SEC Football: Unhappiness abounds across the league
By Ronald Evans
What happens in SEC football when after three weeks only five of fourteen teams are unbeaten? Optimism fades as unhappiness abounds.
Among SEC football programs, season goals have a range starting at beating a biggest rival, to bowl eligibility to a division and conference championship. For a few SEC football programs that range stretches further to a CFB Playoff berth and a national championship.
It is a broad range of expectations. Most expectations carry only a passing resemblance to reality. The fan bases of several SEC football schools claim elite status in the world of college football. In reality, there are very few college football “blue bloods.”
Stewart Mandel has been tracking Program Pecking Order for fifteen seasons. We endorsed his designation of CFB Royalty a few months ago. Stewart concluded the status of the most elite programs in college football applies to only 13 schools. In alphabetical order, they are Alabama; Clemson; Florida; Florida State; LSU; Miami; Michigan; Notre Dame; Ohio State; Oklahoma; Penn State; Texas and USC.
Stewart only updates the list every five years. Not surprisingly, fans of schools such as Tennessee, Georgia, Auburn, Stanford, Michigan State, Oregon, UCLA, Washington and Oregon don’t much care for Mandel’s work. It goes back to the gap between expectations and reality.
In the historically ‘Blue-Bloodiest’ conference of them all, not being considered elite are fighting words. Every season is a protracted battle to gain national status as one of the nation’s top teams. When the battle goes poorly, fans agonize, Athletic Directors fume, big boosters demand immediate remedy.
What about the 2017 season?
Unhappiness abounds early in the 2017 college football season. Particularly in the SEC where only five of fourteen teams are unbeaten.On Tuesday, Saturday Down South tweeted its current SEC football Happiness Ranking.
It is a pretty good list. The only fully happy fan base is Vandy and that will likely come crashing down Saturday. Kentucky fans are feeling good and will explode in joy if the Cats can take down the Gators on Saturday.
Mississippi State fans are flying high after embarrassing LSU. Georgia fans are hopefully happy that Kirby can deliver this season. The joy will evaporate for one of the Bulldogs’ fan groups Saturday.
Alabama fans are never fully happy unless a new championship has been attained. National championships, of course, SEC championships are just nice and Division championships almost meaningless.
That leaves nine SEC football programs with unhappy fans
That leaves nine more SEC football fan bases in some degree of agony. For most of the remaining nine programs, week four is peering over the cliff, knowing by week five or six, the task will be picking up the pieces after the fall. A few will cling to 2017 season hopes a few weeks longer. Rationalization is the only option, achieved by knocking off a rival or making a bowl game.
For fans a college football season is short. It is a pity so many fans are so unhappy so soon.
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The outcomes must be played out in week four games, but more fan disappointment is coming. Arkansas, TAMU, Vandy, Mississippi State, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky – four teams could take a deep dive down the happiness scale after Saturday. A Vandy upset of Alabama would not only shock the college football world, it would apocalyptic for Crimson Tide fans.