History UsefulNotes / PowerFiveConferences

[[WMG:[[center:[-[[UsefulNotes/CollegiateAmericanFootball College Football]]\\

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sec_2.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:[[labelnote:Click here for a map of the SEC schools.]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sec_map_2024.png[[/labelnote]]]]
->'''Year Established:''' 1932\\
'''Current schools:''' Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, [[InsistentTerminology Ole Miss]], Mississippi State[[note]]or "State", since LSU only ever uses the initials and State is the only other 'X State University' in the conference[[/note]], Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt\\
'''Current commissioner:''' Greg Sankey\\
'''Reigning champion:''' Alabama\\
'''Website:''' [[https://secsports.com secsports.com]]
----
The '''Southeastern Conference''' (or just the '''SEC''') is the premier conference of the American DeepSouth and all of college football, enjoying such a degree of popularity and on-field success that truly dwarfs the rest of college football. Fans are only half-joking when they speculate that the SEC could rival the NFL if it absorbed just a few more major programs (something that the SEC likes to do every few years). The conference gets a lot of games televised; it has an extremely lucrative contract with ESPN for all of its games that kicks in for 2024 (replacing a less lucrative but still massive deal that was split between CBS and ESPN). The only richer contract is that of the Big Ten, and both are ''miles'' ahead of any other conference in that respect. In the BCS era, SEC schools were 9-2 in the national championship game (and one loss was due to a matchup of two SEC members). In the 4-team CFP era, the SEC has always sent at least one rep to the playoff (usually either Alabama or Georgia) and is the only conference to have sent two teams in the same season (both times they did so, those teams played each other for the championship). Tradition runs deep in the conference; its fans are absolutely rabid for the sport, and rivalries are especially intense. The SEC is also notable for its relatively compact geography. With 2024's realignment, the SEC will be the only power conference whose geographic footprint consists entirely of adjacent states.\\\

The SEC was the ''other'' Power Five conference that was formed by schools that seceded from the Southern Conference. In 1932, the 13 [=SoCon=] members located east and south of the Appalachians left to form a more geographically compact league. Three of its charter members left over time. Sewanee, a small private school in Tennessee, had been a football power around the turn of the 20th century, but by the time the SEC formed, it was in the process of deemphasizing athletics; it left in 1940 and is now in D-III. Georgia Tech, as noted in the ACC folder, left in 1964, and Tulane left two years later.\\\

The SEC was the first D-I conference to split into divisions ("East" and "West" in its case) and hold a conference championship game between the top teams of each division, becoming the TropeCodifier for all subsequent conferences to do so.[[note]]The NCAA rule that allowed said title game had actually been enacted in 1987 for the benefit of two D-II leagues, but neither league actually established a title game until after the SEC did.[[/note]] This was implemented in 1992, after the additions of Arkansas and South Carolina made it impractical for all teams in the conference to play each other every year (doing so would have allowed only one non-conference game per season). Texas A&M and Missouri joined in 2012, bringing the conference to a then-massive 14 teams. From 2012–2023, each team played all six other teams in its division and one designated cross-division rival every year, plus one other cross-division game per year on a rotating basis. When Oklahoma and Texas joined in 2024, the divisions were ditched. The eight-game schedule will stay in place for the time being (with all schools assured of facing all others home and away in a 4-year cycle), but the SEC left the door open for a move to nine games sometime after 2024.

[[folder:SEC Teams]]

