Southeastern Conference
Encyclopedia : S : SO : SOU : Southeastern Conference
The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is a college athletic conference headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama which operates in the southeastern part of the United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I in athletic competitions (I-A in football). The conference is one of the most successful both on the field and financially, averaging more than six national championships per year since 1990 and consistently leading all conferences in revenue distribution to its members including $110.7 million in the 2004-2005 fiscal year [link]. The Southeastern Conference was also the first to hold a championship game (and award a subsequent title) for football and was one of the founding members of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS). The current commissioner of the Southeastern Conference is Michael Slive [link].
History
The SEC was established in December 1932, when the 13 members of the Southern Conference located west and south of the Appalachian Mountains left to form their own conference. Ten of the thirteen charter members have remained in the conference since its inception: the University of Alabama, University of Florida, University of Georgia, University of Kentucky, University of Mississippi, University of Tennessee, Auburn University, Louisiana State University, Mississippi State University, and Vanderbilt University. The other charter members were:
- Sewanee: Left the SEC in 1940. The school has since deemphasized varsity athletics, and is currently a member of the Division III Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference.
- Georgia Tech: Left the SEC in 1964. In 1975, it became a founding member of the Metro Conference, one of the predecessors of today's Conference USA, competing there in all sports except football, in which it was independent. In 1978, Georgia Tech joined the Atlantic Coast Conference for all sports, where it has remained.
- Tulane: Left the SEC in 1966. Along with Georgia Tech, it was a charter member of the Metro Conference. Unlike Tech, however, Tulane remained in the Metro Conference throughout its history until it merged with the Great Midwest Conference to form Conference USA in 1995. Tulane remained an independent in football until the formation of C-USA.
Current members (and year joined)
The SEC currently has twelve member institutions in nine Southeastern states. The geograpic domain of the conference streches from Arkansas to South Carolina and from Kentucky to Florida. One or both of the flagship universities in each state in the geographic domain of the SEC is a member of the conference, along with one of the preeminent private universities of the Deep South.The conference is divided into two geographic divisions: the East Division and the West Division. The twelve current members of the Southeastern Conference are:
| Institution | Location (Population) | Founded | Affiliation | Enrollment | Year Joined |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of Florida | Gainesville, Florida (108,856) | 1853 | Public | 41,094 | 1932 |
| University of Georgia | Athens, Georgia (100,266) | 1785 | Public | 32,200 | 1932 |
| University of Kentucky | Lexington, Kentucky (266,358) | 1865 | Public | 24,317 | 1932 |
| University of South Carolina | Columbia, South Carolina (116,278) | 1801 | Public | 27,065 | 1991 |
| University of Tennessee | Knoxville, Tennessee (173,890) | 1794 | Public | 27,281 | 1932 |
| Vanderbilt University | Nashville, Tennessee (561,891) | 1873 | Private (Non-sect.) | 11,500 | 1932 |
| Institution | Location (Population) | Founded | Affiliation | Enrollment | Year Joined |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of Alabama | Tuscaloosa, Alabama (79,294) | 1831 | Public | 21,750 | 1932 |
| University of Arkansas | Fayetteville, Arkansas (58,047) | 1871 | Public | 17,821 | 1991 |
| Auburn University | Auburn, Alabama (48,348) | 1856 | Public | 22,928 | 1932 |
| Louisiana State University | Baton Rouge, Louisiana (224,097) | 1860 | Public | 31,561 | 1932 |
| University of Mississippi | Oxford, Mississippi (11,756) | 1848 | Public | 16,500 | 1932 |
| Mississippi State University | Starkville, Mississippi (21,869) | 1878 | Public | 15,934 | 1932 |
SEC East
SEC West
Sports sponsored
- Football
- Men's Basketball
- Women's Basketball
- Baseball
- Softball (except Vanderbilt)
- Women's Soccer
- Women's Volleyball (except Vanderbilt)
- Men's Cross-Country (except South Carolina)
- Women's Cross Country
- Men's Track & Field (except MSU and Vanderbilt)
- Women's Track & Field
- Men's Swimming and Diving (except Arkansas, MSU, Ole Miss, and Vanderbilt)
- Women's Swimming and Diving (except MSU and Ole Miss) (Vanderbilt starts 2006-2007)
- Men's Tennis
- Women's Tennis
- Men's Golf
- Women's Golf
- Women's Gymnastics (Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU)
Conference facilities
College Football Rivalries in the SEC
Football has a rich tradition in the SEC, and its many rivalries among its members have long histories. Some of the rivalries involving SEC teams include:
Each school has a permanent rival from the other division which it plays each year in football (though this may or may not reflect a traditional rivalry). Each East Division school's permanent rival from the West Division:
| East Division | West Division |
|---|---|
| Florida | LSU |
| Georgia | Auburn |
| Kentucky | Mississippi State |
| South Carolina | Arkansas |
| Tennessee | Alabama |
| Vanderbilt | Ole Miss |
From 1992 through 2001, each team had two permanent inter-divisional opponents, allowing many traditional rivalries from the pre-expansion era (such as Florida vs. Auburn, Kentucky vs. LSU and Vanderbilt vs. Alabama) to continue. Complaints from some league athletic directors about imbalance in the schedule (for instance, Auburn's two permanent opponents from the East were Florida and Georgia, while Mississsippi State played South Carolina and Kentucky every year) led to the adoption of the "5-1-2" format currently in place.
