passion seperates sec fans from others

By B.J. Bennett

SouthernPigskin.com

I could mention that the defending national champions are from the SEC.  I could mention that seven SEC teams are currently ranked in the top 25.  Instead, I'll let the numbers speak for themselves.  Maybe yell for themselves would be a more fitting phrase.

Of the top 20 average attendance figures for Division I college football programs last season (2006), eight came from the SEC.  The runner-up, the Big 12, boasted four.  The SEC had more schools in the top 20 in attendance than the ACC, Big East, Big Ten and Pac Ten combined.  The SEC West alone matched the second place league and topped every other conference in the game.  Five of the top 11 schools in attendance came from the SEC. Four of the top seven schools did. 

You hear people say that the passion fans show for college football in the south is different than anywhere else in the country.  These numbers prove it.  SEC fans are notorious for telling outsiders that they just don't understand.  Consider the above numerical clarification.       

Former Texas A&M linebacker Ed Simonini once said of LSU's Death Valley, "I stood in Tiger Stadium and I thought ‘this is what the coliseum in Rome must have been like'". 

Welcome to the SEC. 

Other leagues have great teams.  Other leagues have great players.  The one characteristic no other conference in college football can match is the passion, intensity and sheer madness that is playing on the road in the SEC.  While other top 25 teams may have one or two tough road games a season, every team in the SEC faces a gauntlet at the beginning of each September. 

Case in point:  LSU was upset by Kentucky 43-37 earlier in the season in Lexington.  Over 70,000 fans witnessed history and took part in one of the most impressive atmospheres in all of college football so far this season.  The Wildcats finished ninth in average home game attendance in the SEC last year.  Such numbers are run of the mill in the south.       

The margin for error on the road in college football?  Slim.  The margin for error on the road in the SEC?  Anorexic. 

It's a task no other league in college football can duplicate.  The SEC is home to the top NFL talent year in and year out; throw in rabid home venues, eight of which overflow with regular attendances over 70,000, and you have a grind that stands alone. 

In the SEC, fans transform a vast picnic area into The Grove.  Fans see a stadium on the river and bring a Navy.  Fans celebrate with "Roll Tide!", "War Eagle!" and "Pig Sooey!".  They greet and depart the same way.  While the press tries to hype the last week in the college football regular season as rivalry week, every week is rivalry week in the SEC.

When discussing which conference is the toughest and which league is the best, remember just how difficult playing on the road in the SEC truly is.  Listen to 105,000 at Neyland Stadium or 85,000+ at Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia and LSU.  That is an argument that's tough not to hear.