!!!Alabama Crimson Tide
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/alabama.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:Roll Tide!]]
->'''Location:''' Tuscaloosa, AL\\
'''School Established:''' 1820/1831[[note]]Formally chartered in 1820 but did not hold classes until 1831. The university's official seal depicts the 1831 date.[[/note]]\\
'''Conference Affiliations:''' Ind. (1892-94), SIAA (1895-1921),[[note]]Did not play in 1898 or 1918...[[/note]] [=SoCon=] (1922-32), SEC (1933-)[[note]]...or 1943.[[/note]]\\
'''Overall Win Record:''' 965-337-43 (.733)\\
'''Bowl Record:''' 45-28-3 (.612)\\
'''Colors:''' Crimson and white\\
'''Stadium:''' Bryant–Denny Stadium (capacity 102,821)\\
'''Current Head Coach:''' Kalen [=DeBoer=]\\
'''Notable Historic Coaches:''' Wallace Wade, Frank Thomas, Bear Bryant, Gene Stallings, Nick Saban\\
'''Notable Historic Players:''' Frank Howard, Bear Bryant, Don Hutson, Harry Gilmer, Bart Starr, Lee Roy Jordan, Charley Pell, Joe Namath, Jackie Sherrill, Ken Stabler, Danny Ford, John Hannah, John Mitchell, Sylvester Croom, Richard Todd, Ozzie Newsome, Dwight Stephenson, Mark Ingram Sr./Jr., Mike Shula, Derrick Thomas, Keith [=McCants=], Dabo Swinney, David Palmer, Mark [=McMillian=], Antonio Langham, Chris Samuels, Shaun Alexander, [=DeMeco=] Ryans, Greg [=McElroy=], Trent Richardson, Julio Jones, Rolando [=McClain=], Eddie Lacy, Dee Milliner, A.J. [=McCarron=], Amari Cooper, Derrick Henry, Reuben Foster, Josh Jacobs, Jalen Hurts, Tua Tagovailoa, Henry Ruggs, Mac Jones, [=DeVonta=] Smith, Najee Harris, Jaylen Waddle, Bryce Young, Will Anderson Jr., Will Reichard\\
'''National Championships:''' 18 (1925-26, 1930, 1934, 1941, 1961, 1964-65, 1973, 1978-79, 1992, 2009, 2011-12, 2015, 2017, 2020)[[note]]5 unclaimed (1945, 1966, 1975, 1977, 2016)[[/note]]\\
'''Conference Championships:''' 34 (4 [=SoCon=] - 1924-26, 1930; 30 SEC - 1933-34, 1937, 1945, 1953, 1961, 1964-66, 1971-75, 1977-79, 1981, 1989, 1992, 1999, 2009, 2012, 2014-16, 2018, 2020-21, 2023)
----
The '''University of Alabama''' (often referred to as just "Bama") is one of the most successful programs in college football history, having played in more bowl games (76), spent more weeks at #1 in the AP Poll (140 at the end of 2023), and claimed more national championships than any school starting in the 20th century.[[note]]Princeton and Yale both claim far more, but almost all of them are from the late 1800s when those schools had little to no competition; it's also been ''so'' long since either of those programs were relevant that touting their accomplishments seems almost pointless.[[/note]] Coaches Wallace Wade (1923-30) and Frank Thomas (1931-46) brought the school five claimed national titles in the early 20th century. Wade's first championship year in 1925 was capped by the Tide being the first Southern team invited to the Rose Bowl in lieu of a Northern or Midwestern team; Alabama's hard-fought victory by a single point was one of the most important moments in establishing Southern college football as a national power. After suffering through a severe decline in the early 1950s, including a winless '55 season, Bear Bryant returned to his alma mater as HC and made the program the most successful in the nation through his 25-year tenure (1958-82), claiming six national championships and being named to several more. After his first season, Bryant's team made 25 straight bowl appearances, a record at the time, still fifth all-time, and a staggering accomplishment in an era with far fewer bowl opportunities. Bryant's name was added to the school's stadium in 1975, seven years ''before'' he retired.\\\

Bryant proved to be a ToughActToFollow; Alabama cycled through a number of coaches in the decades that followed. While Bryant protégé Gene Stallings was able to bring the school another national title in 1992, sanctions incurred the following year for academic violations sent the school spiraling into an embarrassing AudienceAlienatingEra that last the late '90s to early 2000s marked by a coaching carousel and even more sanctions. However, the hire of Nick Saban in 2007 brought the school right back to the heights of the Bryant era, claiming another six national titles in a little more than a decade and only being blocked from another three by Clemson and Georgia. The school likewise dominated the Heisman race under Saban, producing four winners: [=RBs=] Mark Ingram Jr. and Derrick Henry, WR [=DeVonta=] Smith, and QB Bryce Young. Its utter dominance of the FBS during the CFP era (with an appearance in the playoffs every year save 2019 and '22) and its steady stream of first-round pro talent have led many to (half-)joke that Alabama could reasonably compete with most NFL teams on any given Sunday. Saban retired after 2023 with the Tide still very much at the top of the college football world.\\\

The school's success and influence has made it arguably the default college football program in popular media. Film/ForrestGump played for Bear Bryant's team, ''Film/CrimsonTide'' is so named because it's a great pun (it's set on a submarine called the ''Alabama''), and the team's name inspired and is referenced in Music/SteelyDan's hit "Deacon Blues". The exact origins of the "Crimson Tide" name are somewhat disputed, as are those for its mascot, Big Al the Elephant. A common explanation for the nickname comes from a hard-fought 1907 game against intrastate rival Auburn [[BattleInTheRain played in the rain]], with the crimson referring either to the school's existing colors or the dirt/blood that stained their jerseys; the "Iron Bowl" rivalry with Auburn remains extremely strong to this day. Al's origin is a little clearer, coming from a sportswriter describing the 1930 team as shaking the earth like elephants.

