I first encountered this when relocating to Tennessee, that a lot of fans seemed to talk as much or more conference pride than team pride.

This was at a time when the Vols were in NC hunt and actually won it, so it wasn't like now IMHO--where I can understand fans wanting to duck under the SEC umbrella.

Being a Sparty fan the only time it mattered to me about conferences was in Rose Bowl and then only PAC as the other conference. Was this early under currents of realignment mentality with conferences becoming more the central focus?


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(08-11-2014 05:24 PM)Strut Wrote:  I first encountered this when relocating to Tennessee, that a lot of fans seemed to talk as much or more conference pride than team pride.

I would say that the only time Conference Pride trumps School Pride is when your Conference is a lot better than your School is. People like to take pride in something they are affiliated with.

A long time ago in a losing galaxy far far away!


But seriously the regional pride thing was a rallying point for the South after the defeat in the War Between the States. Remember back then the Confederate armies were organized by state and the companies many times by county or township. There was a sense that all served and sacrificed equally that had its roots in the communities. But don't misunderstand the SEC. We hate each other, except when one of ours plays an outsider and then it is like watching somebody you don't know trying to beat up on your cousin. Blood is thicker than water. The SEC felt snubbed for years by the AP whether we actually were or not because those polls were made up of mostly large Northeastern and Midwestern and West Coast cities and their sportswriters. So it was a "You and Me Against the World" mentality (to quote an Anne Murray song). That led to a universal need for recognition for our schools and what better way to get it than to have them all win their bowl games. So while we only pulled for our school in conference games, we tended to root for everyone (except our in state rival) in non-conference games. That's the best history of it I know to give. But I do concede that it seems to be catching on more with conference cellar dwellers everywhere than it once did. But as far as the SEC chant goes my first recollection of hearing it was in the 80's and I've been going to the games much longer than that. Until they tied bowl revenue to the state teacher's retirement system in Alabama I never rooted for the Tide. We once had a joke of a fraternity at Auburn called W.H.A.L.E.. That's We Hope Alabama Loses Everytime. Prior to Alabama and Auburn increasing my wife's teacher retirement fund with a portion of their bowl revenue I never pulled for them, except only once when Bear played Woody. Bear won.

First time I really noticed it was in the mid 90's when South Carolina fans used to talk about it.


Personally it is a foreign concept to me as I am a Clemson fan and anything another conference member does is detrimental to our goals.

Of course it's not like our conference is much to be proud of either.

Any point after 2 NCs in a row... Maybe after 3? Perhaps 4? Potentially even 5? 6? And maybe even after 7?

Probably around the time when making the NCG became more important than making the Rose Bowl, or Sugar, or Orange, or Cotton.

So I would say Ironically, when 2 independents, PSU played Miami in the Fiesta Bowl in the 1986 season. That's when the reality start to set in that you could just designate one bowl to automatically host #1 vs. #2.

This eventually led to the bowl coalition, then the bowl alliance, then the BCS, then the playoffs.

(08-11-2014 05:29 PM)JRsec Wrote:  A long time ago in a losing galaxy far far away!


But seriously the regional pride thing was a rallying point for the South after the defeat in the War Between the States. Remember back then the Confederate armies were organized by state and the companies many times by county or township. There was a sense that all served and sacrificed equally that had its roots in the communities. But don't misunderstand the SEC. We hate each other, except when one of ours plays an outsider and then it is like watching somebody you don't know trying to beat up on your cousin. Blood is thicker than water. The SEC felt snubbed for years by the AP whether we actually were or not because those polls were made up of mostly large Northeastern and Midwestern and West Coast cities and their sportswriters. So it was a "You and Me Against the World" mentality (to quote an Anne Murray song). That led to a universal need for recognition for our schools and what better way to get it than to have them all win their bowl games. So while we only pulled for our school in conference games, we tended to root for everyone (except our in state rival) in non-conference games. That's the best history of it I know to give. But I do concede that it seems to be catching on more with conference cellar dwellers everywhere than it once did. But as far as the SEC chant goes my first recollection of hearing it was in the 80's and I've been going to the games much longer than that. Until they tied bowl revenue to the state teacher's retirement system in Alabama I never rooted for the Tide. We once had a joke of a fraternity at Auburn called W.H.A.L.E.. That's We Hope Alabama Loses Everytime. Prior to Alabama and Auburn increasing my wife's teacher retirement fund with a portion of their bowl revenue I never pulled for them, except only once when Bear played Woody. Bear won.

This.

And maybe the SEC!SEC! has triggered it in other places.
But its not universal in the SEC. A lot of Georgia fans will never root for Auburn or Florida (LSU and Alabama are ok).

