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Stewart Mandel's Mailbag Submit a question or an opinion to Stewart. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND Follow Stewart Mandel on Twitter

Stewart: In a 2007 edition of your Mailbag, you described Georgia as being a regional power, not a national power (I believe you described yourself as coming of age after the Herschel years). At any rate, in your reckoning of the state of college football, is UGA any closer to being a national power?
-- Tommy Bean, Black Mountain, N.C.

Well, you certainly can't get much more national attention than being ranked No. 1 in the preseason coaches' poll and Sports Illustrated, so clearly, Georgia is heading in the right direction. As I said in that column, however, national prestige is built up over a long period of time, and only now are the Dawgs starting to seep into the national conscience. If they do in fact win the national title this season, then we can start talking about reevaluating their stature.

This isn't the first e-mail I've received about that "Kings and Barons" column from last year. Many of you have asked whether I would make any changes to the pecking order a year later, and the answer is yes.

I said at the time, "While LSU is clearly a premier program right now, its big-picture tradition does not match those of the 13 kings. However, if the Tigers were to add another national title here in the next couple of years, they may well graduate to that group." Having secured said national title, I think it's safe to say that LSU is unquestionably viewed as one of the kings of college football right now and thus ascends from the rank of baron.

And a paragraph before that, I said, "Tennessee is the lone school [among the kings] that caused any hesitation. The Vols would have been a no-brainer 10 years ago, but they have fallen off the map a bit lately." Indeed, I think it's time to face the reality that a decade has now passed since the glory days of Peyton Manning and Tee Martin and that the Vols really are no longer any different from Auburn, Georgia or any number of others listed among the barons. Therefore, Tennessee is officially bumped from the ranks of the kings.

After reading your book Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls, I was confused as to how much power each conference has in the current system. Do mid-major conferences get into meetings about whether to change the system, and do the six "BCS" conferences hold a majority over the other five Division I-A conferences in the vote to keep the current system over a playoff system?
-- Marcus Anthony, San Francisco

When the BCS was originally conceived, the "other five" conferences had no say whatsoever. It was literally a coalition of the ACC, SEC, Big Ten, Big East, Big 12, Pac-10 and Notre Dame. After feeling pressure from both the disenfranchised members of those conferences, which briefly organized a "coalition" under the leadership of Tulane president Scott Cowen, as well as the threat of potential Congressional involvement, the BCS changed its structure so that the commissioners of all 11 conferences (and Notre Dame's AD) have a seat at the table. (This is also when they lowered the eligibility requirement for a guaranteed at-large bid from top six to top 12, thus opening the door for Boise State and Hawaii.)

However, by no means are the parties on equal terms. As it's been explained to me, the so-called coalition conferences essentially hold one collective vote -- meaning those five leagues together carry the same weight as the Big Ten, or the Big 12, or, for that matter, Notre Dame. At the same time, I'm not sure there are all that many official "votes" held, per se. BCS coordinator John Swofford stressed in April that any formative change would require a "consensus" among the commissioners. It's unclear whether "consensus" necessarily means "unanimous." All I'm saying is, if the day ever comes where we move to a plus-one, I don't think you'll hear an announcement saying the resolution passed by a margin of 5 to 3.

And while we're on the subject of the plus-one ... SEC commissioner Mike Slive recently discussed his failed proposal at SEC Media Days, saying that he at least hopes that having entered the concept into public discussion that there will be stronger interest when the issue gets revisited four years from now. I agree, but I think Slive needs to rebrand his proposal. "Plus one" simply isn't sexy enough. From now on, I believe he and other supporters of the idea should refer to it instead as "the Final Four." People love the Final Four, not to mention, it's final. No expanding to eight or 16 teams as you so fear, Mike Tranghese and Jim Delany -- just four. And that's Final.

As much as it pains me to praise a Washington Husky, it shouldn't be long before the rest of the country wakes up to the Jake Locker Experience. Locker sports a rifle arm, the best feet I've seen since Michael Vick at Virginia Tech and a knack for the big play. As a freshman he outgained Tim Tebow on the ground last year (986 to 895). I hate the Huskies, but Jake's the real deal.
-- DMC, Pullman, Wash.

Wait ... I can't find any question in here. Not even a Chris Farley-style "Why is Jake Locker so awesome?" But I'm happy to give the guy some pub because I happen to agree that he'll soon be viewed as the West Coat's answer to Tebow (though the Vick-speed comparison is a bit much -- he's just a really good runner). My fear, however, is that Locker will wind up being another Antwaan Randle El: An epic player stuck on a really crappy team for four years. Tyrone Willingham hasn't exactly surrounded him with a plethora of weapons, and, if things don't turn around this season, it could be another long couple of years for the Huskies.

Stewart, why do you hate the Badgers year after year?
-- Jesse Jackson, Camp Pendleton, Calf., via Stoughton, Wis.

Oh no! The day I've feared for so long has finally come: The Mailbag has ticked off Jesse Jackson.

I'm going to have to get back to you on that one. Prior to your e-mail, I was not aware of any ill will I felt toward the Badgers (or badgers, for that matter), nevertheless a hatred that apparently shows up "year after year." It's probably going to take several years of psychotherapy for me to identify the roots.

Stewart Mandel's book, Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls: Tackling the Chaos and Controversy that Reign Over College Football, is now available in paperback with an update chapter on the wild 2007 season.