Bacon Bits - The Choice Is Clear
September 5, 2008
For about a year I had been looking forward to this day. Not losing sleep or anything, but just patiently anticipating my DirecTV system's broadcast of local stations in high definition. And while I like Dawn Scott's anchorwoman abilities and all, it's really got nothing to do with her.
Let's just face it, about half or more of all the games we watch week in and week out are shown on the local networks. And my eyes are getting tired of watching fuzzy guys running around chasing the football, only to find out after a few minutes that it's actually the Argentina-Brazil Women's soccer match, not that I wouldn't enjoy watching that.
But I digress...
Back to the HDTV thing, when I found out this afternoon that we now had NBC in high-def, I couldn't wait to take it out for a spin with the first NFL matchup of the season, what with Eli Manning's Giants ready to steamroll the Redskins. Ah yes, the perfect scenario was shaping up. The kids finished with homework and asleep, the wife retiring early after a hard day at work, and the television and bag of popcorn all waiting for me.
Ah yes, the pageantry, the tradition, the passion of the first NFL game of the season was like the perfect set for my spike this evening...then it happened. Oh yeah, there's that SEC matchup over on ESPN. Well, I decided I'd change over every few minutes or so just to see how the ole ballcoach was doing.
After all, that game was just South Carolina at Vanderbilt, in that football Mecca of Nashville. It sits not but a few miles from the Titans stadium, right? Maybe 25,000 would show up to see South Carolina, the clearly superior team, ripe for revenge from last year's loss, slowly beat up on the Commodores.
Sure this was high definition too, but not quite as sexy as listening to John Madden and company. Boy was I wrong. From the opening kickoff to the final foghorn, the game was more exciting, more passionate, more important than anything that could happen over on NBC.
Let's just say were it not for the ticker scrolling across the bottom of the ESPN screen, I wouldn't have had a clue of the outcome of the Giants game. And at the end of Vandy's hard fought 24-17 win I knew that I had made the right choice.
Let's be honest. If you could pick the bottom 5 games of the entire year in the SEC, this would be in the list. Who cares about poor old Vanderbilt? And why would you ever circle this game? Let's face it, with Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Auburn, and LSU playing week in and week out, there are just so many games with talented teams that you wouldn't dare miss. This was like watching the checker club and math club presidents scrapping on the playground. No matter which guy wins, you walk away shaking your head in the knowledge that all the boys and most of the girls in fifth grade would have put up better fights.
Sure South Carolina is ranked, but playing Vanderbilt seems to bring out the worst in all of us.
Yet this was a great game. The stadium was filled, the passion was high and nobody wanted to lose. It was an SEC conference game and everybody left everything on the field before it ended.
Such is life in the SEC.
Week in and week out we see the best football with the best teams in the country. Stir in the most passionate fans outside of third-world soccer (yes even Vanderbilt Stadium was filled with shirtless, painted bodies) and you have the surest bet in all of sports. The worst games in any other conference, college or professional, come nowhere near the excitement of the basement-dweller fights of the SEC.
The ACC might provide Virginia and Maryland, the Big XII Baylor and Iowa State. You could switch over to that fancy new Big Ten network and grab Indiana and Northwestern or possibly catch the PAC Ten's Arizona going up against Washington State.
My point is simple. SEC football is money. There's not a game you will pick anywhere else that on average has the feverish pitch and competitiveness of our conference. It's no wonder ESPN signed the billion dollar deal to carry SEC football. All games mean something, and the conference is trending upward to the point that National Championships cannot be decided without going through one of our teams. And the great thing about SEC football is any team can beat another on any given Saturday - this alone gives me hope for Bobby Petrino's 2008 Razorbacks.
Tonight I passed up everything good about the NFL to watch perennial doormat Vanderbilt play perennially overrated South Carolina. And I wasn't disappointed. I used to think football began with the first kickoff in the pros. And as much as I like the NFL (and the Arkansas players who now populate it) they take a second stage to what I consider to be the best sport in the world.
And the best sport in the world is SEC football.
Welcome home Razorback Nation, we get to be a part of it, yet again.