Other league athletic directors have advocated adopting the format used by the Big 12 Conference, where teams play three teams from the opposite division on a home-and-home basis for two seasons, and then switch and play the other three teams from the opposite side for a two-year home-and-home. However, the potential loss of such popular rivalries as Alabama-Tennessee and Auburn-Georgia have scuttled such plans on the drawing board.
Interestingly, prior to the institution of divisional play, many of Auburn's yearly rivlaries were with teams in the East (Florida, Georgia and Tennessee), while Vanderbilt faced Alabama and Ole Miss every year.
In addition to the permanent inter-division rival, each football team plays all of its five division opponents plus two rotating opponents from the other division, for a total of eight conference games per season.
Rivalries in Other Sports in the SEC
The top athletic priority throughout the SEC is football, with one exception. Kentucky, which has one of the most storied basketball traditions in the country, is also one of only two Division I-A schools to earn more revenue from its basketball program than its football program. (The other is Arizona.) Vanderbilt and Arkansas also place more emphasis on basketball vis-a-vis football than most other SEC schools, although the Razorbacks have had consistent success in football and routinely sell out their 72,000-seat stadium.Despite the conference-wide emphasis on football, several rivalries have developed in other sports:
Men's basketball
Teams play a 16-game conference schedule, facing each team from its own division twice and each team from the opposite division once. Prior to expansion, teams played a double round-robin, leading to an exhausting 18-game conference schedule. Not surprisingly, no team ever ran the table when the conference schedule featured 18 games; three teams went 17-1 (Kentucky in 1970 and 1986, LSU in 1981). Since the league slate was trimmed to 16 games, Kentucky has gone undefeated in SEC play in 1996 and 2003.
- The dominance of these two teams in the '90s over eveyone else in the SEC led to quite a rivalry, mostly by default of being the best two teams in the conference.
Other sports
- The Lady Vols have historically been one of the nation's dominant programs in that sport. Starting in the mid-1990s, UConn has emerged as Tennessee's main rival for national prominence. The Huskies won four national titles between 2000 and 2004; in three of those years, their victim in the NCAA final was Tennessee. For more information, see UConn-Tennessee rivalry.
National Championships
Since its founding in 1932, SEC members have won a total of 150 team national championships (as of June 5th 2005). Listed below are all championship teams of NCAA sponsored events, as well as the titles won in football. Conference members have won at least one title in all but two of the sponsored events, Softball and Women's Volleyball.- Prior to 1932, the University of Alabama claimed national titles in football in 1925, 1926, and 1930.
- Prior to joining the SEC in 1992, the University of Arkansas claimed the 1964 football championship, nine titles in Men's Indoor Track, three in Men's Outdoor Track, and five in Men's Cross Country.
- Prior to 1932, former member Georgia Tech claimed football national titles in 1917 and 1928. Tech also won the 1952 title in football. The team defeated fellow SEC member Mississippi in the Sugar Bowl and finished with a record of 12-0. This came a year after Tennessee claimed its first unanimous national title in 1951, although it was also voted national champion by multiple polling services in 1938 and 1940.
