An Open Letter to SEC Fans Regarding the National Championship

Dear SEC fans, here is an open letter to you as we prepare for the National Championship game between Clemson and Alabama tonight in Glendale, Arizona.

Dear fans of the SEC,

I have a concern about you going into the National Championship game that I must air and get out on the table before we see a great match-up play out tonight. The problem I am citing is entitled “Conference Pride.”

While we, as Clemson fans, certainly root for our ACC counterparts for the most part, as do they, you have taken this term to an unhealthy level.

At first, I just thought it was those pesky South Carolina fans. I mean I can understand a Gamecock fan not wanting to pull for Clemson to win the National Championship no matter who they were playing, but it’s not. As a matter of fact it is fans from every team in the SEC and I mean every team, even Auburn.

This being said, I must air my concerns to you, hoping that you all will be able to hear me considering most of you still believe everything an ESPN analyst says is absolutely infallible and without error.

As we begin, I want to make one thing clear: The game tonight is not between Clemson and the SEC. It’s not between the Tigers and Alabama You have no “dog in the fight.” Your team is not playing. While it is okay to root for whoever you want to, at the end of the day, it should not effect you because, frankly, your team wasn’t in the game. Also, if Clemson loses tonight, they would have lost to Alabama, not the SEC. It has nothing to do with you.

As a matter of fact, Alabama is the only team in the vaunted SEC that could beat Clemson in any kind of consistent basis. All the rest of your teams would lose to the Tigers at least 8-of-10 times if the teams matched up. And don’t pull that “we won eight bowl games” card in which you know there were very few teams that you played that were any good.

While I understand you are waving the conference flag, I want to give you a few things to be thinking about.

First of all, should Alabama win tonight, do you believe they will be cheering because they won for the SEC or because they won for themselves? I can guarantee you the Crimson Tide will not be sharing the trophy nor any of the benefits that come along with winning a National Championship with any of you in their conference.

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Secondly, it just seems like all of you have just ridden on Alabama’s coattails for I don’t know how long. I want you to think about this, since 2009, Alabama has won four of seven SEC Championship games. In the same amount of time, they have gone on to win three National Championships. Frankly, they are more talented than you, they have better coaches, and, because of all the success, recruit better than you over a length of time.

You do realize that Alabama winning the National Championship does hurt your recruiting, right? You’d think that you would want your team (whether it be Auburn, LSU, Texas A&M, Georgia, Florida, LSU, Tennessee, or more) to knock off Alabama, but you seem to be content with playing second fiddle year after year with very few exceptions.

Lastly, it seems that you’ve taken this SEC obsession to an unhealthy level and I’m concerned for you.

I could go on and on sharing tweets and comments I have seen from EVERY SINGLE kind of SEC fan there is. I will never understand this. I will never get why you have so much must invested in Alabama.

More tigers: Clemson vs Alabama: Who Has the Advantage?

As we close this letter out, I want to reiterate something: This conversation is not between the ACC and SEC. This has nothing to do with you telling me how much better your conference is or defending the pride of the SEC. I hope that one day you will understand what I am trying to tell you, but for now I guess you will go on saying “Roll Tide.”

Sincerely,

Every fan who is outside of the SEC.