Southern Pride
Conventional wisdom in college football says a two-loss team doesn’t belong in the national championship game.
But Charles Bloom knows the Southeastern Conference doesn’t follow the same guidelines as most conferences.
The associate commissioner of the SEC has seen over the past few years the conference become the best in the land. So when LSU made the national championship game with two losses last season, it was no shock to Bloom, even though no two-loss team had played for a national championship since the induction of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) in 1998.
‘If you can win the SEC championship, odds are you can play for the national championship, and that says a lot about the league,’ Bloom said. ‘When people look at the pre-season magazines, there are a lot of people who say that a two-loss SEC team, depending on what happens elsewhere in the country, can compete for a national championship again.’
With an abundance of quality players and teams, a coaching list that is second to none, and a great atmosphere for college football, the SEC has separated itself from every other conference in the land.
Mississippi State head coach Sylvester Croom has coached in the SEC more than 13 years and is in the process of rebuilding a Mississippi State program that had been floundering for years.
‘Our conference is the toughest conference in the country,’ said the reigning SEC coach of the year at the league’s summer media session in July. ‘We’ve got more national championships, we got more players in the pros. So our talent level in this conference in the best in the country. The quality of our coaches is the best in the country.’
The achievements of the conference alone speak for itself. With LSU’s 2007 national championship, the conference has now won three of the last six national titles. The SEC became the first conference to win consecutive BCS championships, and its seven bowl wins last year were also a record.
And that was just 2007.
The SEC has the most national titles (four) since the induction of the BCS in 1998. Since 2000, the conference also has the top winning percentage in bowl games. The conference led the nation with 253 players on opening day 2007 NFL rosters and 35 selections in the 2008 NFL draft. If that’s not enough, Florida quarterback Tim Tebow became the youngest player to ever win the Heisman Trophy.
What separates the SEC from other conferences is the league’s overall strength.
Composed of 12 schools from nine states – Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee – the SEC had nine teams reach a bowl last year. Yet from week to week, upsets were common due to the caliber of the competition from top to bottom.
Dave Baker, host of Raycom Sports’ ‘SEC Football Today,’ points out how LSU, the top team in the nation, lost in conference games to Kentucky and Arkansas, a pair of 8-5 teams.
This year’s top-ranked squad, Georgia, was even upset last year by a 6-6 South Carolina team that was mediocre by SEC standards.
Why are such upsets so common? Largely because of a rich talent pool – think Tim Tebow, JaMarcus Russell, Glenn Dorsey, Darren McFadden – in the southeastern part of the country, where the SEC has a distinct homefield advantage in recruiting battles.
Burke Hayes, regional manager of southeast football recruiting for Scout.com, says the southeast has deeper and better classes of recruits to stock SEC programs.
For example, on LSU’s roster, 93 of its 115 players are from states in SEC territory, including Scout.com’s top-ranked cornerback from the southeast, freshman Patrick Peterson of Blanche Ely (Fla.) High School.
‘Most of the players want to play in the SEC just because of the exposure and the level of competition each week,’ said Mississippi State sophomore quarterback Wesley Carroll. ‘For the most part, if a school from the SEC does recruit a player heavily, nine out of 10 times they’re going to get the guy because there is so much the SEC has to offer. It’s undeniable how many guys from the SEC go on to the pros and that sparks interest in young players’ minds.’
The SEC’s reputation also helps on a national level. Georgia was able to sign running back Knowshon Moreno from New Jersey, who is now a Heisman Trophy candidate.
Coaches are also an integral part of the SEC’s success story. Five of them -LSU’s Les Miles, South Carolina’s Steve Spurrier, Florida’s Urban Meyer, Alabama’s Nick Saban and Tennessee’s Phil Fulmer – have won national titles, more than any other conference. More than some conferences combined (Big East and Big Ten).
With such high-profile coaches, it’s not surprising that success breeds more success.
‘The coaches in this league are one reason that makes the conference great,’ said former Mississippi State head coach Rocky Felker, now the team’s running back coach. ‘It’s been that way for years. The great coaches want to coach at places where football is important, where it’s a priority and fans are going to be supportive.’
CBS College Sports Network football analyst Brian Jones said the SEC’s coaches are experts in both recruiting the players they need for their game plans and getting the best out of them.
Beyond the product on the field, there is an unparalleled enthusiasm for college football in the southeast. Fans show up in hordes each weekend for the games and sell out stadiums on a regular basis.
Last season, the SEC led the nation in attendance for the 27th straight season. Its spring preview media guide reports that 97.69 percent of each stadium was filled to capacity for home games, and six of the top 10 schools for attendance in the nation were from the conference (Tennessee, Auburn, Georgia, LSU, Alabama, Florida).
‘The fans are wrapped into football,’ Felker said. ‘It’s not only a three- to four-month passion for the fans, it’s a 12-month process and that’s the biggest thing. There is nothing like going on the road and the enthusiasm and the way the teams get behind their teams on game day. I’ve coached some other places in the country and there are a lot of great programs and conferences out there, but there is just something special about Southeastern Conference football.’
While the SEC is certainly enjoying a great run at the top of college football world, prosperity in college football is often cyclical.
Still, Bloom and the rest of SEC are enjoying their reign atop the college football world while it lasts.
‘In terms of the history of the SEC, we are enjoying one of our best times, having the success we’ve had the past couple of years,’ Bloom said. ‘We’re just hoping it continues.’
Published on August 27, 2008 at 12:00 pm
