Here’s news, hot off the presses.

The SEC West is better than the SEC East.

Well, that’s not exactly news. But it’s looking more like a solid fact after the division went to 5-0 against the East this season with Texas A&M’s 45-38 double-overtime win over the best team in the East (for now), Tennessee. You also have Ole Miss beating Georgia, LSU handling Missouri and Mississippi State and Texas A&M both taking down South Carolina.

Sure, there’s a lot of football yet to be played, but if this was a boxing match, the ref might have stopped the fight already.

Alabama: In this era where old, iconic coaches fade away as the game evolves past them (the latest? Les Miles), it was interesting to see yet another example of the evolved Nick Saban winning a high-scoring shootout in a 49-30 win over Arkansas. The Tide gave up yards — 400 passing yards to Austin Allen — but was unstoppable on offense early and got two more defensive touchdowns, giving the Tide nine non-offensive touchdowns on the year.

The amazing thing about modern Alabama is that it can be what it needs to be almost on demand. The first half saw Lane Kiffin’s offense crank up the passing game in a wide-open style and put up 35 points. In the second half, the Tide ran the ball, controlled the tempo and allowed the defense to deliver knockout blows (a.k.a. Minkah Fitzpatrick’s 100-yard interception return for a touchdown). No team and no program in modern college football is more versatile than Alabama.

Arkansas: Where do the Hogs go from here? At 4-2 and having lost to the SEC West’s two best (and undefeated) teams in Alabama and Texas A&M, the Hogs now continue the SEC schedule against the rugged West with no realistic division championship hopes. The good news? In a year where offense is at a premium, Arkansas showed in Saturdays’ 49-30 loss to Alabama that it can pressure teams with good defenses to have to crank up  their offenses, maybe more than they’d typically have to in order to win games.

Offensively challenged future opponents like Florida, LSU and Auburn will know they need to put points on the board to beat the Razorbacks. If Arkansas can put up 30 points and 400 passing yards against Alabama, those teams aren’t likely to shut the Hogs down either.

Auburn: The Tigers’ formula of playing defense and running the ball continues to look solid. And so does the play of Sean White at quarterback. In its 38-14 rout of Mississippi State, Auburn held the Bulldogs to 289 yards, forced three turnovers and had three sacks. Carl Lawson had two sacks, giving him six on the year, including a strip sack of Nick Fitzgerald that Montravius Adams returned for a touchdown.

But an even more pleasant development is the continued solid play on offense. Kamryn Pettway’s 169 yards rushing, and White’s efficient passing (14-for-18, 204 yards) show that the offense may be evolving into something that can be a threat, not just a unit that waits around for the defense to win the game for it.

LSU: Missing the Florida game is going to lead to some awkward scheduling if commissioner Greg Sankey is truly going to act on his pledge of getting the game rescheduled. The most likely date for that is Nov. 19, which would create a stretch of three SEC road games for the Tigers in 12 days — at Arkansas, at Florida and at Texas A&M (on Thanksgiving, making it a short week).

It’s hard to imagine any other scenario where an LSU-UF game with championship implications can be played during the regular season (the SEC could move the Georgia-Florida game, but given the “event” nature of that game in Jacksonville, it would be a logistical nightmare). Regardless, the Tigers are likely looking at a brutal stretch of games, throwing Florida somewhere into a late-season mix that already includes Alabama, Arkansas and Texas A&M.

Mississippi State: Dan Mullen has been a good coach of underdog teams in his Mississippi State tenure, turning teams with little depth of talent into SEC contenders. But those recent winning teams had bell cows on either side of the ball to rally behind in quarterback Dak Prescott and Chris Jones, the underrated defensive tackle who anchored the defense last season. Without those centerpieces on both sides of the ball, the Bulldogs’ list of three-star prospects quickly becomes ordinary, at best.

In a 38-14 loss to Auburn, the offense lacked a playmaker, and the defense was even more disappointing, allowing what was supposed to be Auburn’s weakness (its offense) to roll up 432 yards. Mullen is still a fine coach, but finding a path to six wins and bowl-eligibility gets tougher with each passing week unless the “developmental” process reveals a couple of signature players who currently don’t exist on the roster.

Texas A&M: The good news for the Aggies? There’s plenty, starting with the fact that they are 6-0 and remain on schedule to contend for a national championship after a 45-38 double-overtime win over Tennessee. And A&M showed resilience with an experienced quarterback in Trevor Knight — who ran for three touchdowns and passed for two — displaying the leadership needed to make plays in key moments.

But at the same time, there was reason for concern. An Aggies defense that had looked improved gave up 684 yards to the Vols. Knight’s pretty much a 50 percent passer and arguably doesn’t get enough chunk throws (239 yards on 34 throws against UT) to justify the low percentage. And there was the collapse, blowing leads of 28-7 in the third quarter and 35-21 with 3:21 left (in their defense, join the club because everybody collapses against UT). And back to the good news: Those are all cheap lessons the Aggies will have two weeks to work on before going to Alabama.