!!!Arkansas Razorbacks
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/arkansas.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:Woo Pig Sooie!]]
->'''Location:''' Fayetteville, AR\\
'''School Established:''' 1871[[note]]As "Arkansas Industrial University", with the first classes held in 1872. The current name was adopted in 1899.[[/note]]\\
'''Conference Affiliations:''' Ind. (1894-1914), SWC (1915-91), SEC (1992-)\\
'''Overall Win Record:''' 740-539-40 (.576)\\
'''Bowl Record:''' 17-24-3 (.420)\\
'''Colors:''' Cardinal and white\\
'''Stadium:''' Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium (capacity 76,212)[[note]]Also traditionally plays at least one home game a season at War Memorial Stadium (capacity 54,120) in Little Rock.[[/note]]\\
'''Current Head Coach:''' Sam Pittman\\
'''Notable Historic Coaches:''' Hugo Bezdek, Francis Schmidt, Frank Broyles, Lou Holtz, Bobby Petrino\\
'''Notable Historic Players:''' Jim Lee Howell, Jim Benton, Clyde Scott, Pat Summerall, Barry Switzer, Lance Alworth, Jimmy Johnson, Jerry Jones, Joe Ferguson, Steve Little, Dan Hampton, Steve Atwater, Barry Foster, Brandon Burlsworth, Jason Peters, Ahmad Carroll, Matt Jones, Jamaal Anderson, Darren [=McFadden=], Felix Jones, Peyton Hillis\\
'''National Championships:''' 1 (1964)[[note]]1 unclaimed (1977)[[/note]]\\
'''Conference Championships:''' 13 (SWC - 1936, 1946, 1954, 1959-61, 1964-65, 1968, 1975, 1979, 1988-89)
----
The '''University of Arkansas''' football program started out strong in the early 20th century, with an undefeated 1909 season under Hugo Bezdek. The team struggled throughout the 1940s and '50s but saw its peak under coach Frank Broyles (1958-76), who made them a notable force and led them to an undefeated 1964 season and a claimed national title. They spent most of that history as the odd school out in the Southwest, being the only non-Texas school in the conference; with Broyles still at the helm as AD, they split off to join the SEC in 1992, becoming one of the dominos that led to the SWC's dissolution and the creation of the Big 12. Arkansas struggled somewhat in the new conference, with a brief glimmer of promise under Bobby Petrino in the late 2000s ending under pretty humiliating circumstances and sending the program into a spiral it's only recently begun to recover from.[[note]]Fun fact: Both of the NFL head coaches in the Super Bowl era who quit their jobs in the middle of their first season (Lou Holtz and Petrino) left to coach at Arkansas.[[/note]]\\\

A "razorback" is a feral pig native to the region; the name was adopted by Bezdek's squads for their physicality, which multiple generations of "Hogs" have attempted to emulate. Fans mimic pig calls of "Woo, pig, sooie!" to cheer on their teams, and they have a live hog mascot named "Tusk". While its football program isn't particularly notable when placed next to its counterparts in the SEC, Arkansas actually boasts more national athletic titles than any other school in its conference thanks to its dominant programs in men's cross country (11) and both indoor ''and'' outdoor track and field (20 and 10); it leads the nation in the first two and sits behind only USC in the third. As part of their effort to represent the entire state of Arkansas, the college didn't play another Arkansas school for several decades and plays some of its "home" games in Little Rock. Historically, its most hated rival is likely Texas (whose defeat of Arkansas in the 1969 "Big Shootout" cost the Razorbacks a second national title).

