SEC Officiating Conspiracy? Redonkulous

Trash talk, Monday morning quarterbacking, and "homerism" hold firmly established places in the world of college football fandom.  Anyone who suggests, or expects, otherwise is not living in reality.  It's fun talking trash!  Check out any online message board and you'll see what I'm talking about.

Conference rivalries, likewise, are a traditional and healthy part of college football as we know it.  Who doesn't love gloating when their conference teams dominate their Bowl opponents, and "prove" conference supremacy for at least one more year?

But in anything, there are going to be your nutjobs...your headcases who can't compartmentalize simple realities like the fact that it's just a game, and nothing of any lasting importance is really riding on a game. 

Yet, in a day and age when we're confronting global terrorism, global economic uncertainty, and the ageless scourges of hunger and poverty, there are those who see dire conspiracy in the most ridiculous places.

I submit the latest of these ridiculous conspiracy theories:  SEC Officials are conspiring to ensure Florida and Alabama meet in the SEC championship game in December. 

You might ask the conspiracy theorist why this conspiracy is being advanced?  For the money to be made, of course.  But the conspiracy theorist apparently thinks no money would be made if, say, Tennessee faced LSU in Atlanta.

As is usually the case with conspiracy theory nutjobs, those shrieking about all the bad calls going Florida's and Alabama's way simply ignore inconvenient facts like the following:

1.  Florida and Alabama have suffered their fair share of bad calls

2.  Usually, the team that wins is simply better—at least on that day—than the loser.

3.  Such a conspiracy would, by design, require the complicity of at least two, but more likely all 12 conference members' University Presidents, Athletic Directors, Head Coaches, as well as the entire cadre of SEC officials.  Yeah...that's likely.

It's bad enough when fans resort to such stupid, ludicrous claims when their team gets taken to the woodshed.  It's worse when reputable journalists fan the idiot flames by writing articles that suggest just such a conspiracy, or at least articles that don't unequivocally deny the possibility of such a conspiracy. 

I can understand this coming from some fans, having been to my fair share of SEC football games and tailgaters.  But I expect more from the media.

SEC Fans—consider the wisdom of Benjamin Franklin.  He said, "He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else."  Man up and stop making lame excuses when your team gets whipped.

The SEC is better than this...SEC fans ought to grow up and act like it.