A Northerner's view of SEC expansion

I've been an LSU fan since I was a kid. When I was around 8, my big brother showed me that on Saturday nights during football season, I could tune in the LSU games on our old console radio. The games came in clearer on cloudy Saturday nights, and it was always a challenge to try to hear every word of the LSU announcers. And so my infatuation with Tiger football began with my ear pressed up against the speakers of that old radio.
That being said, I grew up in a Penn State family. I've probably been to a hundred or so PSU games in my life, and it will always be in my blood. Moving to the Big 10 seemed like a good thing at the time, but it has slowly sucked the life out of my PSU passion, and at the same time has re-energized my passion for LSU and SEC football.
I live in an area where at times, there are Big 10 games on 5 channels. Talk about cruel and unusual punishment. I understand there are traditions and such. But the bottom line is: Big 10 football is boring. So, in the last 20 years since PSU joined the Big 10, I slowly started looking for other options, and it wasn't hard to turn my interest's south. The SEC seems perfect. The traditions and rivalries.....the stadiums....the fans, and the geography. It wasn't hard to stop watching PSU or Michigan vs. Illinois or Iowa, in favor of SC vs. Tenn, or LSU vs FLA. There isn't a week that there aren't great SEC matchups...games with local flavor, along with national implications.
The SEC does seem perfect. I hope they don't ruin it. Adding a couple more teams like Texas A&M and Mizzo won't ruin it, but it will be taking a step toward changing what doesn't need to be changed. It would be easy for a northerner like me to not care about expansion, because i'm so geographically far removed from the heart of the conference. But I do care.
The old cliche is "If it's not broke, don't fix it". Well, greed is making them fix it. Just please don't break it.

 

Completely, utterly, and entirely agree.

Leave the expansions to the lesser conferences. If they have to expand just so they can be relevant, let 'em.

 

Ditto to absolutely everything you wrote. I am a lifelong resident of the Northeast who also happens to be a college football fan. Over the last 5 or so years a bunch of us have traveled to one college town each fall for a game. Last year's LSU trip was singular in its awesomeness. Amazing pre-game scene, amazing in-game experience, and ridiculous postgame bar scene. This year's trip to Nebraska was, well, quaint. A good time but not even close to the overall game day experience at LSU, and from what I have heard other SEC schools.

The SEC is more than fine as is. Adding lesser lights like Texas A&M (solid history, mediocre present) and Mizzou does nothing to help the product. Now, if FSU and/or WVU enter the discussion that is another matter entirely.

Man, I am looking forward to my next LSU game and to attending more games at stadiums throughout the SEC.

 

Right on man. I'm getting my first taste of Baton Rouge on Thanksgiving and the Arkansas game. I can't wait. I only wish my first experience in Death Valley was a night game.

 

You are in for an experience. I went to the WVU game last year and might be in New Orleans for vacation the weekend LSU plays Western Kentucky. I know it is a day game against a lesser opponent, but I am still leaning towards making the drive. Boudin and beer for breakfast at The Chimes followed by watching LSU under the sun sounds like a great way to spend what will likely be a dreary day here in New England.

 

Holy cow, that's how I became an LSU fan! Or, more accurately, that's how my dad became a fan growing up in NE PA in the 50's, which he then passed on to me 30 years later.

Dad, is that you?

 

The Chimes: I'll add that to my list of potential places to go.

 

Nope. That is pretty amazing though. I started listening to games in the mid-late 70's. I recall even when the announcers were hard to understand, I could always hear the band after an LSU first down. I was hooked by that.

 

Stadium seating question: If you are at the end of a row sitting next to an entry ramp, is your view obstructed?