I’ve been on this big conference dominance kick since Sunday night when the college basketball bandwagon media started rattling off tweets blowing the ACC for getting six teams into the Sweet 16. ACC fans were gloating that they were superior to other conferences and that, in no certain terms, fans from other conferences should get on all fours and blow the ACC.
Let’s just call it what it was.
That got me thinking about how SEC fans act during bowl season when they like to roll out the “SEC dominance” line about titles won and how superior they are to other conferences. I started to wonder if ACC fans root for Duke to win titles like SEC fans root for Alabama to win national championships. It didn’t take long before SEC fans like Jared Sauls, above, to chime in and claiming he never roots for Alabama because he’s an Auburn fan and loves the SEC.
I heard the same line from many SEC fans. But it’s just not true.
Here’s the SEC dominance tweet that Auburn fan @j_sauls15 deleted. SEC fans being SEC fans, claiming Bama titles pic.twitter.com/xXbDktMsCJ
— Busted Coverage (@bustedcoverage) March 22, 2016
And a few more instances of “SEC dominance” I could find after about five minutes of searching.
SEC fans claim they don’t root for Bama to win titles for conference pride…of course they root for Bama pic.twitter.com/3mApyeYyxf
— Busted Coverage (@bustedcoverage) March 22, 2016
The bad news here for SEC fans & for a guy like LSU long snapper Reid Ferguson is that there’s plenty of proof SEC fans puff out their chests claiming Bama titles which leads to more conference domination puffiness. We have the proof, Reid.
Could not be more wrong https://t.co/m9PoJuQgfu
— Reid Ferguson (@SnapFlow69) March 22, 2016
The hard truth here is that SEC fans hate Alabama, but they’ll claim the Tide’s titles.
Let’s check with Arkansas:
What about Vols fans:
@bustedcoverage its totally a thing. Anyone who denies it is kidding themselves. You can thank Woodson's Heisman for this brotherhood
— RJ Choppy (@rjchoppy) March 22, 2016
What about South Carolina?
Of course I have to be wrong because I’m an outsider who knows nothing about the SEC. Of course SEC fans root for Bama. Remember, conference dominance puffiness. I’m not even sure that’s a word, but I’m going to use it. Bearded Bama radio guy’s going to set me straight.
There have been multiple theories thrown at me as to why SEC fans will claim Bama titles even though they hate the school. One guy said it’s a Civil War thing where even though the South hates Bama, they’ll stick together because it’s a North vs. South thing and the Southern Pride kicks in.
Grantland wrote about this in 2011:
These guys cheer for the whole conference? Yup, they do. As the Tide and their pals won five straight national championships, something happened to modern SEC fandom. The SEC fan roots for his school, of course. But he also roots for his conference, and, in an interesting, New South kind of way, his whole region. The thing historians used to call southern exceptionalism — and its first cousin on its mother’s side, southern solidarity — has been channeled into a football fight song. Chanting “S-E-C!” is the last polite way to root for the South.
SEC fans can deny they root for Bama all they like, but the truth is the truth. Claim those titles, SEC fan. You earned them.
Final words:
I've seen about 5 Arkansas fans claiming "We won the national championship!!" On my TL. This is why I hate the SEC @SEC_Exposed
— Round & Brown Fan Account (@DickShotFirst) January 12, 2016
