HOOVER — The television lineups for the first three weeks of the season were released Wednesday at SEC Media Days.

Alabama’s home opener against Florida International on Sept. 12 will be a 6 p.m. kickoff and will be a pay-per-view game. The next week, Week 3, Alabama plays North Texas at 11:21 a.m. in a regionally televised game on the new SEC Network.

The Tide opens the season Sept. 5 in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Classic against Virginia Tech in Atlanta. That game will be broadcast on ABC at 7 p.m.

Auburn opens at home Sept. 5 against Louisiana Tech. That game will be televised at 6 p.m. on ESPNU. The Tigers play their SEC opener Sept. 12 at home against Mississippi State. The 6 p.m. kickoff will be televised on FOX Sports Net. In Week 3, the Tigers play another home night game, against West Virginia, at 6:45 p.m. on either ESPN or ESPN2.

Slive sounds warning
In addition to his self-proclaimed SEC “brag bag,” commissioner Mike Slive issued a warning to league coaches and athletic departments about secondary infractions.

It’s pretty clear the commish is tired of these types of reports coming into the league office. He said the league reviews every secondary violation. It has standard penalties that he called “generally more aggressive” than would be applied by the NCAA.

“A key aspect of our review of ‘secondaries’ is to determine if there’s a pattern beginning to emerge at an institution, within a sport or around a particular individual, be it coach, administrator or prospect,” Slive said. “When trends are detected, the penalties and corrective actions become more severe.”

Slive indicated that some feel that getting hit with a secondary violation is worth the risk to land a prized recruit.

“As we told our coaches earlier this week in our new coaches orientation program, any time — any time — they commit a secondary violation, they place themselves, their program and the institution and the prospect at risk,” Slive said. “The risk may be lost recruiting opportunities, lost ability to interact with prospects and additional scrutiny for themselves and their program.”

Knowing his place
Kentucky coach Rich Brooks jokingly shrugged off his appearance at the podium. Brooks was the final coach of the day.

“I’ll be last,” he said. “That’s where we get picked every year, so it’s kind of appropriate, I guess.”

At the end of his session, he broke up the room again.

“You guys can go have a cocktail, a cold beer, talk about where you’re going to put Kentucky again,” he smiled. “Have some fun with it. I’m having fun trying to prove you wrong on occasion.”

Stretching the schedule
By playing eight SEC games, no team in the league has an easy schedule. But several teams have big logistical challenges.

Vanderbilt plays 12 straight games with no open dates. The Commodores kick off on Sept. 5 and play every week through the Tennessee game on Nov. 21.

“It is a challenge to play 12 straight games,” Vandy coach Bobby Johnson said. “You have to plan for it. You have to be smart in the preseason, not just work ‘em to death ... Then during the season, you have to get smart about any kind of contact that you have during the week and the length of your practices.”

Several other schools play 11 straight weeks. South Carolina plays 11 straight games and has an open date before the Clemson game. Arkansas, Ole Miss and Kentucky play their openers, have an open date, then play on 11 straight weekends. Auburn plays 11 straight games before an off week Nov. 21.

“We’re going to have to be a very, very well-conditioned football team,” Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino said. “So what we do in our training camp, and what we do in our preparation leading up to our opening game will be a little different than we have in the past. We’re going to spend a little bit more time lifting weights. We’re going to spend a little bit more time on our conditioning and making sure that we’re ready for that 11-game stretch.”

Year 2 improvement
Petrino hopes tradition holds and the Razorbacks enjoy similar success enjoyed by other coaches in their second year.

Mark Richt at Georgia, Alabama’s Nick Saban and Florida’s Urban Meyer enjoyed breakout seasons in their second year.

“Change is hard on everybody,” Petrino said. “When you have new philosophies, new ways that you work, new ways that you practice, it takes a while for players to adapt and adjust to that. Our players have been in our system now for a year. They understand what the expectations are. Not only of the coaching staff, but they’ve now learned to expect that from themselves and from each other.”
Tide lands commitment
Alabama’s Nick Saban’s turn at SEC Media Days is Thursday, but the Tide did make some news Wednesday.

Alabama landed its 17th commitment for the 2010 recruiting class when Columbus, Ga., tight end Brian Vogler announced he was headed to Tuscaloosa.

Vogler, 6-foot-7, 250 pounds, picked Alabama over Oklahoma. He is rated by rivals.com as the No. 6 tight end in the nation.

The school also confirmed the departures of linebackers Charlie Kirschman and Brandon Fanney, defensive back Alonzo Lawrence and center Evan Cardwell.