SB Nation Atlanta Editor's Pick
Once upon a time there was a Conference that was looked down on by the rest of the country
by Atlanta's original team on Sep 14, 2010 6:05 PM EDT
Email
PrintIt had been at least 13 years since a college football team from the conference had been bestowed the title of National Champions. Often times teams from the conference could not play significant bowl games because they were not considered strong enough outside of conference play and therefore were not invited. When they did play strong opponents from other conferences they often blew the opportunity. Even the flagship team of the conference was known to get the crap beat out of it when playing for all the marbles. Other times they played well and won convincingly only to have pollsters second guess the strength of their opponent. It was a self-perpetuating cycle from the mid 60's to the late 70's.
So what did people in the region do? Rather than rag on their conference they boldly proclaimed that they were in fact the best conference in the land. The usual argument went like this. "If those teams from other parts of the country had to play in our conference they would not win as many games. Our teams beat each other up all season long and that is why their records aren't as good." Additional arguments complained that refs looked on their teams as inferior keeping them from getting the benefit of the doubt on critical calls. Pollsters from the region began to stack their votes against teams from other parts of the country to make this conference look better. One famous quote from a Southern pollster was, "I will never vote for Notre damn Dame Yankee U as long as I have a vote."
But the most amazing demonstration was from rank and file fans who simply believed that their teams were the best no matter what the polls or the scoreboards said. Call it chutzpah, call it moxie, call it gumption, call it delusional, over the decades it began to work. Talk about your cliches -"fake it till you make it; believe it till you conceive it; think it is so until it is so; act as if . . ." Eventually reality caught up to belief. Polls started to change. The ball began to bounce differently. Calls from refs became more favorable. It all came together.
The amazing thing about this conference is that the flagship team, Alabama, is still an abysmal 4-16-2 against Texas, Notre Dame, Michigan and Oklahoma, but it doesn't matter. History is forgotten. Hype reigns. Success breeds success. The fans believed in the conference with such ferocity that they finally convinced the players, pollsters and fans of this conference and every other conference. And by my estimation believing is about 90% of winning.
33 comments
|
1 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
wow...
great insight…. very nice read
This is my Family Tradition
by The_GT_LineageX11 on Sep 15, 2010 12:07 AM EDT reply actions
and
its all about perception… all it is really
This is my Family Tradition
by The_GT_LineageX11 on Sep 15, 2010 12:08 AM EDT reply actions
Its not ALL about perception
but perception is a big part of it. Most Southerners believed with all of their hearts that their SEC teams were stronger. Any little victory was further proof. Close losses were counted as wins along the category of “If only if . . .” Lopsided losses were mourned deeply not because they proved the conference inferior but because these gave fodder to the unbelievers in other parts of the country.
But yes, my point is that perception is very important. Was the SEC considerably less strong than it is now? I would argue no. The differences between conferences are almost always very slight. The difference between a win and a loss, as we saw the first week, is often one penalty or missed call, or one busted play or missed assignment. The difference between a loss and a blowout loss often has to do with momentum and lack of mental toughness.
Of course there are exceptions for games like Alabama versus Duke.
by Atlanta's original team on Sep 15, 2010 7:29 AM EDT up reply actions
Rec'd.
for HOPE
Better to have died a small boy than to drop this football - John HeismanFromTheRumbleSeat
by Winfield Featherston on Sep 15, 2010 2:30 PM EDT reply actions
you gotta crawl before you can walk :-)
by Atlanta's original team on Sep 15, 2010 3:47 PM EDT up reply actions
tis
is true
This is my Family Tradition
by The_GT_LineageX11 on Sep 16, 2010 3:00 PM EDT up reply actions
real question is whether or not we are crawling yet
by Atlanta's original team on Sep 17, 2010 8:51 AM EDT up reply actions
I wish we were all so wise as you, atl's
but perhaps not quite as old :P.
Honestly though, as someone who just came into the CFB universe in 2008, its great to hear perspective from a voice who’s known a different side of the tracks… especially when the people you dislike were the ones tied to the tracks instead of you…gives a nice, malignant comfort :)
Paul Johnson: not giving a shit about what you have to say since 1987.
being old beats the alternative
if you know what I mean. Now comes the rest of the confession. In my youth I used to pull for the SEC along with pulling for Tech which was an independent. I drank the kool-aid along with everyone else in the South. We just “knew in our hearts” that our teams were better even though we were not showing up well on the national stage. When I became an adult I quit thinking like a child but apparently the rest of SEC fans never quit. To their credit they have willed themselves into national prominence.