!!!Auburn Tigers
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/auburn.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:War Eagle!]]
->'''Location:''' Auburn, AL\\
'''School Established:''' 1856[[note]]as "East Alabama Male College", with the first classes held in 1859. Became "Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama" in 1872 and "Alabama Polytechnic Institute" in 1899. Although the school was popularly known as "Auburn" for many decades, the current name didn't become official until 1960.[[/note]]\\
'''Conference Affiliations:''' Ind. (1892-94), SIAA (1895-1920), [=SoCon=] (1921-32), SEC (1933-)[[note]]Did not play in 1943.[[/note]]\\
'''Overall Win Record:''' 799-471-47 (.625)\\
'''Bowl Record:''' 24-21-2 (.532)\\
'''Colors:''' Burnt orange and navy blue\\
'''Stadium:''' Jordan–Hare Stadium (capacity 87,451)\\
'''Current Head Coach:''' Hugh Freeze\\
'''Notable Historic Coaches:''' John Heisman, Mike Donahue, Ralph "Shug" Jordan, Pat Dye, Terry Bowden, Tommy Tuberville\\
'''Notable Historic Players:''' Shug Jordan, Frank Gatski, Erk Russell, Vince Dooley, Pat Sullivan, Terry Beasley, Dieter Brock, William Andrews, James Brooks, Al Del Greco, Creator/BoJackson, Kevin Greene, Brent Fullwood, Aundray Bruce, Stan White, Patrick and Bo Nix, Carnell "Cadillac" Williams, Brandon Jacobs, Cam Newton, Michael Dyer, Cody Parkey, Greg Robinson, Daniel and Anders Carlson\\
'''National Championships:''' 2 (1957, 2010)[[note]]3 unclaimed (1913, 1983, 1993)[[/note]]\\
'''Conference Championships:''' 16 (7 SIAA - 1900, 1904, 1908, 1910, 1913-14, 1919; 1 [=SoCon=] - 1932; 8 SEC - 1957, 1983, 1987-89, 2004, 2010, 2013)
----
While '''Auburn University''''s Tigers have a reputation as [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter Alabama's second-best football team]], they have been very successful in their own right. John Heisman coached the program in its early years, and the team has since produced three winners of his namesake trophy. "Iron" Mike Donahue (1905-06, 1908-22) laid the groundwork for future success with two perfect seasons and the best win percentage of any full-time coach in school history. However, outside of a 1932 conference title season that fell one tie short of perfection, the Tigers mostly struggled through their time in [=SoCon=] and their first two decades in the SEC, bottoming out with a winless 1950 campaign.\\\

The very next year, new coach Shug Jordan turned Auburn back into a football power, posting the longest and winningest coaching tenure in the school's history (1951-75) and claiming both the school's first national championship with a perfect 1957 campaign and its first Heisman winner in QB Pat Sullivan (1971). Following a brief regression, coach Pat Dye (1981-92) again revived the program with the help of 1985 Heisman RB and dual-sport superstar Bo Jackson. Dye's tenure ended due to NCAA sanctions; his successor Terry Bowden had an undefeated regular season in his first year but was disqualified from postseason play and the chance at a national title. Coach Tommy Tuberville (1999-2008) again revived the program's prospects after a brief lull, going undefeated in 2004 but finishing ranked #3 behind USC and Oklahoma; Tuberville parlayed his success into a successful campaign for the U.S. Senate despite zero political experience and having not lived in Alabama for a decade, a testament to Auburn's local influence. Dynamic juco transfer QB Cam Newton claimed the school's third Heisman while leading them to a BCS Championship in 2010, but the Tigers have struggled to regain national prominence in the decade since.\\\

Outside of football, Auburn's strongest sport is swimming, which won 13 national titles (8 men's, 5 women's) in the late '90s and 2000s. Despite having a tiger as a mascot, Auburn fans cheer on their team with a "War Eagle" chant and features a trained eagle that flies over Jordan-Hare Stadium, much to the confusion of pretty much everyone. Auburn's oldest rivalry is with Georgia and they have a pretty intense one with their fellow Tigers at LSU, but there's no question that their most extreme one is with Alabama, with their Iron Bowl matchups considered more important than the Super Bowl to Alabamians.

