Toomer's Corner Incident Highlights the Best and Worst of the SEC

Never trust a man with three names. Lee Harvey Oswald, John Wilkes Booth and now Harvey Almorn Updyke, Jr.

The latter, Updyke, doesn't belong in the same sentence with Oswald and Booth because he didn't assassinate the President of the United States, but don't tell Auburn fans that he isn't worthy of such venom because in their minds, he will go down in infamy as the man who murdered the oak trees at "Toomer's Corner."

You see, Harvey Almorn Updyke, Jr. is a staunch supporter of the University of Alabama, especially their football program, as evidenced by the names of two of his children. His daughter, Crimson, was named after the team's nickname and his son, Bear, was named after its legendary coach, Paul "Bear" Bryant.

So this past season, when Updyke visited the University of Alabama for the Iron Bowl, he was enraged to see a Cam Newton jersey adorning the statue of his son's namesake.

So in retaliation, Updyke decided to wander over to the Auburn University campus, which was a mere 30 minutes from his house, and allegedly poisoned the famed oak trees at the corner of College and Magnolia, otherwise known as "Toomer's Corner."

It was a heinous act that likely would have gone undetected until Updyke decided to boast about his feat on The Paul Finebaum Show, a popular radio program broadcast throughout the Southeast. Updyke told Finebaum that he had poisoned the trees with Spike 80DF, a powerful herbicide which taints the soil around the trees.

Auburn officials then tested the soil around the beloved trees and confirmed that the herbicide was indeed present, and it was present in lethal amounts.

Updyke has since been arrested for criminal mischief and is being held on $50,000 bond, and an already heated rivalry has reached a dangerous level of intensity.

Not to mention the national media has taken the ball and run with it in a way that would make even Heisman-Trophy-winning running backs Mark Ingram and Bo Jackson jealous.

The Alabama fanbase has officially dismissed Updyke as a fanatic and has severed ties with him much like the CIA does to its captured agents. But it's hard not to wonder if Updyke hasn't earned a proverbial star on the wall in the hearts of some Alabama fans.

Now I'm not saying that Nick Saban himself planned a sabotage or that Updyke was a patsy, but the cold hard truth is that a large number of Alabama fans  privately support his actions (not a majority, but still a large number), and some even openly commend them.

Others even dismiss it, because, "That's just the way the SEC is."

And while I cannot support such extreme measures, this incident actually highlights what makes the SEC great.

But it also highlights what makes the SEC sad and often disgusting.

The simple reason for both is passion.

I don't mean to romanticize, but Updyke's actions are that of a passionate fan. He certainly took it to an unprecedented extreme, but it was passionate nonetheless.

And it's that passion that makes the SEC the finest college football conference in the land, because it's fueled the growth of the sport in the region with larger recruiting budgets, bigger stadiums and better facilities.

Unfortunately, it's also that sort of passion which has made the SEC a laughingstock to the rest of the nation. Drunken fist fights, awful sportsmanship and shady tactics have all been major black eyes for the conference as a whole.

Some fans are OK with that kind of behavior, because they think that winning is everything and pursue victory with a certain moral ambiguity, but it's time for lines to be drawn. Sure, it may just be a couple of measly trees to the average Bama fan, but it's a slippery slope that could easily lead to more destruction and possibly violence.

As a person who eats, sleepes and breaths SEC football, I often walk the line between passionate and obsessive, but I think that thanks to Updyke, a line has been clearly drawn in the sand, and hopefully the rest of the SEC takes notice because stuff like this cannot be tolerated.

Ryan Wooden is currently serving as a Recruiting Analyst for http://knoxvegasvols.com/. For more recruiting updates and Tennessee related content be sure to check it out. Also follow me on twitter at http://twitter.com/ryan_wooden