Here is how it works today for them. In the 2009 Sugar Bowl Alabama lost to Utah 31-17. For discussion’s sake let’s say Alabama loses next year’s bowl game to Ohio State. Even though that would be two major losses in three years Alabama fans will count the win over an injury riddled Texas team as the true proof of their superiority in all things football.
by Atlanta's original team on Sep 17, 2010 8:50 AM EDT up reply actions
ATL's Original....
Our wise sage
Better to have died a small boy than to drop this football - John HeismanFromTheRumbleSeat
by Winfield Featherston on Sep 18, 2010 12:14 AM EDT via mobile reply actions
Yeah it's all perception.....
The reality is not that the conference has won 4 straight titles and 6 overall in the BCS era with 4 different teams, nor gone 13-3 combined in BCS bowls. It’s not like they have 4 of the top 15 teams in wins and 5 of the top 25, and they definitely don’t have 7 of the top 20 teams in bowl wins and 3 of the top 10 in bowls played. They certainly don’t have 17 National Championships as a conference, which is nowhere near the most of any conference. The will of the fans “convinced the players, pollsters and fans of this conference (wait……) and every other conference” that the SEC is a good conference, because they were clearly awful until that point.
(Since 1951, the longest the SEC has gone without a National Championship is 12 years (1980-1992), and during that time two teams (Georgia 1982, Alabama 1989) played for the National Championship)
Sounds like you have an axe to grind
but be that as it may, no one said the SEC was not a great conference. The point is that conferences have ups and downs. Only fans who are drunk on the power of “just believing” believe their conference is great every year. My experience is that SEC fans believe more deeply than any other group of fans, even when their flagship teams are getting beaten by 20 points in bowl games.
The ACC is also a very good conference, just not this year.
by Atlanta's original team on Sep 20, 2010 12:11 PM EDT reply actions
This year....
oh lord I hope that rivalry weekend doesn’t turn out as lovely as the second week did
Paul Johnson: not giving a shit about what you have to say since 1987.
You last sentence doesn't make sense to me
Wouldn’t it be equally true to say that “the ACC is not a very good conference this year”? If I may say so, either you’re good or you ain’t. “Not good right now” is the same as not good.
Is the SEC good this year? Yes: see Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, Arkansas, and LSU. Is the Pac-10 good this year? Yes: see Oregon, Arizona, USC. Big X’s good this year, too. Is the ACC good this year? Based on the current sample, gotta say no. Things could turn around, but it’s going to be hard to shake the week-2 record.
What makes the problem worse for the ACC and other conferences is that SEC is always one of the best. Sometimes is the Big-12 and the SEC, sometimes the ACC and the SEC, sometimes the Pac-10 and the SEC, but it’s always the SEC.
The perception problem thus has two parts: other conferences have to be consistently good, and the SEC has to start being less consistently good.
by first and thom on Sep 21, 2010 2:33 PM EDT up reply actions
I would also say that the SEC is a good conference
even in years when they get their asses kicked by out of conference teams. My point is that the SEC faithful never dump in their own back yards. They just keep believing.
In 1972 Auburn lost to Oklahoma 40-22 in the Sugar Bowl and Alabama lost to Nebraska 38-6 in the Orange Bowl. SEC fans, by their shear confidence, were able to convince the rest of the country that this was just a fluke year, even though they were in the middle of a decade without having won a national championship. The SEC was slightly down but there was no reason for people to say that it was a washed up conference or that it had never been any good.
Same way now with the ACC. Florida State, Miami, Georgia Tech and Clemson all have storied football traditions. It’s not like they have always been weak. It is a little bit like the child who asked her father (as recently reported on a sports blog) “Dad, has Notre Dame ever been good?” Believe it or not there were children who could have asked that about their favorite SEC team in years past but they didn’t. The reason? Competing in and winning the SEC was always more important than whether or not you could beat Notre Dame.
by Atlanta's original team on Sep 21, 2010 3:53 PM EDT up reply actions
...The argument we should
Focus on our teams, rather than our conferences… ACC is not helping us and we are not helping it…but we can still be proud of our school…
ps. The SEC is better, they consistently win non-conference records year…year out. And their best consistently beat everyone elses best. I am a fan of focusing on arguements I can with with consistent and unemotional reasoning. Conference dominance is not one of them.
