SEC Football - A Year of Turmoil

Originally Posted November 12, 2007
Like all good sports fans, I was excitedly awaiting the beginning of the 2007 College football season, a time of college and state pride and a never ending excuse to get blacked-out drunk and yell at the person next to you. But like most fans of SEC football this year, it's been a mixed feeling of excitement followed by a array of "WTF" moments.
Some people just don't get college football, mainly people from the North, they just don't understand all the traditions of pride that follow teams around from state to state. Yes, yes, northerners do have their baseball, but to me, baseball just doesn't have a true feeling of state pride that college football does. I guess because college football, like all college sports, is a time just before the athletes get greedy (look at AROD!). You look today at professional sports and you just see the decay of all what was once good and holy to a whole country. I think that's why sports fans in the South and West prefer to cheer for the younger more eager athletes of college sports.
But there have been some very weird football games on Saturday--amazing comebacks, stunning failures, and one crazy display of unsportsman like conduct in Jacksonville that left the whole college community in awe. This year, more than most, has probably been a gamblers nightmare. Who could blame them if the snapped and started shooting up the town? The craziness of this year though is enough to drive any loyal fan nuts and send them looking for something else.
But the days of the dynasty are over! No longer will you see a team go undefeated or has domination year after year in college football, especially in the SEC. For years now, the SEC has been getting stronger and stronger. Even what was once considered the "gimme" games are now turning into upsets, aka LSU losing to Kentucky 43-37 in overtime or Tennessee coming so close in games like Vanderbilt and Kentucky. Then, there is the issue of with so many great games a year, how can players stay healthy? The number of games lost this year due to top players injured are countless, while teams in other conferences manage to stay healthy due to only playing two to three are games a year in much easier conferences. SEC games are quickly becoming the reality T.V. of the college football league, the train wreck that you just can't look away from.
How can a team go undefeated now? Too much talent comes the southern region of the United States. Of the top 5 states in the U.S. for college recruitment (Florida, California, Georgia, Texas and Louisiana) 4 of the 5 are located in the South. This just makes it too easy for so many teams with strong state pride to recuit in state year after year.
And don't even get me started with the bias northern writers and the way they are always eagerly awaiting to boost their old alumni to the top of the rankings like Ohio State and Michigan, teams that only play two to three hard games a year. But it's not only teams from the Big 10 now, teams from the PAC 10 and ACC are somehow creeping into the top 10 every year without playing hardly any ranked teams, just because they are undefeated! Mark my words! Somehow, Ohio State will creep into the National Championship this year!