You're Going To Let A Girl Beat You In Football Knowledge?!

I was on set not too long ago for a filmed called "Between The Wish And The Thing" -- absolutely wonderful cast and crew. Two of the lead actors were southern boys -- Shawn Parsons from Dothan, Alabama, and Josh Waters, from my hometown of Marietta, Georgia. So naturally we bonded. The Big Chicken. Sweet Tea. Chick-fil-A (which was a surprise treat while filming in Barstow, California). The SEC. Shawn went to Bama. Now if you're reading this and you're located in the south and an Auburn fan, you're probably thinking "Oh no." But actually, here on the West Coast, when you run into another SEC fan, regardless of the team, you're instantly football family.

Notice the cup -- it was sweet tea :)

The West Coast simply does not do football like the SEC does. Part of the reason we as SEC fans love our teams is because of the southern traditions that go along with game day. Tailgating at any SEC game is bound to be a great time. I've tailgated at of course Auburn (can I get a WAR EAGLE?!), University of Georgia and Louisiana State University and each one of these schools knows how to do it right. Then there are other game day traditions. At LSU, Mike the Tiger has a beautiful habitat that fans will flock to on game day. At Ole Miss, fans tailgate at The Grove. At UT, there's the famous painted rock. At Auburn, there's Tiger Walk, Toomer's Corner and the flight of the eagle (which I still get chills watching!).

Auburn vs. Georgia 2004

Not that I'm saying other teams not in The SEC don't have similar traditions, but there just seem to be less of an enthusiasm for game day here on the West Coast. In the south, each campus has it's own Bodhi Tree, or Western Wall, or Church of Holy Sepulchre -- the football stadium. I have been on USC's campus at least a fifteen times ... I've never seen the stadium. I've driven around campus looking for it. I've asked a handful of USC students where it is located, non of them could even point me in the direction. See? Lack of enthusiasm!

On set for "Between The Wish And The Thing," the three of us "southerners" met a lovely young man named Cameron. Cameron is a student at UCLA, which is a great public school here in Los Angeles. I had on an Auburn sweatshirt ... Cameron asked if I was an Auburn fan. I said yes and that's where I went to school. He said he was sorry ... which lead me to say that The SEC is the best football conference in the nation. Cameron said he could vouch for two of The SEC's teams being good -- Alabama and Florida State. Yes you read that right, Florida State. I then went on to a five minute argument (I would say debate, but a debate is two-sided and clearly this "debate" is actually fact) that Florida State was not in The SEC, it's in The ACC. Clearly our friend Cameron had confused Florida State with University of Florida ... but needless to say, I got to use the phrase "you're going to let a girl beat you in football knowledge" (it's really the simple statements like this that make my father proud).

Cameron took on the challenge to debate three southerners, well-educated southerners I might add (we can count the top 25 most winningest college football division 1A teams and see that there are seven SEC teams and two Pac-10 teams -- seven is clearly larger than two, thank you Auburn for teaching me math) by saying that the Pac-10 is better than The SEC. This is ludacris, and you don't even need to know a thing about football to see this, you just have to be able to count to 25. Here's the list ... enjoy the seven SEC teams that clearly dominate the list.

Division 1A Top 25 Most Winningest Teams (*=SEC **=Pac-10)
1. Michigan
2. Notre Dame
3. Texas
4. Oklahoma
5. Ohio State
6. Alabama *
7. Southern California **
8. Nebraska
9. Tennessee *
10. Penn State
11. Georgia *
12. Louisiana State *
13. Auburn *
14. West Virginia
15. Georgia Tech
16. Syracuse
17. Virginia Tech
18. Texas A&M
19. Pittsburg
20. Arkansas *
21. Colorado
22. Washington **
23. Florida *
24. Stanford
25. Miami Ohio

Poor Cameron was in such a tizzy. He then tried to spread his word about the Pac-10 with the director, who went to Tufts, Division III ... not hating on Tufts, just saying it's Division III, there's no comparison in football. In the mean time, the three of us southerners were really being quite defensive about our conference. It's moments like this when an Auburn fan teams up with an Alabama fan to unite the glorious beauty of The SEC. Josh came up with a fair compromise -- The SEC is the best conference for football in the nation and the Pac-10 is the best at recruiting Asian students for academics.

And thanks to Cameron, you really are a sport for dealing with the three of us :)