Let the BIG DOGS eat.
In 1932 thirteen teams left the then Southern Conference to form what we know today as the SEC. Over 75 years later, that conference that was formed on December 8th is the most powerful collegiate conference in the nation. You ask what goes into being the most powerful? Is it winning games and championships? Is it putting players into the league? Is it having the highest paid and most elite coach’s available? Is it turning ridiculous profit year in and year out? The truth is it is all of these and more.
The SEC has been the top level of Collegiate football for as long as I can remember in my eyes, and as for the past decade, it has been dominating to any set of eyes. Five National Championships(’03 LSU, ’06 UF, ’07 LSU, ’08 UF, and ’09 UA), and another undefeated season that saw an SEC team get “screwed” out of the big game (’04 AU.) It has become an understanding that the SEC champion will go on to play for the National Title, and with the competition goin on every saturday in the Southeast there is not an educational argument that can be made otherwise.
The SEC is a money machine, with a monsterous TV contract and constant expansions of stadiums and programs, the South Eastern Conference has been able to bring in positive revenue despite the failing economy. As of 2010 not many other conferences could claim the same. In fact out of the top ten revenue turning schools in the NCAA, the SEC claims 6 (for those keeping count, that is half of our conference.) Of course with all of the expansion the SEC continues to pursue, this revenue will do nothing more than climb more.
Competition in the SEC is also at best in the nation, many in the NFL have said that it is the closest you will get to the action on Sunday. The fastest, strongest, smartest, and most athletic play in the Southeast as you can see every year in February as SEC teams grace the tops of every recruiting sites respected class rankings. High school kids want to go to schools that they have the opportunity to play on the big level, they want to play for championships and be given the best possibility to play on Sundays. They want to play for coaches that are household names such as Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, Steve Spurrier, and Bobby Petrino. These kids want the best opportunity and that is in the SEC, not the BIG 10 or 11 or whatever they are, Not the BIG12, Not the PAC 10, Not the ACC or Big East, and definitly not any mid major conference. The SEC is top tier in the NCAA, and honestly I dont see that changing anytime soon.
So until other conferences and schools want to get on “our” level here in the south, move over and let the BIG DOGS eat!
Jables
