“SEC! SEC! SEC!”
I can’t count how many times I’ve heard that chant after a team in the Southeastern Conference wins a national championship or even a bowl game. Joining in has never appealed to me and if your team isn’t taking home the trophy, it shouldn’t appeal to you either. We’re not all in this together or trying to keep it in the conference. The only thing that “just means more” in the SEC is winning. And that doesn’t mean against the BIG10, the ACC, the PAC 12, or any other conference.
It means against other teams in the SEC.
I’ve never understood the appeal of watching your closest rivals flourish, especially while your program is compared unfavorably to a dumpster fire. Success in college football comes down to three things: recruiting, winning, and revenue. These work together to create a successful program, regardless of your conference. There are two myths that SEC fans tend to believe the most:
“The better another SEC team does, the better we all look.”
It’s no surprise that recruiting has a direct correlation to winning percentages and overall championships. The more a football program wins, the more top recruits that program ends up with. In fact, the top five teams in recruiting classes from 2015 – 2021 are Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, LSU, and Clemson. Other than recruitment, they share something else in common: they’ve all won at least one championship since 2014.
Cheering for someone in your conference in the postseason, especially a rival, is like hoping your cousin ends up dating your crush. Not only do you get to watch their happiness across social media, but you also get to come face-to-face with it at least once a year during the holiday season.
It doesn’t make sense.
I’d rather watch a top tier recruit go to Ohio State, USC, or someone that my team doesn’t have to play every year, than to another school in the same conference. There is nothing worse than watching your rival beat you with the players that you tried to recruit. If you’re a Tennessee fan, you’re probably familiar with names like Will Anderson Jr, Nakobe Dean, Cam Smith, AJ Brown, and Derrick Henry. Not only did all these players attend SEC schools, but they also received offers from Tennessee.
If an SEC team wins the national title, each SEC school will get more money
That’s false.
The College Football Playoff Committee pays conferences for teams that make it TO the playoffs regardless of the outcome. For example: if Georgia makes it, each SEC team gets a piece of that pie no matter if Georgia wins it all or loses in the first round. The same goes for those that play in a New Year’s Six bowl (non-playoff). The distribution of funds does not depend on the outcome of the game but gets allocated to the conference for each of its participants.
Even if winning gave teams in the SEC more money, it still doesn’t compare to the revenue increase seen by the championship team. Based on a report from Forbes, the school who wins the national title sees a significant boost in funds during their championship season due to an increase in merchandise and tickets sales, as well as money coming in from boosters. In fact, LSU’s athletic department saw a $4.84-million profit in 2020, which came entirely from the national championship winning football program in 2019. LSU was expecting an $80-million loss due to the revenue that all teams missed out on from COVID-19. LSU’s national title overcame that deficit and still made the Tigers profitable.
Rooting for another SEC team in the post season isn’t helping. A winning record in the SEC is going to be recognized and rewarded, regardless of the national title winner from last season.
Stop rooting for other SEC teams who take your recruits, beat you with them, and play for national championships while you sit at home chanting, “SEC! SEC! SEC!”.
You’re doing nothing but making other teams better at your own expense.