I'd say it was the advent of BCS. Now days, if the teams you beat aren't perceived as good, neither are you, with rare exception (BYU in the old WAC, Boise in the WAC, TCU in the MWC).

when it got out of control is really easy to define

it happened when teams that consider themselves to be "major programs" started blaming other teams or usually a single team for "ruining the conference" even though that team or those teams making those accusations were voting the same way all the time every time on conference issues and or they lacked the ability to get even a small number of other teams to vote how they claim they wanted things to be

and when their programs fell a few rungs on the ladder or they under performed for extended periods of time they ran away from that conference to another conference where they continue to perform at lower than the very highest level, but they can act like because it is in that new conference that it is some amazing feat or accomplishment

(08-11-2014 05:43 PM)Kaplony Wrote:  Personally it is a foreign concept to me as I am a Clemson fan and anything another conference member does is detrimental to our goals.

My feeling exactly. E.g., last year when UCF won the Fiesta Bowl and other fans of AAC schools were slobbering about how wonderful this was for the conference, all I could think of was how much it sucked that our down-the-road baby brother had beaten us out of the conference title and had garnered national publicity for their big bowl win.

I rooted hard for Baylor in that game and root against other AAC schools every chance I get. I want them all to fail so that USF might succeed.

SEC SEC SEC also ESPN even after losing both BCS games called for two SEC playoff teams.

(08-11-2014 06:22 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(08-11-2014 05:43 PM)Kaplony Wrote:  Personally it is a foreign concept to me as I am a Clemson fan and anything another conference member does is detrimental to our goals.

My feeling exactly. E.g., last year when UCF won the Fiesta Bowl and other fans of AAC schools were slobbering about how wonderful this was for the conference, all I could think of was how much it sucked that our down-the-road baby brother had beaten us out of the conference title and had garnered national publicity for their big bowl win.

I rooted hard for Baylor in that game and root against other AAC schools every chance I get. I want them all to fail so that USF might succeed.

Wouldn't it be a better attitude to want them to succeed and then see USF rise to the top? It's one thing not rooting for UCF for various reasons but you don't want USF to look like it dominates a Sun Belt level conference either.

As an Army fan, I laugh at conference pride. Independence all the way. Win alone or lose alone.

(08-11-2014 05:24 PM)Strut Wrote:  I first encountered this when relocating to Tennessee, that a lot of fans seemed to talk as much or more conference pride than team pride.

This was at a time when the Vols were in NC hunt and actually won it, so it wasn't like now IMHO--where I can understand fans wanting to duck under the SEC umbrella.

Being a Sparty fan the only time it mattered to me about conferences was in Rose Bowl and then only PAC as the other conference. Was this early under currents of realignment mentality with conferences becoming more the central focus?


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Not me, obviously. I never did get it.

I never noticed it much until the "SEC" chant got louder at major bowls a few years ago, and of course I've seen a lot of it on these forums. I do like to see my conference do well, but I'm certainly much more concerned with how my specific team is doing.

In the old Big East it was the opposite problem. Football and basketball-first fighting each other. Poor leadership. Petty politics. Backstabbing. While the whole $EC thing can get annoying give them their due credit. They have that conference-pride thing down pat. It helps for schools to have similar profiles as well.

I never had much conference pride for football.

But I was a Big East basketball fan. Part of that is because my parents are from Connecticut and went to school in Syracuse when Boeheim was getting started, and my best friend growing up was from a Notre Dame family. So there were lots of Big East schools that I sort of rooted for individually. When they all ended up in the same conference I decided to become a fan of the whole conference.

If it wasn't for that, I probably wouldn't have been a conference fan.

However, even if I'm not a FAN of our conference, I always hope the rest of UC's conference does well. It makes us look better when we beat them.

Mostly created by SEC teams latching onto the actual winners in their conference when they arent doing anything to pull their own weight...

(08-12-2014 06:48 AM)Ragu Wrote:  Mostly created by SEC teams latching onto the actual winners in their conference when they arent doing anything to pull their own weight...

^^^^^^^^^^

This...it for me started with the SEC...SEC...SEC...chants...First remember hearing it at the 1991 Fiesta Bowl.....

(08-11-2014 07:00 PM)_C2_ Wrote:  

(08-11-2014 06:22 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(08-11-2014 05:43 PM)Kaplony Wrote:  Personally it is a foreign concept to me as I am a Clemson fan and anything another conference member does is detrimental to our goals.

My feeling exactly. E.g., last year when UCF won the Fiesta Bowl and other fans of AAC schools were slobbering about how wonderful this was for the conference, all I could think of was how much it sucked that our down-the-road baby brother had beaten us out of the conference title and had garnered national publicity for their big bowl win.

I rooted hard for Baylor in that game and root against other AAC schools every chance I get. I want them all to fail so that USF might succeed.

Wouldn't it be a better attitude to want them to succeed and then see USF rise to the top? It's one thing not rooting for UCF for various reasons but you don't want USF to look like it dominates a Sun Belt level conference either.

No, because UCF success makes it less likely that USF will succeed. They are in our backyards.

Maybe it might make some sense for me to hope Houston or UConn does well because they aren't, but .... no, that doesn't work, since we are all positioning ourselves for P5 invites.

Sorry, but I see only downside to rivals like UCF succeeding. In every way - media attention, recruiting, standing among P5 - it hurts us. Plus, I just don't like them. I hope they go 0-13 this year.