Interesting. I’m a Southerner and a huge SEC football fan, and I thought it was one of the dumber things I’ve read on the subject.
It’s obvious that a huge number of Alabama grads don’t give a rip about education or the student athlete as long as they have their football.
Oh, sure. OBVIOUS.
Very obvious, yes. It became so when you hired one of the scummiest coaches in all of college football, then erected a statue of him. How many scholarships will you guys revoke this year?
Until this season, ‘the SEC represents a distinct region with no geographical absurdities’ was exactly the case. I don’t consider adding Texas A&M and Missouri as ‘absurdities’ in that they are geographically closer than, say, West Virginia is to the rest of the Big 12.
That said, yes, the SEC’s representation of the South was eroded by the additions. I haven’t really internalized the idea of Texas A&M and Missouri as SEC teams yet; for one thing, Kentucky hasn’t played either one yet (until January 12, when the Aggies get introduced to Rupp Arena). So, if I was overbroad, my mistake. I think the broader point, the the SEC represents the South in a way the the B1G does not represent the Midwest, for instance, stands.
Said future expansion may or may not weaken the culture.
Heh
Kentucky played Missouri on October 27, didn’t they?
See?
Like I said, they don’t give a crap about academics, as long as they win those banners.
Yes, but in Kentucky, football doesn’t really count. I’ll consider them SEC teams when we play them in basketball for a few seasons.
Your bitterness is effervescent and tastes a bit of vanilla to me.
Just for the record, the University of Alabama isn’t a poor acadamic institution:
Bitterness at what? The fact that your coach will almost single-handedly produce another round of NCAA rules and regulations because you people have given him the freedom to shit on kids? Yes, I’m bitter about that.
However, if you think for one second that I’m bitter about your team’s success, you can think again. I know it’s convenient for you to blow off any legitimate criticism as sour grapes, so just keep your head in the sand. We can all see the #1 that youre holding up just fine. It just reinforces everyone’s accurate description of the University of Alabama as a football factory with grossly misplaced priorities.
So, the state’s flagship university made list of Top 50 public schools. I would expect that in a country with 50 states.
Shhhhh! I’m enjoying this!
Alrighty.
We’re getting into special pleading now. Texas and Missouri are closer to the Southeast than Idaho is to the East, for sure, but they’re not in the Southeast. Nobody in Texas, Missouri, or the Southeast would agree with that. The conference is going to expand again. If it expands to North Carolina and Virginia that’s less ridiculous than, say, Illinois and Ohio. But again, this is all about getting more money, not representing a region, and I’m not sure how much North Carolina and Virginia have in common with some of the older SEC locations let alone Missouri and Texas. For that matter since when is Arkansas in the Southeast? It came to the SEC from the Southwest in 1990 (with South Carolina, which is Southeastern for sure).
Ogre, I like to bash the SEC as much as anybody, but I have to acknowledge that post #74 was very eloquently stated. Nicely done.
In part, I think it is. What is important to the people of Alabama isn’t the educational system, it’s not eating healthy, it’s not having protected sex, it’s not addressing poverty, it’s football, and then right wing politics. That’s a state with some fucked up priorities.
Thanks for proving my point.
Did you stop reading after the first sentence?
I’m not saying the SEC’s goal as an institution is to represent the South, or that it’s under some obligation to do so, but rather that it does, in fact, represent the South in the eyes of Southerners, in a way other conferences do not represent regions.
Texas and Missouri don’t represent Southern culture, they have their own, so their addition is counter the SEC’s representing the South.
Arkansas is part of the South, and it’s east enough, just as it was west enough for the SWC.
Sorry, I meant to respond to that point in my last post: I think you’re right about this part. I also think this is a better way of stating the point than arguing about the vagaries of conference geography.
Which is a way of saying Arkansas isn’t in the Southeast. 
No, I just addressed the most glowing of the accolades.
Besides which, I never said, or even implied, that Alabama was a shitty school. I just said that the average Alabama fan couldn’t care less either way.