The Beginning

It's back. The best part of the year. The time of year when two colors become a thousand times more important than all the rest, and millions of people hold three simple letters near and dear. When the sight of a building can bring back a stream of great memories. When putting your arms around strangers and singing a song that a select number of people know, a song that will never crack the top 40, brings tears to your eyes.

That's right. It is FOOTBALL SEASON. Specifically, SEC Football Season.

I like to write, and I could talk football all day. In fact, people have been trying to talk me into writing a sports blog for a while now. So, when fellow SECers at work made the suggestion again, I figured it was time to give it a go. After all, where else can I write of my love for my Gators; disgust of all things red and black and garnet and gold; and my amusement when people make the argument that the SEC isn't the best conference in the country?

I did promise that I would throw a little "girly" into the blog, so be on the lookout for my Gator head shaped cupcakes in the coming weeks! (No, I'm not kidding. I have the muffin pan and everything. Be afraid.)

My hope is that this will become a place to share the funny stories about living and working in a place that does not understand SEC football; vent my frustrations about my football team, should the year continue the way that it started today; and poke fun at the ineptitude that is the Big 10 (and all the other conferences).

My plan is to do a weekend wrap-up post on Sundays, but I have to make an exception for tonight for a single reason: the Alabama vs. Michigan game that ended about 15 minutes ago.

First of all, if the result of the game comes as any surprise to you, you should have your head examined. Or consider paying attention to recent history. Or... maybe you should just wait for whatever lame school you root for to fall into irrelevance again (probably around week 4). Alabama is, was, and will be the better school for the forseeable future. They embody everything that SEC football is about: they have a competent quarterback, excellent special teams, and a defense that kicks major butt.

Don't get me wrong, Nick Saban scares the bejesus out of me and his team prevented my beloved Gators from winning back-to-back National Championships. BUT, the man can coach, and his teams generally don't make mistakes.

Which... brings me back to the game. One thing you'll learn about me: Kirk Herbstreit drives me up the wall. He hates the SEC and lets his Ohio State/Big 10 prejudice color 99.9% of the stuff he says. Knowing that, I probably shouldn't be surprised by anything that comes out of his mouth. However, towards the end of the game when Bama was crushing That Team From Up North, my dear friend Mr. Herbstreit decided that if this game had been played two years from now, the result would have been much different.

Umm... WHAT?! I get that his larger point was that Brady Hoke is still "rebuilding" Michigan and with a couple of more recruiting classes, they will be vastly improved. Okay, maybe. But, I'm sorry, that seems to suggest that Alabama is some how going to get less impressive over the next two years. We're talking about the same team that has almost an entirely new group of defensive starters from a year ago, right?

So... no. Not going to happen. Michigan might improve; they might even drag the rest of the Big 10 up from the gutter, where they currently reside with the ACC and Big East as the jokes of the automatic qualifying conferences.

But two years, heck ten years, is not enough time for Michigan to be in the same class as the top schools in the SEC.

If it happens, I'll eat every orange and blue article of clothing I own. And that's quite a bit. I'm not concerned.