While I was in New York for the summer covering the Mets, I met a nice guy who went to Miami for college and currently works for the Wall Street Journal.
Needless to say, we were extremely excited to have found another human being to talk Gators and Hurricanes with because college football is about as popular in the Northeast as Ron Zook is in Gainesville.
One of our first exchanges went something like this:
“You’re not one of those SEC homers are you?” he asked me.
“Not exactly sure what you mean,” I said.
“Like one of those people who thinks the SEC is so much better than any other conference in the country,” he clarified.
“Oh. Yeah. I’m absolutely one of those people. The SEC is the best conference in America year-in and year-out. The last four BCS Championships have been won by SEC schools. I don’t really think it’s up for debate,” I answered.
“I hate people like you,” he said unapologetically.
The exchange didn’t offend me. It’s not wise to write about sports for a career and take it personally when someone informs you that they disagree wholeheartedly with your opinions. It happens all the time.
But I was surprised at how genuinely he didn’t like people who hold the SEC in such high regard. I didn’t really understand it — until last weekend.
I was having a conversation with another friend about Tennessee’s chances of beating Florida when he busted out this logistical nightmare of a declaration:
“The Vols might be bad this year, but it’s still Tennessee and it’s still the SEC.”
As if the mere fact that the UT players ran out onto the field with Tennessee across their chests somehow made up for any deficiencies they had as, you know, actual football players.
This thinking drives me nuts, and I finally understood why my new friend from the Wall Street Journal harbors a small degree of ill will for all those “SEC homers” out there.
If anyone in the SEC can beat anyone else in the SEC on any given Saturday of any given season, then someone please explain to me why Florida has beat Kentucky 23 years in a row?
Or why Tennessee has beaten Kentucky 25 years in a row?
Those two streaks, by the way, are the longest and second-longest in the FBS.
So maybe any SEC team except Kentucky can beat any other SEC team on any given Saturday of any given season?
Consider this: UF has lost exactly two games to SEC East opponents since Urban Meyer took over in 2005 — South Carolina in 2005 and Georgia in 2007.
And don’t even get me started on Vanderbilt, which has gone winless in conference play five different times since 1996. (They’ve had five other one-win seasons in that same time period.)
So once again, let’s amend our working hypothesis: Any SEC team except Kentucky and Vanderbilt can beat any other SEC team on any given Saturday of any given season, unless of course you’re an SEC East team trying to beat Florida in the Urban Meyer era.
If any Gators fans felt nervous about beating Tennessee for the sixth consecutive year last Saturday or feel nervous about handling Kentucky for the 24th straight time this Saturday, it should have nothing to do with the fact that the Vols and ‘Cats are SEC teams.
It should have everything to do with the fact that this Florida team isn’t as good as they have been in the last few seasons.
UF has the third-fewest total yards of offense (952) of any team in the top 25. By comparison, Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson has accounted for 1,230 total yards of offense by himself.
Facts like that make me unsure of the Gators’ weekly fate no matter who they line up against this season, not some misconception that the SEC is akin to some ongoing game of rock, paper, scissors where all the teams circularly defeat each other every season.
If Florida loses on Saturday, it will be a historical anomaly, not a representation of the SEC’s superior depth.
