With voodoo dolls and a "Curse the SEC" proclamation, ESPN magazine's college football preview is asking, "can someone please take down college football's most dominant conference?"
Less than a month till kick off, and this is what finally does it. And by "it" I mean this gets the blood pumping, the adrenaline flowing and I realize ladies and gentleman- it's here. Every reason why I love college football is right here.
After several rants, in my head, on social media and once more in my head, I realized I couldn't be happier that ESPN did this. Curse the SEC? Well, you can certainly try. In fact I wouldn't be a part of the SEC if I didn't chuckle at this. For years the SEC has already faced the brunt of anti-SECism. But now, instead of being confined to just conversations, back of the internet blogs and young 20-something frat guys bickering in bars or Skip Bayless needlessly speaking when he takes a break from Tebow- this sentiment has gone "mainstream" finally gracing the cover of ESPN Magazine. AND- my favorite- it's complete with the statement at the bottom "We're talking to you, Trojans"...
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| Gag me now. |
ESPN officially does not care about transparency.
Every year, fans and media go off intangibles to try to define a season ahead. But without hesitation, before the first whistle even blew I already bet that USC will not make it to a National Championship this year. Sorry to disappoint, ESPN, or any of the other college football fans who are insulted by my confidence. A confidence that has only a little to do with where I come from and everything to do with going against what Alabama Football's fearless leader believes. (I'm sorry Nick Saban, my distaste for Lane Kiffin was overpowering).
We don't know who will get hurt in the season, we don't know who is going to pull a jackass moment and get caught with drugs [at the time of this writing Tyrone Mathieu had not been dismissed- but it goes to show you], DUI's or heaven forbid another sex scandal. Or for those of you who like the glass half-full mentality, we don't know if a break-out star will just unleash come November. We just don't know.
Right now, all we have is that the SEC still has the top two teams in preseason rankings, but Nick Saban will tell you why that doesn't matter worth a shit.
"All these predictions that you all make, they hijack the game,"he said the morning of UA's 2012 Fan Day.
Yes, Saban was talking to the media and maybe for the love of the lord ESPN is taking notes. Especially when he added, "All anybody worries about in college football is the BCS, who's going to be in the final game. We have a lot of great games.... Michigan is going to be a great game, The Arkansas game, Tennessee game, LSU, Auburn. I could go through every game on our schedule and say how exciting a game this is going to be."
Which brings me to my next point.
Time and time again, despite intangibles, there are things we can count on to impact seasons in their entirety. Defense wins championships, and strength of schedule still significantly matters in a system where hundreds of schools are competing for one prize. If you don't compete against the best, then what makes you feel like you deserve to be the best?
And that's why the SEC still gets the win in my mind. Depth is at one of its greatest strengths at Alabama this year. At LSU? Well, their returners are potent with talent that has already taken them through a strong season last year. And they're hungry.
Alabama has a strong pulse of energy to be defined as anything but complacent, and even after winning a National Championship last year, the tone of the season rests on who-ever steps up in leadership positions and reminds them they are not the team of the past and Tuscaloosa wants to make history in 2013. It also rests on the return of a more mature QB, and an O-line that haunts nightmares. (If I had a nickel for every time I heard, "Good lord Fluker's huge" at Fan day...)
There goes some of the reasons people hate SEC fans, and if you're one of those haters, please I beg you just try to finish reading (although I know finishing is hard for some of you). Welp, probably lost a few readers there, but in all seriousness I realize I am a lucky son of a you-know-what to go to school where I go to school, when I go to school. (Roll Tide) I also realize what its like to be on the other side of this argument of passion. I am a Red Sox fan and yes, the Yankees a lot of time are just better. But keep your Alabama, Yankee comparisons to purely win-loss comparison. (Class and respect are things the Yankees don't have and Alabama and the SEC does).
Each conference is full of teams that can boast characteristics making their place to play football, "the best". Ralphie's run on the field is still a source of pride for CU fans- as it should be, and hook em horns (gah it hurts to type) will always be a hand gesture embodying the Texas spirit. There are traditions that make ESPNU's "Never Graduate" hit home at every college campus and the SEC is no different. Yet, every college football fan that comes to an SEC game at Alabama makes the same comment. "I've never seen anything like this." And its usually followed by deeply appreciated moments of silence as the person takes in as much as they can from the scene.
And thats why, when I heard what ESPN Soccernet's Susie Schaaf posted in her blog, I couldn't help but apply it to the SEC.
"Mia san Mia. It's a Bavarian phrase used by Bayern that translates as "We are who we are". It's somewhat akin to the Manc phrase I've seen on banners this year, "Not arrogant. Just better." We are two, insanely proud, universally loved by their fans - and hated by everyone else, clubs with long, storied traditions."
Don't get jealous, get even, and to do that you're going to need a lot more than a pass spread offense with a less than moral-driven coach and a California quarterback.
I'm not saying there won't be a time when the SEC isn't on top. But that time isn't now, and if you ask any serious fan in Dixie, they'll tell you they hope to never see the day when the SEC is overtaken. But the beautiful thing I hope I can speak on behalf of all SEC fans in saying, is when that time does come, if an opponent meets an SEC team on the gridiron, the only way we will accept defeat is to a worthy opponent whose performance is as respectful as ours, both to the game, to the fans and to the legacy of college football which is so proudly protected under southern skies.
Until then, we're not arrogant. Just better, and its literally a fact.
When you produce running backs in a time honored brotherhood whose unspoken traits are consistently; perseverance, physicality, pugnacious fervor to take something head on, and the undeniably SEC will to never be denied....
When your stadium erupts when linebacker's names come across the jumbotron...
When your fans have nothing else to live and breathe for than football- or so it seems every Saturday....
When being a part of your program, even as a fan isn't all glitz but sometimes its a craziness you must accept. When you have fans who show up to a public practice over 72 hours early and camp out for the chance to be first in the stadium for the past five Fan Days...
When your schools never rush the field after a win, because winning is what you came to do and acting like you've never won before says more than the score does... and that's when the southerners say, "Oh bless their heart, they're rushin the field."
When ladies wear dresses, pearls and full make up and curls, and the men wear slacks, polos or even suits to games like its time to go to church. Because football is a religion that doesn't discriminate based on anything but color of jersey and because the respect for this game is more than just cheering, its a tradition that stems from something much bigger than seeing one year in the winner's circle.
You might find my prose dripping with everything that makes the SEC despicable to you. But when your school does all that I just mentioned, then you may know what it means to be in the SEC and what it feels like to have a mantra that is often mistaken for arrogance. To have fans who are often mistaken for elitists. What you are really seeing is a pride that comes from respecting what sacrifice is, and while every team this season comes from adversity, has it's troubles, and makes it's compromises no matter their conference- SEC teams are filling their fall camps with the mentality that nothing is born out of being good, but everything is born in the sacrifice to be great.
Here's what I say to all SEC fans insulted by the lack of professional journalism ESPN showed in their recent magazine cover. Targets on SEC backs are not new and ESPN's love affair with the Trojans isn't either. So why am I so happy about this cover? Because any smart college football fan knows, never piss off an SEC team.
The SEC welcomes the chance every year to be denied. Because in those challenges that threaten to dethrone them, the conference proves time and time again just why they belong on top.
Thanks for the fuel ESPN. Let the season begin, and we'll show you what being a part of the SEC is all about- and it has nothing to do with cursing the opponent and everything to do with a shut-up and play grit that has carried this conference to dominance for six straight years.
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