HOOVER, Ala. — In the "what were they thinking?" portion of SEC Media Days, Vanderbilt coach Bobby Johnson took center stage.

All you have to do is look at the 2006 Commodores’ schedule.

First, Vanderbilt opens with road trips to Michigan (Sept. 2) and Alabama (Sept. 9). Then Arkansas visits Nashville (Sept. 16).

Second, there’s not an open date or bye week to be found.

"We used to play Citadel and all those guys," Johnson joked. "They’re not Michigan.

"I don’t know if any team has a tougher opening three games than we do."

Johnson admitted there were a lot of administrative meetings and wringing of hands over accepting a deal to open at Michigan — especially with the departure of quarterback Jay Cutler to the NFL.

Vanderbilt dropped MTSU from its schedule to pick up the road trip to Ann Arbor.

"The opportunity was just too big to turn down," Johnson said. "It also gives us an opportunity to do something bigger and better.

"We can go up there and beat Michigan and play well. That would be a big, big step for our program."

On the open-date dilemma, Johnson joked he was "still searching" for that off week during the new 12-game schedule.

SEC TV Deal: SEC commissioner Mike Slive said the conference is continuing to explore the possibility of creating its own SEC television channel.

Slive said pending contracts with CBS, ESPN, FSN South and Lincoln Financial (previously Jefferson-Pilot) would mean a possible target date for the new channel to be in 2009 or 2010.

"We’re going to continue to explore this concept very seriously," he said.

Richt Priorities Shift: Georgia coach Mark Richt said his wife’s off-season battle with cervical cancer was an obvious life-altering event for one of the SEC’s hottest young coaches.

"I pretty much shut down for about two months," he said of his wife Katharyn’s radical hysterectomy and eventual cancer-free diagnosis.

"She handled it better than I did. By the grace of God, she’s very healthy now."

Priorities are just more clearly defined.

"When you go through something like that, you can get a greater appreciation for family and what’s really important," he said. "Football wasn’t very important at all at that time."

Vols Respected: Georgia center Nick Jones knows the Bulldogs have beaten Tennessee five of the past six years, but he hasn’t lost any respect for the Vols.

"To me, it’s the same as always," he said. "They’re a good team and they have a great program.

"It’s a team you have to beat to get to the championship, so I don’t see any drop off at all."

Darby Dissed: Alabama running back Kenneth Darby wasn’t thrilled with taking a backseat to Auburn’s Kenny Irons and Arkansas’ Darren McFadden on the preseason All-SEC coaches’ list.

"I’m still surprised," he said. "I’m just going to have to prove those people wrong. It just puts a chip on my shoulders."

Darby has a chance to become the first Crimson Tide running back to post three consecutive 1,000-yard seasons and is 1,077 yards away from breaking Shaun Alexander’s career rushing record.

Vandy’s Mental Approach: Vanderbilt always has had a reputation as an academic institution on the cutting edge of new ideas.

Now the football team has taken that to a new level with yoga and boxing added to their workouts.

"We like it," offensive tackle Brian Stamper said. "Yoga has benefits as far as football goes, but we’re also doing it for the camaraderie.

"You get in there, do something fun and joke around because they have us in these funny positions all the time."

Preseason predictions: SEC Media representatives compiled a list of conference predictions using seven different magazines and media outlets.

Florida and Auburn are pegged to win the SEC East and West, respectively. Tennessee was placed third in the East behind Florida and Georgia, and ahead of South Carolina, Kentucky and Vanderbilt.

Auburn got the nod ahead of LSU, Alabama, Arkansas, Ole Miss and Mississippi State.

Today’s Lineup: Day two of SEC Media Days is today with Ole Miss, Tennessee, Arkansas and South Carolina on the schedule.

UT coach Phillip Fulmer will be joined by offensive lineman Arron Sears and defensive tackle Justin Harrell.