College football

Georgia, Arizona St. not about SEC vs. Pac-10

No. 3 Dawgs not playing for conference pride, but to prove they're for real

Phil Coale / ASSOCIATED PRESS

SEC fans are a fanatical bunch, but John Walters thinks their conference allegiance is a bit misguided.

The SEC, in terms of fanaticism, is beyond compare. Five years ago. Alabama lost a game and, well, this story is just too rich for me not to share the original Associated Press account with you:

A Pinson man was charged with attempted murder for holding a gun to his son's head and pulling the trigger in the midst of a tantrum after Alabama's double-overtime loss to Arkansas Saturday.

The bullet narrowly missed 20-year-old Seth Logan, who said he picked the wrong time to ask his dad for a car, sheriff's spokesman Deputy Randy Christian said Monday.

Do you know how a UCLA fan copes with a loss? He heads to Manhattan Beach and ogles a women’s beach volleyball tourney. Some kill shots are just as therapeutic, and less violent, than others.

None of this will matter on Saturday night. Matthew Stafford and Knowshon Moreno are not playing for the pride of the SEC; they’re playing for Georgia. The only vital role that the SEC plays, in terms of Georgia’s fortunes, is as a tie-breaker. If three or more teams finish unbeaten (e.g., USC, Oklahoma, Georgia and Wisconsin), the first tiebreaker becomes conference potency. And the best way to demonstrate that is how teams fare when playing outside the conference.

In other words, the most ardent Ohio State fans you will find outside of Columbus now reside at Heritage Hall on the USC campus.

Beyond that, though, Georgia fans chanting “S-E-C” on Saturday night sounds as ludicrous as hearing Emmy nominee Tina Fey rooting for Howie Mandel this Sunday because they’re both from NBC. Or how about Larry David starting an “H-B-O!” chant? Unlikely.

As one Gator fan recently posted on a Florida message board,

“I'm proud of the conference, I root for it, but to me (the chant) sounds like an inferiority complex.”

Thankfully, conference play begins next week most everywhere and the chants will subside …until bowl season.

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