Frankly, I generally dislike Tennessee, and take some pleasure in their frequent suffering, but I harbor no where near the dislike for UT as I do for Louisville, Duke, Al Quida, North Carolina, North Korea, Communists, Nazi’s, Indiana University and James Franklin (not necessarily in that order).
The debate (my opposing “counsel” often led by a poster with an ACC/Seminole sounding moniker) erupts of both major boards, frequently.
But those who disdain respect for conference accolades and broad success in about all sports are missing a subtle point: I want UK to beat the brakes off every conference opponent in every damn sport, and do it every year, just as badly as I wanted to beat my brother in basketball, chess, and well, everything.
I usually don’t “pull” for any specific team in the SEC, but when I watched Ole Miss dismantle Iowa State the other night, I kept smiling and saying “beat those damn Yankee Big 12 pretenders into a mud hole.”
I have relatives in 4 SEC states. To say “none of them pull for us,” is simply inaccurate. They also want to see the SEC succeed, generally, although my Tennessee kin hate Bama with a passion.
And some in the Deep South would not pull for us in basketball against James Franklin or North Korea.
And that is because of an unworldly historic dominance. Kentucky has 53 regular season basketball titles since the foundation of the SEC, easily outpacing Bama and UT’s combined regular season tally of SEC football titles, combined at 43.
But the predominance of the SEC in the 4 major sports (FB, Men’s basketball, baseball and Women’s basketball) is becoming SO pronounced that we need to circle the wagons: they hate all of us nationwide, and the last I checked, we are still the most coherently organized conference, even with expansion. Spend a week in Texas or Oklahoma, and you won’t feel much out-of-place. Then spend a week in Minnesota or Maine. I think you get my drift!
So even if some in the Deep South hate our basketball guts, that is simply a reflection of clearly being the nation’s dominant basketball program, who has arguably dominated our conference as strongly as has any program in any sport.
I would love to see an All-SEC Final Four, and obviously, will pull for Kentucky to win it all.
Should we get two or more in the Final weekend, the SEC chant will fluster, anger and confuse the collegiate Sports World, and I will love every moment of it!!!!!!
