Last week was my first visit to Jordan-Hare Stadium in 25 years.

I attended the Auburn-Tennessee showdown, 12 hours after covering a high school contest between Keith and Holy Spirit in Orrville.

I completely forgot how different Jordan-Hare Stadium is from other college football venues across the country. It freaked me out for a moment as I was watching each team go through pre-game warmups.

The stadium is designed north-to-south, unlike being placed east-to-west like Alabama or other SEC venues.

I prefer the east-to-west view. Football is much better to watch that way. That’s the way football should be viewed.

We all know Tennessee pulled off a 30-24 upset in a game the Volunteers dominated in the second half.

The Auburn-Tennessee game set off a wild string of upset victories across the college football landscape the second week of October.

So much for Auburn challenging in-state rival Alabama and Georgia for the SEC championship. The other Tigers, LSU, have taken their place.

I no longer cover sports, but it doesn’t stop countless people telling me a lot of these SEC games are a waste of time, especially Georgia at LSU, Florida at Mississippi State and LSU at Auburn. All three were huge upsets.

I usually don’t watch pregame shows, unless there’s an intriguing player profile that catches my attention. Having talking heads tell me who’s going to win doesn’t work nor armchair quarterbacks. I just want to watch the game and see how it turns out. I enjoy it that way.

My mind quickly flashed to the Governor’s race between Incumbent Gov. Kay Ivey (Republican) and Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox (Democrat). Maddox supports gambling in the state and discussed it on the campaign trail.

“Sports wagering will be part of our calculus to address the lack of state troopers and the looming financial crisis for hospitals, mental health and corrections,” Maddox said.

If Maddox wins on Nov. 6, I’m betting a lot of sports fans will anxiously wait for gambling to become legal statewide.