. Now we're going to be in better shape than Florida or Tennessee after this weekend, but that's all it means. We'll play eight games, and when they're all finished we see who has the best record and who can beat the teams within their division."

Gators, Vols look to get leg up in East- NOLA.com