AJ McCarron and Johnny Manziel Cannot Escape Stardom

If the Southeastern Conference is the king of college football, its star quarterbacks are the princes, on and off the field.

How do I know this?

Monday night the Daily Mail in the United Kingdom was reporting on the personal life of Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron-a report later picked up by American publications on Tuesday. In month's past it seems like Johnny Manziel had a beat writer from celebrity gossip website TMZ documenting his every move from beach trips to stops back home.

Johnny Manziel has thrown out a first pitch in two different major league ballparks. A month ago McCarron was driving the pace car at Talladega.

This isn't normal behavior for college football quarterbacks.

The features in newspapers and covers of college football preview magazines are nothing new for either. However when you combine that success with their youth and model girfiends-it has become the perfect storm. McCarron and Manziel are no longer just stars on the field, they are stars off the field too.

Think of it this way- TMZ has written articles more recently about McCarron and Manziel than about Tom Brady-a 3 time Super Bowl winner who is married to a Victoria's secret model.

We've never seen it before.

Sure Matt Lienart might have been a challenger had TMZ not been in its infancy during his tenure at Southern California, but with the plethora of celebrities and professional sports teams makes it unlikely.

Leinart's celebrity was also hindered by missing out on the twitter/everyone has a smartphone era. For McCarron and Manziel the exposure never stops as everyone wants to snap a photo when they're out and thousands wait on their next tweet (McCarron has over 158,000 followers, Manziel over 358,000).

When Brent Musburger told all of the youngsters in Alabama to "start getting the football out and throw it around the back yard with pop" he was of course talking about Katherine Webb (McCarron's girlfriend), but he also delivered a message.

If you want to win championships, date attractive women and become one of the biggest stars, both on the field and off-no one can facilitate that dream like the Southeastern Conference. Maybe not even the NFL.

Now, the challenge not only lies on trying to maintain each's success on the field, but managing the new-found spotlight off of it.