!!!Florida Gators
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/florida_3.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:Welcome to the Swamp!]]
->'''Location:''' Gainesville, FL\\
'''School Established:''' 1853[[note]]...is the "official" founding date, when the "East Florida Seminary", the oldest of the university's predecessors, was established. The university as we know it today was established in 1905 as the "University of the State of Florida" when the East Florida Seminary was merged with three other institutions. The name was shortened to the current form in 1909.[[/note]]\\
'''Conference Affiliations:''' Ind. (1906-11), SIAA (1912-21), [=SoCon=] (1922-32), SEC (1933-)\\
'''Overall Win Record:''' 754-438-40 (.628)\\
'''Bowl Record:''' 24-24 (.500)\\
'''Colors:''' Orange and blue\\
'''Stadium:''' Ben Hill Griffin Stadium (aka "The Swamp"; capacity 88,548)\\
'''Current Head Coach:''' Billy Napier\\
'''Notable Historic Coaches:''' Ray Graves, Doug Dickey, Charley Pell, Steve Spurrier, Urban Meyer\\
'''Notable Historic Players:''' Paul Duhart, Rick Casares, Doug Dickey, Steve Spurrier, Carlos Alvarez, Jack Youngblood, John Reaves, John James, Wes Chandler, Cris Collinsworth, Lomas Brown, Emmitt Smith, Errict Rhett, Huey Richardson, Danny Wuerffel, Javon Kearse, [[Wrestling/TitusONeil Thaddeus Bullard]], Jesse Palmer, Gerard Warren, Fred Taylor, Rex Grossman, Chris Leak, Jarvis Moss, Tim Tebow, Percy Harvin, Aaron Hernandez, Carlos Dunlap, Vernon Hargreaves, C.J Henderson\\
'''National Championships:''' 3 (1996, 2006, 2008)[[note]]2 unclaimed (1984-85)[[/note]]\\
'''Conference Championships:''' 8, all SEC (1991, 1993-96, 2000, 2006, 2008)
----
The '''University of Florida''' enjoys a good claim to being the state's most prestigious institute of higher learning, both in academics and athletics, with one of the largest student populations of any college After being the ButtMonkey of the early SEC football in the '30s and '40s, with a winless 1946 season, Florida rose to become a major power starting in the '60s, when it achieved national prominence after producing Heisman-winning QB Steve Spurrier in 1966. The school was also an SEC power in the '80s, but NCAA sanctions prevented them from competing in the postseason for a national title. Spurrier returned to his alma mater as a coach in 1990 and served there until 2001, elevating them to an SEC power and claiming the school's first national championship in 1996 under another Heisman QB in Danny Wuerffel, making them the last program to claim their first recognized major college national title and enter the "blue blood" ranks. When coach Urban Meyer took the reins from 2005-10, he shaped one of the more memorable teams in college football history. QB Tim Tebow became the school's third Heisman winner and helped lead the team to two national championships, quickly becoming one of the most famous and decorated players in college football history. Meyer's tenure ended amidst rumors of a toxic locker room culture, and the program has fluctuated ever since. Not helping matters is Florida's growing reputation as a party school rather than the academic and athletic powerhouse of the past sixty years, and the growth of second-tier college programs elsewhere in Florida (notably South and Central Florida).\\\

Florida's rivalry with Florida State is far and away the most heated athletic rivalry in their state, with Miami coming in a respectable second. Ben Hill Griffin Stadium (much better known by its appropriate nickname "The Swamp") is the largest stadium in the state, and Gators home games are infamous for paralyzing traffic throughout Gainesville (about an hour's drive from Jacksonville). Gainesville was the hometown of the late Music/TomPetty, and the school has firmly adopted the tradition of singing "I Won't Back Down" after the third quarter. For non-football fans, the Florida Gators are probably ''most'' notable for being the namesake of the Gatorade sports drink, which was first developed by university scientists to help their football team stay hydrated in the Florida humidity during their launch to prominence in the 1960s; whether the drink actually had anything to do with their success remains a matter of debate.

