http://www.registerguard.com/news/2003/09/04/e3.sp.fbcSEC.0904.html Commentary / SEC is hard core, while Pac-10 hardly cares Written after Arizona/LSU By Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star reprinted in a Eugene Oregon Newspaper TUCSON, Ariz. - A phone call to the LSU athletic department ticket office on Tuesday went like this: Do you have an estimate of the number of tickets your office has sold to Saturday's football game with Arizona in Tucson? ``A little more than 5,000.'' Do you know if the majority of those 5,000 were sold to LSU fans living in Arizona or were they bought by LSU fans that are going to travel to Tucson? ``We sold them through our office to people here.'' That's so SEC, isn't it? Making such a big thing of a little old football game. No Pac-10 school sends 5,000 fans to Tucson for a football game, not even Washington in a Rose Bowl year. Never USC. No way UCLA. The allotment given Arizona State rarely exceeds 5,000, and Sun Devil football fans won't come to Tucson unless they sense a sure thing. The SEC is America's Football Belt, a culture unknown to the Pac-10. Adjacent to LSU's Death Valley is a bengal tiger, caged and angry. Outside Washington's Husky Stadium is a lake that allows spectators to arrive via their yachts and houseboats. LSU's football radio network has 42 affiliates. Cal's football radio network has four affiliates. In the SEC, adults arrive at the stadium wearing hats shaped like pigs and alligators. Pac-10 fans arrive with their hats backward. Or sideways. SEC football fans begin their tailgate parties on Thursday. Pac-10 football fans arrive at kickoff. ``How 'bout them Dawgs!'' is an accepted form of midweek greeting in the SEC. In the Pac-10 it's ``Do you know anybody who wants my tickets? I'm going to Tahoe on Saturday.'' In the SEC, community leaders have been known to use political platforms to express their passion for college football. ``The great state of Florida, as proud of the Democratic ticket as it is of our No. 1-ranked Gators, casts all of its ballots for ... " In the Pac-10, politicians play tennis. In LSU's media guide, starting receiver Devery Henderson says he enjoys raising pit bulls. In Arizona's press book, starting receiver Ricky Williams says he enjoys reading. Since the Pac-10 expanded in 1978, it has played 41 games against SEC schools. Only 10 of those games have been played on Pac-10 turf (and nine of them were in Los Angeles). Why? The Pac-10 views the SEC as an ATM. Six SEC schools routinely average in excess of 80,000 for home games, far more than any Pac-10 school has ever averaged. Poor old Washington State agreed to a suicidal series of five games at Tennessee from 1980 to 1994 in exchange for a piece of the Vols' bountiful gate. Wazzu went 1-4. In 1988, an epic LSU victory over Auburn at Death Valley actually registered movement on a seismic meter at the campus geology department. In 1989, fearing that its football stadium was not earthquake-proof, Cal held a series of practices on an intramural field. The SEC is Bear Bryant sipping whiskey, smoking cigarettes, living at the office, creating a legend. The Pac-10 is Steve Lavin living on the beach, looking for a clue. The SEC is Tennessee's distinctive orange-and-white checkerbox end zone paint. The Pac-10 is Oregon's shop-at-the-Gap yellow jerseys and yellow pants. The SEC is between the hedges at Georgia, instantly identifiable as the place Herschel Walker once played. The Pac-10 is ``CARDINALS'' visible under a sketchy coat of maroon and gold paint at turf-challenged Sun Devil Stadium. The SEC is an intimate neighborhood, requiring LSU to travel no farther than 690 miles (to South Carolina) for a league game. The climate never changes. In the Pac-10, Arizona and Washington are separated by 1,635 miles. At LSU, Halloween is Heisman winner Billy Cannon's 89-yard punt return to beat Ole Miss on Oct. 31, 1958, the most enduring play in school history. At Arizona, Halloween is Oct. 31, 1992, when Desert Swarm, coming off three straight victories over Top 25 teams and an 8-7 loss to No. 1 Miami, drew 38,463, their smallest crowd since 1985. In the SEC, an under-the-microscope football coach got fired for partying when out of town. In the Pac-10, the same coach went on for 14 seasons without being recognized outside the city limits.
Wow!!!! What a great read! Those USC clowns who think they invented football are out of their minds. Oregon State is in for one tremendous shock when they arrive in September. GEAUX TIGAHS!!!!
Oh, that was great. I am going to post that **** on some west coast forums out here. I am gonna pee in everyone's cornflakes out here. I friggin love it! Thanks. :thumb:
This is great. That story is from an Oregon newspaper, Eugene - home of the Ducks (what kind of name is that anyway?). So I went to an Oregon board. You know, to lob in a grenade that quotes their own media. Oh, man, the **** hit the fan within minutes. I think the 2nd or 3rd reply had a mod threatening to close the thread down. F'ing hilarious, man! I love grenade-type material. :thumb: :lol: Geaux Tigers!
SEC - Good Conference Pac 10 - Lame as conference full of bandwagon fans who support their team when winning and bitoch like 10 year olds when they dont get their own way
I was in Tucson last year with a LARGE Tiger contingency. Met up with 3 friends, my brother & 2 of his friends... WE TOOK OVER TUCSON. PLAIN AND SIMPLE. For that game it was Tiger Stadium West. And the team responded in kind. We looked like a freakin' pro team that night. The ONLY bummers were: no Golden Band from Tigerland, and I got a speeding ticket leaving town the next morning @ 7:00AM. MAN did my wife chew me out!!!!!
Do they actually have fans that attend the Pac 10 conference?? Any game that I ever saw on tv I didn't realize fans were there, its so quiet. Quite a difference between SEC and Pac None football. There is just as much difference in the players I'm sure!
Stanford Stadium in the fall is a MAUSOLEUM. Unless Notre Dame plays there...and brings their obnoxious fans.... OR unless the USC band is there - playing their "March Theme for Losers"....
Mike Price The last line about no-body noticing Mike Price for 14 years when he coached for PAC vs noticing his behavior in the SEC really cracked me up.
