When the expansion talk came up I was in favor of Clemson coming into the SEC partly for this reason. But now that there’s a playoff they’d be crazy to move. It would have to be us.
As for us being in the SEC ...
- Thread starter SumterGamecockGuy
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IMO, we're a better demographic fit for the SEC, and a better geographic fit for the pre-2005 ACC. Leaving the ACC was the stupidest athletic move USC ever made. Joining the SEC was the smartest such move, even if it was a no-brainer.
She's an aluma.
Wouldn't Ga Tech be a stronger rival for the Dawgs, or are we limiting it to current SEC members? Long-time alumni probably regret that Bobby Dodd pulled Tech out of the SEC.
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Yes, I know. She thinks Tech is not a threat these days but I'll ask her brother who is a Tech alum what he thinks about that.
Posters have it right about leaving the ACC being a huge mistake but I was POed at the time, too, and listened to the pro-leaving propaganda from the university supporters. It was a childish move. The best revenge would have been to stay in the ACC and kick their asses. Much like Clemson is doing. Ruined our BB pgm. Did not help FB or recruiting.
USC tried to rejoin in the 80s? but the ACC made impossible demands because they didn't really want USC back and managed to say, "No thank you", in a somewhat diplomatic way. We were a redheaded stepchild.
USC was lucky FSU and Miami spurned their SEC offers. Now we are the redheaded stepchild of the SEC.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/arch...61a891c/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.7038abea1326
https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/2011/1990-sec-expansion-southeastern-conference/
https://bleacherreport.com/articles...ld-south-carolina-stay-put-or-jump-to-the-acc
One more:
https://virginiatech.sportswar.com/article/2004/06/08/conference-wars-part-1-1978-1990/
USC tried to rejoin in the 80s? but the ACC made impossible demands because they didn't really want USC back and managed to say, "No thank you", in a somewhat diplomatic way. We were a redheaded stepchild.
USC was lucky FSU and Miami spurned their SEC offers. Now we are the redheaded stepchild of the SEC.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/arch...61a891c/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.7038abea1326
https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/2011/1990-sec-expansion-southeastern-conference/
https://bleacherreport.com/articles...ld-south-carolina-stay-put-or-jump-to-the-acc
One more:
https://virginiatech.sportswar.com/article/2004/06/08/conference-wars-part-1-1978-1990/
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Her brother is a Tech alumnus.
How much of a "threat" Tech is depends on the sport.
Tulane's SEC departure was based mainly on the school's de-emphasis of varsity athletics. The asked the SEC for some football "relief", which was refused. Thus, the Green Wave's last SEC football contest took place in the fall of 1965, a 62-0 drubbing at the hands of LSU.
LSU and Tulane continued to schedule each other in football for many years after Tulane left the SEC, but dropped the series about a dozen years ago, since it wasn't competitive. They still compete against each other in all other sports.
Well, Rex Enright was one of the movers and shakers who got the ACC started.
King, if you have not read ACC Basketball: The Story of the Rivalries, Traditions, and Scandals of the First Two Decades of the Atlantic Coast Conference by J. Samuel Walker, by all means obtain a copy. Walker does a fine job of explaining how two groups of strange bedfellows (USC, Clemron, & Maryland, and the "Big 4") came together to form the league.
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It's not the history and it's not the conference, it's the culture. We got to get rid of the Good Ole Boy system and run the athletic department like a business.
The amount of money we get from the conference should give us an advantage over a lot schools that regularly kick our ass. So, why are we always playing catch up on facilities?
Name an SEC member who has not recently improved facilities or has new ones scheduled? Kentucky debuts a new baseball stadium this spring, Auburn built a new basketball arena several years ago, etc.
Hey @atl-cock - why wasn’t UVa include in the orig always group? Never understood why they were included a year later.
Varied reasons. ATM, Mizzou, Nebraska and Colorado left the Big 12 to escape Texas. Sometimes team jump out of a need for survival, because their current conference is imploding.
Sometimes it’s all about money. Maryland was in serious debt due to mismanagement.
yeah, lets go back where it all started.................the southern conference
I have never once, even for a minute, wished we were somewhere other than the SEC. All this self-loathing disgusts me.
One thing is for damn sure: our athletics programs accomplished a whole lot more in the 27 years we have been in the SEC than we ever did in the 100 years prior.
I knew a bunch of Georgia fans that said the same thing . . . repeatedly, loudly, and emphatically when Spurrier was beating them 4 out of 5. They never felt the need to tell me that before and haven't brought it up much lately. Clearly, kicking their a$$ frequently increased their enthusiasm for our non-rivalry.
we r surrounded by those that "may not have some of the necessities to be" self thinkin', much less registered voters
There is some wisdom in this observation. I did see a change in my Bulldog loyalist wife when Spurrier was coaching Carolina. They feared him from his time at Florida. Now that he is long gone, Carolina is back to its previous status of a non threat.
Walker discusses the need the 7 charter ACC members felt about adding an 8th member to round up the number. UVA was not a SoCon member at the time (not sure if they were ever in the league), and they weren't absolutely gung-ho about joining the ACC either.
It almost seems the only group that cares about GC FB 24/7 is the fans. Younger fans may not be as fanatic as the fans who have been pulling for USC for decades. Speaking for myself, I have been a fan since the LSU hero who flopped and was mostly responsible for getting USC out of the ACC. He was gonna make USC the Power of the East. If he had had a brain, he would have been the savior of USC's FB pgm. Instead, he managed to destroy both FB and BB and most other sports pgms with natural ACC rivals.
Losses still bother me but they no longer have a serpent's sting. Admin needs to wake up and take notice and not waste the fans' devotion and support.
I've always held that we are a hybrid ACC-SEC school, i.e. geographically, culturally, politically, economically, and athletically. However, what's missing for USC with the ACC is ACCEPTANCE. We are NOT a red-headed stepchild in the SEC.
Your hybrid description fits what I stated about us being more demographically suited for the SEC and more geographically suited for the ACC prior to the latter's poaching of the Big East.
How does a founding member of the ACC and a leader in creating the conference end up a red-headed step child? Perceptions of fans with chips on their shoulders.
Step child that was starting to kick @$$. With our ambition and willingness to spend, we weren't going to remain step children.
I don't think we would bite on that one unless they had something better to trade.
remind me again what swafford did n regard 2 unc & how we may have received the same benefit.............the history of that conference kinda tells ya what they will continue 2 do................i'll hang up now & listen
We're like the welfare program of the SEC. sit on our butt and get paid while everyone else does the hard work.
Damn that hurts, but you know what they say about the truth!
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