M-Train Engineer, with significant experience in non-language related skills....
by A hellava Financial Engineer on Sep 21, 2010 3:25 PM EDT reply actions
You are right of course
my hyperbole was focused on suggesting that the SEC never gets down on itself and that is at least part of the secret of their success. The SEC is not always dominant. It is just dominant right now. But when it was not dominant their fans did not love them any less or cheer less loudly. They carry in their hearts a deep belief that they are the best year after year, even in years when they get their asses kicked.
The ACC should take a lesson.
by Atlanta's original team on Sep 21, 2010 3:57 PM EDT up reply actions
Gumption and $100 million Athletic Budgets at several schools will get that for you.
Having CBS, and eventually the SEC Network, won’t hurt either.
It is still about the Academics. I believe that any team that wins a National Championship will get scrutiny from the NCAA looking for violations (usually called in by Pumpkinhead himself). If it were not for the Academic concerns at the Power SEC Schools, Vandy would compete for the SEC Championship every few years.
When guys can get a PE degree, or Socio-Criminology-Home Economics degree, why go for a BS in Engineering. You’ve got Football to play!
Win a Championship, and unless you’ve got Urban running the program, you’ll be looking at the NCAA from across the table. (Update, UF=30 some odd players in trouble with the law over the past few years). “Prepare to Die”.
I’ll bet Sabin won’t get the NCAA proctoscope, but those other state schools are investigations waiting to happen.
by DressHerInWhiteAndGold on Sep 22, 2010 7:22 PM EDT reply actions
This sounds like sour grapes
It ain’t like CBS picked the SEC before the SEC was any good, or that ESPN just drew conferences out of a hat. The rich get richer, but they were rich to start with.
And I don’t know what you mean in your sentence about Vandy.
The NCAA is coming down hard on players at several schools, several from the SEC. And it’s true that the SEC is not as academically strong as the ACC or – especially – the Big X. I just don’t buy that there is a causal connection there, or that there is a causal connection between winning championships and getting the NCAA up your cornhole. What about LSU? Texas? Florida? South Carolina is in the most trouble, and they have been (until this year) synonymous with mediocrity.
by first and thom on Sep 22, 2010 10:52 PM EDT up reply actions
Poor Vandy
being in a “football” conference means that the other schools never have to envy you even though your school has students who can put together complete sentences.
by Atlanta's original team on Sep 23, 2010 9:10 AM EDT up reply actions
Or you can be like Josh Nesbitt....
and most of your football players and major in management!!! Why studying engineering when you’ve got football to play?
News Flash: Football players are usually dumb as hell, no matter where they go to school, and GT is no exception. Players like Bedford are the exception, not the rule.
Not letting you get by with that comment
For some reason I rode the M-Train, got a job, hated it, and went back to Tech to get an EE degree (one of my proudest accomplishments in life). The M-Train is easier than engineering, by all means. But it’s on an entirely different level than degrees offered by schools with large liberal arts and education departments.
Every incoming freshman at Tech has to have taken trig in high school, and even the M-Train requires calculus (no, it’s not as rigorous as engineering calculus, but it covers basic differentiation and integration). That is far beyond what the vast majority of players in big football programs subject themselves to. Even other schools with sterling academic reputations like Stanford, Duke, UVA, and UNC have many easier alternatives to a Tech degree. (And numbers bear this out: Tech’s players have the highest average SAT scores, etc., in the ACC, which is still more academically oriented than other conferences.)
And let’s be a little sympathetic: Being a scholarship football player is like having a full-time, high-pressure job. Add to that the requirement that they succeed in getting what amounts to a perfectly respectable business degree, and you’re asking a lot. I happen to think it’s worth asking, though. As much as I love Tech football, I’d rather not have a football program if it means compromising our core principles for the sake of fleeting football success. What’s happening at UNC right now is a disgrace for an otherwise top-tier university.
Given the widespread scandals of football schools all over the country, I think we Tech fans ought to become, like SEC fans, more conference-oriented in our outlook. Let’s accept the fact that winning the ACC—which is still an academically oriented conference (a couple of schools notwithstanding)—ain’t a bad goal. No matter what the SEC bigots say.
by Brent L. White on Oct 1, 2010 12:40 AM EDT up reply actions
well said . . .
and congratulations on your degree!
by Atlanta's original team on Oct 1, 2010 9:14 AM EDT up reply actions
Fact is..
Management is the easiest major on your campus. By far. Is it respectable? Sure. Is taking calculus and scraping by with a 70 hard? You bet. But one class does not a difficult major make. You can sit here and brag about how tough your academics are (bottom half of the ACC FTW!), but the fact is that most of your football players, like at every other school don’t match up to those standards. It’s all relative. Georgia has “housing”, whatever that is, for their jocks, you have management.
