Why Do SEC Fans Talk So Much About Their Conference?

There has been a lot of off-season chatter about strength of conferences and whether the SEC is really so much better than the rest.  That is not where I'm going here, as I believe that the numbers speak for themselves on that point.

A bigger question is why do SEC fans tend to think as much about their conference as they do about their individual teams?

First of all, let me put an end to what has been advanced by a few that it's the lesser teams riding the coattails of the power teams.  That is patently not true.  In fact, the opposite would be more true.

You rarely hear fans from Kentucky, Mississippi State, or Vanderbilt make any noise at all.  It doesn't make a difference if it's about their team or the conference, they just don't engage much.  There is a reason for that.

Instead, you hear the power teams (Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, LSU, etc.) being among the most vocal that the conference is supreme.  These teams (some more than others) have plenty of accomplishments and don't need to ride any coattails. 

In fact, if this coattail theory were true, you would think that these teams would not want others trying to lay claim to any of their hard work.  So obviously, that's not it.

So what is it?  Well, I'm here to tell you that it's a cultural thing—a "Southern thang," if you will.  Here's what I mean.

Much of this phenomenon has to do with regional pride. Whether you think it's good or bad, most of the South could all be one big state as far as cultural things go. There isn't that much difference between an Arkansas fan and a Georgia fan...and we all know it.

College football is a religion in the South, and we all belong to the same denomination. We may have different church locations (Georgia, Alabama, LSU, etc.) but our denomination is SEC football.

There are stories every year about how weddings and funerals are planned around games.  And when a wedding (and sometimes a funeral) takes place in mixed company (that is to say attended by fans of more than one school), it's not uncommon to hear the yells and chants of those schools being called out at the wedding.  It's crazy but it's true. 

I was at one wedding between an Arkansas alumnus and an Auburn alumnus when competing "War Eagle" chants and "Hog Calls" were happening.  We laugh, shake our collective heads, and murmur to ourselves..."only in the South." 

In the movie "Sweet Home Alabama," Reese Witherspoon's character (upon returning to Alabama after being in New York for several years) flatly says, "I swear you need a passport to come down here."  It's kind of true.

At any rate, we see ourselves as Southerners of which college football is only one of the many things we like in common. We all love barbecue. We all like beer. We love the hot women at the tailgate festivities.  Many of us grew up listening to the likes of Lynyrd Skynyrd, .38 Special, and other "Southern Rock" bands.  Many of us (though certainly not all) like to fish and/or hunt. You could think of most of us as a big family.

Therefore, if you considered the SEC to be one big group of 12 brothers, you would start to understand. Think of your own siblings. You may say nasty things about your brother and have fistfights in the back yard.

But in the end, nobody else better badmouth your brother or that person will be answering to you. That is the mentality in the South.

There are exceptions. Many Bama fans cannot bring themselves to pull for Auburn in a bowl game, even though it helps the conference maintain its standing as the nation's best. I personally find it hard to root for Tennessee under any circumstances.

But I have friends who are UT fans; we joke and it never gets out of hand. There is a Southern gentility about the whole thing in that we can get very rowdy, but we always try to stay respectful.

Speaking of one big family, here's something else you don't see much in other conferences.  In fact, one might think of it as nearly "incestuous."  Tommy Tuberville was the Ole Miss coach before he became the Auburn coach.  Nick Saban was the LSU coach before becoming the Bama coach. Steve Spurrier was the Florida coach before taking the South Carolina job. Houston Nutt was the Arkansas coach before he became the Ole Miss coach.

There aren't any other conferences whose fan bases could so quickly accept as their own someone who used to coach a rival or another conference school.  Imagine if Lloyd Carr took the head coaching job at Wisconsin or Ohio State.  It would never happen.

It's because we're all tight that way that it can happen here. The way we see it, it makes for some good Saturday drama and some pretty clever and funny T-shirts that get sold by the merchandise vendors in the parking lots.

By this point, you may be thinking "those hicks, those rednecks."  In some ways, that may be part of it. I will admit that for most "rednecks" their favorite sport is football (and usually the college kind), and that they very strongly pull for their own teams.

However, they also pull for the Southern teams against the non-Southern teams, too. It's just a Southern thing.

Finally, the reason that we find it so easy to pull for each other when we play outside the conference is because we know without a doubt that the other school's fans are pulling for our team when we play out of conference.

Believe me, when your team of choice doesn't "represent" the family well, we the fans hear about it from the other school's fans.  It's because we all mutually want the protect the family name.