The Sec’s Stranglehold

Graduation was last Saturday and there are a few regular-season games remaining for baseball, while other sports are in the championship portions of their schedules. Yet again, an interesting trend in college sports continues: Southeastern Conference teams are among the best in the nation.

Any fan knows that SEC football is not something to take lightly. Football is serious business here. 

Each school in the conference’s defense has the talent to embarrass “elite” offenses from other schools, specifically the Big 12 and Big Ten. Remember what Florida did to Heisman winner Sam Bradford and the rest of the Sooners during championship game? Before that the Gators had “The” Ohio State look like “The” most overrated team of the 2007 season.

In college gymnastics, the NCAA Super Six was basically another SEC championship with the exception of Utah. Georgia eventually won the title for the fifth consecutive year. 

As for softball, a record nine teams from the SEC are headed to NCAA Regionals. That’s overwhelming considering there’s 11 teams in the conference. Florida and Alabama are the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the nation, respectively.

 In men’s and women’s tennis, it’s the same deal. On the women’s side nine SEC teams are among that nation’s top 25, and almost half the teams in the men’s top 10 are from this conference. 

In basketball, the different in styles of each region is apparent in March. Schools like Connecticut and Michigan State have that textbook basketball style, beating people with offensive plays and dead-on 3-point shooting, while the SEC uses hard-nosed defenses to win games. 

Although North Carolina won on the men’s side and Connecticut on the women’s, the SEC had a strong showing. The intensity that SEC players bring to the court made regular-season league games look like championship match-ups.  

There are a few factors that make the SEC the home of the country’s best athletes.

For one, the South has the weather on its side. With exception to the odd snow day in Auburn this past March and the rainy summers, there’s an opportunity to hit the gridiron, diamond or court every day of the year. 

It’s no coincidence that some of the country’s top football recruits are from the sunny, snowless states. Most of those athletes decided to sign with an SEC school.

 According to USA Today’s draft history list, 10 percent of the drafted NFL players since 1988 attended high school in Florida. Three percent are from Alabama, five percent are from Georgia, four percent from Louisiana, two percent each from Tennessee and South Carolina and one from Kentucky.

Another factor that acts like a magnet for the SEC is the tradition at each of the institutions. 

ESPN calls Auburn’s Tiger Walk the most copied tradition in college sports. It’s safe to say that having a football prospect watch the spectacular display of thousands of Auburn fans lining Donahue Drive is its own recruiting tool. 

Also, can anyone in the county tailgate better than a Southerner? ESPN listed the top 10 best tailgating spots in the nation and, not surprisingly, slots one, two and three went to SEC schools. Auburn was at No. 10.

With the promising power the SEC has shown in the past decade, more superb athletes will flock to the league in upcoming years.

Don’t expect the SEC’s stranglehold on the NCAA to loosen anytime soon.