...thanks for answering the question for us
Georgia (third best academics in the state FTW!) has “housing” for their jocks and management for their nerds…
Georgia Tech has management for their jocks and aerospace engineering for their nerds…
I write stuff From the Rumble Seat.
by BirdGT on Oct 5, 2010 11:46 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
Clearly you haven't met many business majors
They’re not really nerds. The nerds at schools like Georgia, since there is no trade school on campus like at Tech, usually take hard sciences and humanities like Classics, or English.
No, Football players are not dumb as hell.
They may be CRAZY to put their body on the line for a game they love that may never make them one red cent back. They probably won’t be playing anything more that backyard touch football with their kids some day. Not like Cink and Kuchar who can make $$ without spinal contusions, broken bones, and knocked into next week.
What is DUMB AS HELL is the (mostly Southern and BIG STATE SCHOOL and Alumni base) system that demands 10, 11, or 12 wins per season and PERPETUATE THE MODERN PLANTATION SYSTEM. Yes, many of the Studliest and most “1st round pick worthy” players are African American, often come from less than desirable educational and family situations, and are RIPE to be USED and THROWN AWAY after their knee goes, their eligibility is up, or they cough up the football once too often in the eyes of some drunk Redneck in the stands. If the school (and the paying alumni) don’t stand up and make sure that guy can read, get a job out of football, and contribute to society, then SHAME ON US AS FANS AND OUR STATES AS THE PERPS FOR MAKING THIS PLANTATION SYSTEM WORK FOR MORE TV MONEY.
I’m all for helping these guys get some level of education, and in return, I’m willing to accept SOME level of “off the bell curve” SD’s for their experience and effort.
I’m dead set against rich (white) alumni who are looking for players out of Jimmy the Greek’s tirade a few years back.
As a Junior in the early ’80’s I had classes with many CFB and CBB players. They came to class. They got extra tutoring. I had a part time job of 20 hours a week and risked a car wreck while running deliveries. These athletes had a 60 hour week and risked dismemberment or permanent injury. When two of them brought a test copy into the exam, I informed the Professor (later). At least they showed up to take the exam. Some of these big State schools don’t even have them in classes.
DUMB AS HELL MY ASS. Look within to see the dumb asses, they are usually in the stands (and often wear Orange or Red), and couldn’t pass the remedial Algebra class that the 2nd string OL is sweating through while he waits for his ankle swelling to go down.
by DressHerInWhiteAndGold on Oct 2, 2010 7:42 AM EDT up reply actions
There are certain schools that play big time college football schedules
that have such a grueling classroom load I am not sure how any athlete does it. The service academies, Stanford and Georgia Tech are a few of the places that come to mind.
by Atlanta's original team on Oct 2, 2010 11:11 AM EDT up reply actions
Really man? The race card?
Nothing of what you said actually refutes that football players are dumb. Your argument about race and this “modern plantation system” is disgraceful coming from someone with a college degree. Are you really saying rich white, since you inserted that in there I’m forced to assume you don’t think black people are capable of becoming rich, alumni are treating the players, “mostly African American” as you say, like slaves? Would you really stand up in front of a crowd of people and try to make that argument? You should be ashamed, as person of enough intelligence to get a degree from a good school like Georgia Tech, to even propose such an ignorant and unfounded argument.
Also, you should look at the Rednecks in your own stands. I grew up in the boonies in Northern Georgia, and there are just as many dumb redneck Tech fans as there are anywhere else. Tech is in the South too.
The "Grey Lady" weighs in....
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C00E1D71E30F937A25754C0A9609C8B63&pagewanted=all
Win a National Championship (and I don’t consider that USC/Reggie Bush were eligible in 2004), and expect some scrutiny of your players academic chops.
HMMMM:
Jan Kemp – 1980
Who was the running back at Auburn who played, but never enrolled? He was working landscaping on the field when (Pat Dye?) saw him and put him in the backfield. It is in a book, but the Google button isn’t finding it.
by DressHerInWhiteAndGold on Sep 24, 2010 6:26 AM EDT reply actions
I had forgotten that article
but it really almost makes you ashamed to like college football. It helps to remember the ones who truly are stars on and off the field.
by Atlanta's original team on Sep 28, 2010 10:05 PM EDT up reply actions
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recent FanPosts
SHOP THE FROM THE RUMBLE SEAT STORE
