Annual "You should pull for the SEC, it helps Tennessee" debate

I'll pull for the SEC except Bama and UGA. Gimme the Ducks in the final 4. I'd even swallow hard and cheer for FSU before Bama or OSU.
 
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I hate hearing the... let's cheer for everybody in the SEC crap. There is only one team I wanna see win, and that's us! It helps us in no way shape or form if everyone wins and keeps winning, don't understand why people don't see this. As much as I hate the BIG ten, urban meyer, I hope they blast bama. The quicker bama, Georgia, and all the rest of the top SEC teams fall to mediocrity, the quicker we become more relevant.
 
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To me it boils down to recruiting. If we are down to the wire with another SEC school for a recruit (like this year with LSU), I would want UT to win and the other team to be embarrassed by their opponent. Anything possible to give Butch more ammo to land us top talent is a good thing in my opinion. If Alabama wins the NC.. All eyes are on Bama NOT Tennessee. Therefore I'm ORANGE or bust!
 
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It's America! You pull for whoever you like, and I will keep pulling for whoever plays Bama every game!

GO VOLS!!!!!
 
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All together now, rolllllll tideeeeee. Ha I have no blue font
 
I do not care who wins -- it just leads to anger. Who I pull for does not change the outcome of the game. If it did, FSU would not have won a game in the past 30 years.
 
Here are the reason why I'm only a Tennessee fan and not a fan of the other SEC teams too.

1. I'm a VFL
2. I'm not a "I hate Bama sooooo much today because we're playing them, but if they go to the playoffs, I'll LOVE THEM!" fan.
3. I hate Bama fans and love seeing them upset ALL YEAR.
4. We will get recruits based on UT and UT only. We will not get recruits based on if Bama or any other SEC team wins... they will.


GBO!
 
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You can bet that the concept of conference pride isn't unique to the SEC. I live in Pac-12 country and there is a lot of talk about Pac-12 conference strength and how they stack up to other conferences -- particularly the SEC. It's not as strange an idea as you might think.

That's because there are very few bitter rivalries in the PAC 12. Any big rivalry it would be a very rare occurrance. The only way it helps Tennessee is if Tennessee is winning them.
 
That's because there are very few bitter rivalries in the PAC 12. Any big rivalry it would be a very rare occurrance. The only way it helps Tennessee is if Tennessee is winning them.

While I don't subscribe to the theory that I will root for SEC team (I am NEVER rooting for bammer), the PAC 12 has a handful of bitter rivalries, namely USC-UCLA, Washington-Washington State, Oregon-Oregon State, Arizona-Arizona State, and Cal-Stanford. Overall, they may not take college football as seriously as we do, but those are some bitter rivalries from everything I've heard.
 
While I don't subscribe to the theory that I will root for SEC team (I am NEVER rooting for bammer), the PAC 12 has a handful of bitter rivalries, namely USC-UCLA, Washington-Washington State, Oregon-Oregon State, Arizona-Arizona State, and Cal-Stanford. Overall, they may not take college football as seriously as we do, but those are some bitter rivalries from everything I've heard.

Not doubting that. I agree with 2-3 of those being big rivalry games but the only one I'd compare to the SEC is probably USC-UCLA
 
Not doubting that. I agree with 2-3 of those being big rivalry games but the only one I'd compare to the SEC is probably USC-UCLA

To those fan bases, everyone of those games is as important and hated as the Iron Bowl. No, it's not the same nationally, but within those fan bases it is.
 
Bama is going to recruit well every year, no matter what, because like it or not, they're Bama. We joke about all the titles they claim, but the sad truth, many of them can be claimed justifiably. They're a blue blood of college football. I despise them, but I'm not going to turn my back on reality.

UF and UGA, as long as they have good coaches, will always recruit well. Both FL and GA are full of high school football talent, and a good coach will always be able to keep enough of that talent at home to compete. It is what it is.

So win or lose, odds are stacked in favor of our three biggest SEC rivals continuing to recruit at a high level.

So now, UT and Butch are set to the task of rebuilding a program that was driven into the ground by a blundering idiot. Everyone agrees a big part of the turnaround is recruiting. Well, a good recruiter uses every thing in his arsenal to sway a young man into picking his university. Anyone who doesn't believe Butch has sold the strength of the SEC as a conference is completely foolish. Is it his main selling point? Probably not, but why take away any tool he could use to sway a young man's mind? Rooting against teams we play every year, hoping they look bad, hoping they get embarrassed, it doesn't help us. Maybe it makes you feel better. Maybe it makes you laugh. But while you're feeling good because some other team than UT beat them, you're also hoping Butch loses one more thing he can sell about UT. Like it or not, when the SEC wins, we win. People always say you remember the winners and forget the losers. Being the runner up doesn't keep the SEC in the marquis spotlight. And the spotlight on the SEC is what we want, because that can be sold, the competition can be sold, playing the best of the best can be sold. Playing losers doesn't sell well.

I have plenty of hate for other SEC teams, but reality, and my love for UT, allows me to put aside the hate and accept that non-SEC teams beating them does us nothing but harm. I want them to lose to us. Let them win every other game they play because it only makes us look that much better. I just want us to return to the top of the mountain.
 
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The only thing having other SEC teams in bowl games does is increase the money pot split between the schools and the conference. They can all lose, badly. Go Vols.
 
Football players have egos. That might come as a surprise to some of you, but competitors have to have a healthy belief in their abilities. They generally want to play for the best, or play against(and beat) the best. Right now, we don't qualify for the former, but we can make an arguement for the latter.
 
I will pull for every Sec team except Bammer. I would pull for Iraq against them. I live on the state line! Screw the bastads!
 
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So, I ran a correlation matrix on win percentage for the SEC schools since 1990 (minus A&M and Missouri).

I would argue that it's in our best interest for South Carolina to suck.

Here's the highest and lowest correlations for each school in the SEC.

slide6.jpg


Here's the rest of the numbers...
 
rooting for any team from behind a television screen has never helped any team . They cannot hear you so stop kidding yourself.
 
Teams that we need to be good. They will restore the balance to their regions and conferences that we need to be successful.

Nebraska
Florida State
Marshall
Florida
Penn State
Michigan
Miami
Texas A&M
Ohio State

It is not in our interest for any other program to be successful. The emergence of the Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia programs have dug into our recruiting backyards.

Some of you look at that list and say "I'll never root for Michigan/Ohio State, they're Big Ten stuck up scum!" "I'll never cheer for Florida State because I hate Jimbo Fisher and Jameis Winston!" "I can't care for Penn State, they have that asshat of a coach James Franklin!" "How in the heck can you expect me to root for a team like FLORIDA?!" "I hate those thugs at Miami!"

Hey, I totally get you on some of those things. I can't see myself ever putting my hands together for any of those Big Ten teams I've listed, but hey, that's the game. We need to other traditional powerhouses to hold down their territory and start recruiting on a national level again. We need these other teams from Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, the Carolinas, and Virginia to stay the hell out of our talent pools.

As much as it hurts to say, we're better when the other big dogs are better.
 
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