The SEC also schedules the smaller conference schools but not home and homes. They often use them as defacto late season bye weeks before their rivalry games. I think it's brilliant. I would like us to do it so we have a chance at a little rest late in the season when the ACC screws us with early bye weeks
There's no getting around the passion that SEC fans have for their football teams. It really is a religion and pro football plays second fiddle down here. People don't understand it unless they live around it. It benefits the SEC in a number of ways. You get more kids playing football at young ages and the it's treated like college football, so there are more regional prospects. Those prospects want to stay closer to home because of their passion for their schools and conference. That passion also fills those huge stadiums and contributes to the pageantry. I think it's overboard, but there's no doubt it's reason to brag. All the local sports talk is related to the SEC. You don't hear national sports talk on the radio or other platforms because it's pushed aside for local/regional stuff, so many fans honestly think there is nothing else going on outside of the SEC. It's a willful ignorance.
I hate pointing this out, but the SEC has been dominant for most of two decades. If it had only been Saban and Alabama, they couldn't make that claim, but it hasn't. When they weren't winning, other schools were. LSU, Georgia, Auburn, and Florida all chipped in. They've won 13 out of the last 20 NCs. And the 2nd and 3rd place schools were often beating big name programs in major bowls or early season games. So the national media has had reason to talk about them a lot, but it has gotten out of hand. I'm not always on the same page as Wilbon, but I like that he calls it out.
I'll be rooting against all SEC teams during the playoff and in any big matchups next year. Let's smack Tennessee next year and root for Miami against Florida, Georgia against Georgia Tech, and Clemson against South Carolina.
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