- Up to 1982, teams representing member schools also claimed three AIAW Championships
| Football* (18): 1934 - Alabama 1941 - Alabama 1942 - Georgia 1946 - Georgia 1951 - Tennessee 1952 - Georgia Tech 1957 - Auburn 1958 - LSU 1960 - Ole Miss 1961 - Alabama 1962 - Ole Miss 1964 - Alabama 1965 - Alabama 1973 - Alabama 1978 - Alabama 1979 - Alabama 1980 - Georgia 1992 - Alabama 1996 - Florida 1998 - Tennessee 2003 - LSU | Men's Basketball (9): 1948 - Kentucky 1949 - Kentucky 1951 - Kentucky 1958 - Kentucky 1978 - Kentucky 1994 - Arkansas 1996 - Kentucky 1998 - Kentucky 2006 - Florida Women's Basketball (6): 1987 - Tennessee 1989 - Tennessee 1991 - Tennessee 1996 - Tennessee 1997 - Tennessee 1998 - Tennessee | Baseball (6): 1990 - Georgia 1991 - LSU 1993 - LSU 1996 - LSU 1997 - LSU 2000 - LSU | Women's Soccer (1): 1998 - Florida |
| Men's Indoor Track & Field (12): 1993 - Arkansas 1994 - Arkansas 1995 - Arkansas 1997 - Arkansas 1998 - Arkansas 1999 - Arkansas 2000 - Arkansas 2001 - LSU 2002 - Tennessee 2003 - Arkansas 2004 - LSU 2005 - Arkansas | Women's Indoor Track & Field (13): 1987 - LSU 1989 - LSU 1991 - LSU 1992 - Florida 1993 - LSU 1994 - LSU 1995 - LSU 1996 - LSU 1997 - LSU 2002 - LSU 2003 - LSU 2004 - LSU 2005 - Tennessee | Men's Outdoor Track & Field (16): 1933 - LSU 1974 - Tennessee 1989 - LSU 1990 - LSU 1991 - Tennessee 1993 - Arkansas 1994 - Arkansas 1995 - Arkansas 1996 - Arkansas 1997 - Arkansas 1998 - Arkansas 1999 - Arkansas 2001 - Tennessee 2002 - LSU 2003 - Arkansas 2004 - Arkansas 2005 - Arkansas | Women's Outdoor Track & Field (14): 1987 - LSU 1988 - LSU 1989 - LSU 1990 - LSU 1991 - LSU 1992 - LSU 1993 - LSU 1994 - LSU 1995 - LSU 1996 - LSU 1997 - LSU 2000 - LSU 2002 - South Carolina 2003 - LSU 2006 - Auburn |
| Men's Cross Country (7): 1972 - Tennessee 1992 - Arkansas 1993 - Arkansas 1995 - Arkansas 1998 - Arkansas 1999 - Arkansas 2000 - Arkansas Women's Cross Country (1): 1988 - Kentucky | Men's Swimming & Diving (9): 1978 - Tennessee 1983 - Florida 1984 - Florida 1997 - Auburn 1999 - Auburn 2003 - Auburn 2004 - Auburn 2005 - Auburn 2006 - Auburn Women's Swimming & Diving (9): 1982 - Florida 1999 - Georgia 2000 - Georgia 2001 - Georgia 2002 - Auburn 2003 - Auburn 2004 - Auburn 2005 - Georgia 2006 - Auburn | Men's Tennis (3): 1985 - Georgia 1987 - Georgia 2001 - Georgia Women's Tennis (6): 1992 - Florida 1994 - Georgia 1996 - Florida 1998 - Florida 2000 - Georgia 2003 - Florida | |
| Men's Golf (10): 1940 - LSU 1942 - LSU 1947 - LSU 1955 - LSU 1968 - Florida 1973 - Florida 1993 - Florida 1999 - Georgia 2001 - Florida 2005 - Georgia Women's Golf (3): 1995 - Florida 1996 - Florida 2001 - Georgia | Women's Gymnastics (11): 1987 - Georgia 1988 - Alabama 1989 - Georgia 1991 - Alabama 1993 - Georgia 1996 - Alabama 1998 - Georgia 1999 - Georgia 2002 - Alabama 2005 - Georgia 2006 - Georgia |
See also
External links
- [Tennessee Vols Fan Site]
- [Official Site of the Southeastern Conference]
- [SECIllustrated.com - Southeastern Conference Discussion]
- [SECbbs Forum @ NCAAbbs]
- [SEC Football Sports Links]
- [LSU student newspaper article about LSU-Ole Miss rivalry]
- [The original AP article documenting the SEC's formation (Dec. 10, 1932)]
- [SEC Basketball Website]
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