re-post from Sept. 2015, in light of the issue of confederate monuments and the controversy that surrounds them dominating our news cycle-
You can replace Jefferson Davis, Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee from the Stone Mountain monument with Paul Finebaum, Clay Travis and Tim Tebow. That would comprise the SEC football media version of the Confederate memorial in Georgia.
Yes, the SEC is the best conference in college football and the rest of the nation hates them a little bit because of it. Hate is a honorific here. The SEC football community resides in the only part of the United States that considers themselves exceptional beyond the rest of the country. Combine this fact with their football prowess and the hatred naturally flows down south like sediment along the mighty Mississippi River.
Take a look at the SEC map above.
Now gaze upon the map of the Confederate States of America 1861-1865.
Then, just for fun, let’s look at the map of Zaxby’s fried chicken locations.
Because after all, Big Fast Food Fried Chicken and college football are inter-twined these days. (Popeyes Bahamas Bowl, Zaxby’s Heart of Dallas Bowl, Chick-Fil-A sponsoring everything)
This is all more than just coincidence. The top national college football pundits regurgitate every postseason that bowls are the SEC versus the rest of the country. It should be that way, as SEC football has won 38 national titles in college football, including every single one from 2006-2012.
They had 10 teams ranked in the polls entering week two, an all time record.
“They hate us cuz they ain’t us” is one component of the SEC football backlash. Their football hegemony is partnered with the media hegemony of ESPN. The marriage bed of Bristol and the SEC is about as in your face as it gets. Now that the self-ascribed World Wide Leader has the SEC Network, their obnoxious SEC football bias is ramped up even further. If SEC football fans didn’t tell you that the SEC is the greatest, SEC football media will.
Just in case you didn’t get the memo from them, ESPN will let you know this.
Everybody picks the nits of the bread-winner and that’s ESPN; especially so when it comes to college football.
I love ESPN’s College Gameday and College Gamenight Final (now that they removed Lou Holtz and Mark May this season, the show actually doesn’t damage your brain this year! Huzzah!). However, I enjoy ripping both of these shows even more than I enjoy watching them.
There’s a lot more going on with this SEC football hatred thing than just jealousy. One of the greatest writers in American history, Southern scribe William Faulkner, once said “The past isn’t dead. It isn’t even past.”
You need no further validation of Faulkner’s saying than the Confederate Flag “debate” and all the traction it’s getting these days.
I wrote about it several times over the summer and was called a “Yankee (insert derogatory term here)” on many occassions because of it.
As much as I, or any other scribe wishes to opine on the Confederate Flag issue, there isn’t all that much that need be said beyond what Ole Miss Linebacker C.J. Johnson said here.
No school has a stronger connection to that co-opted symbol of bigotry than the University of Mississippi and Johnson perfectly articulated what the flag of the “Southern Cross” or St. Andrews cross, actually means in 2015.
The South is indeed like no other region of these United States given the shared experience of their past. Us Midwesterners, or New Englanders, or Northern Californians or Southern Californians or Americans from any other region can ever fully understand that.
The closest you can come is to watch and absorb the 2001 documentary “Confederacy Theory” embedded below. Not very much has changed in the 14 years since it came out:
The South’s zeitgeist of “American by birth, Southern by the grace of God” is evident in SEC football pride. Oh, sure Alabama fans and LSU fans and Ole Miss fans and so forth all hate each other when they play one another, but they still all come together unlike fans of any other conference come bowl season.
That “S-E-C! S-E-C!” chant has no counterpart in any of the other power five conferences. No one truly hates teams from former confederate states that play in other conferences. (No one actually hates say Georgia Tech, or West Virginia)
The very notion of this seems absurd here in Big Ten/Notre Dame country. Or maybe SEC football pride is something I’ll just never fully understand and truly appreciate. I’m a life-long Land of Lincolnite, with the same birthday as General Sherman. Blue is actually my favorite color. If you take umbrage with what’s written here, the comment section is at your disposal below. I can be reached on Twitter too.
You can fire the first shot, just like what happened at Ft. Sumter.
Don't get me wrong I have equal opportunity schadenfreude for the whole #SEC but #RollTearsRoll might be sweetest of all #bama
— Paul M. Banks (@PaulMBanks) September 20, 2015
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now and Minute Media. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
Follow him on Twitter, Instagram, Sound Cloud, LinkedIn and YouTube.