!!!Georgia Bulldogs
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/georgia_8.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:How 'bout them Dawgs?]]
->'''Location:''' Athens, GA\\
'''School Established:''' 1785[[note]]...is the "official" founding date, the year the state legislature awarded UGA its charter, making it the first US university to gain a state charter. However, classes did not start until 1801, three years after North Carolina (chartered in 1789) had graduated its first class.[[/note]]\\
'''Conference Affiliations:''' Ind. (1892-95), SIAA (1896-1920),[[note]]Did not play in 1917-18.[[/note]] [=SoCon=] (1921-32), SEC (1933-)\\
'''Overall Win Record:''' 881-429-54 (.666)\\
'''Bowl Record:''' 38-21-3 (.637)\\
'''Colors:''' Red and black\\
'''Stadium:''' Sanford Stadium (aka "Between the Hedges"; capacity 92,746)\\
'''Current Head Coach:''' Kirby Smart\\
'''Notable Historic Coaches:''' Pop Warner, Wally Butts, Vince Dooley, Mark Richt\\
'''Notable Historic Players:''' Charley Trippi, Frank Sinkwich, John Rauch, Marion Campbell, Harry Babcock, Pat Dye, Fran Tarkenton, Bobby Walden, Jake Scott, Herschel Walker, Terry Hoage, [[Wrestling/{{Goldberg}} Bill Goldberg]], Tim Worley, John Kasay, Garrison Hearst, Bernard Williams, Mo Lewis, Robert Edwards, Terrell Davis, Eric Zeier, Champ Bailey, Hines Ward, Richard Seymour, Billy Bennett, Johnathan Sullivan, David Greene, David Pollack, Terrence Edwards, Thomas Davis, Matthew Stafford, Aaron Murray, Todd Gurley, Nick Chubb, Isaiah Wilson, Stetson Bennett IV, Jalen Carter, Brock Bowers\\
'''National Championships:''' 4 (1942, 1980, 2021, 2022)[[note]]4 unclaimed (1920, 1927, 1946, 1968)[[/note]]\\
'''Conference Championships:''' 16 (2 SIAA - 1896, 1920; 14 SEC - 1942, 1946, 1948, 1959, 1966, 1968, 1976, 1980-82, 2002, 2005, 2017, 2022)
----
Located in the college town of Athens just outside of UsefulNotes/{{Atlanta}}, the '''University of Georgia''' has both a strong academic and athletic tradition, with the school claiming over 40 national titles in various sports.[[note]]It's a powerhouse in men's tennis (6) and women's gymnastics (10), swimming (7), and ''equestrian'' (7, though this sport is not overseen by the NCAA).[[/note]] However, its football program outshines all others in popularity, being the second most lucrative in all of college football behind only Texas. Despite its rabid fanbase and many years of consistent success, Georgia football has "only" claimed four national titles, the first in an undefeated 1942 under Heisman-winning HB Frank Sinkwich and LongRunner HC Wally Butts (1939-60) and the second in an undefeated 1980 under future Heisman-winning HB Herschel Walker and similarly long-termed HC Vince Dooley (1964-88). For decades afterwards, the Bulldogs continued to win plenty of games, with numerous double-digit winning seasons and no consecutive losing campaigns since 1963. However, they made a habit of [[EveryYearTheyFizzleOut falling just short]] of claiming another national title multiple times, most notably losing in overtime to Bama in the 2017 National Championship game. They finally got over the hump in 2021, as their historically dominant defense surrendered the conference championship to the Tide but ultimately defeated them for the national title. Said 2021 team had ''15'' players[[note]]8 from the defense, including ''5 first-rounders''; 6 from the offense, and one from special teams[[/note]] drafted into the NFL, a modern-era record. They followed it up with [[EvenBetterSequel an undefeated championship season]] the following year, with their 65-7 victory over TCU in the CFP Championship Game being a then-record [[CurbStompBattle point disparity]] in a college football postseason game. They remained undefeated the following regular season but again lost to Bama for the SEC title... only to set an even higher benchmark for a bowl blowout in their consolation match with Florida State.\\\

Georgia's field is one of the most distinctive in college football due to the hedges planted around its perimeter; while they serve mostly as a cosmetic touch, the hedges are also an effective crowd control measure, discouraging fans from rushing the field. UGA's mascot is a real English bulldog named... Uga. Uga is owned by the family of Sonny Seiler, a retired attorney from Savannah who passed away in 2023, and has been a fixture at UGA football games since 1956. There have been 11 bulldogs to bear the Uga name; every succeeding Uga is descended from the original, and every deceased Uga is interred in a mausoleum at Sanford Stadium. The symbol on the team's helmets is borrowed (with permission) from the logo of the NFL's Green Bay Packers. While Georgia has pretty harsh rivalries against several of the other major schools of the SEC (particularly Auburn, Florida, and Alabama), their fans save their greatest "Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate" for Georgia Tech.

!!!Kentucky Wildcats
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kentucky.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:Go Big Blue!]]
->'''Location:''' Lexington, KY\\
'''School Established:''' 1865[[note]]as the "Agricultural & Mechanical College of Kentucky", a department within "Kentucky University" (known since 1908 as Transylvania University). In 1878, A&M separated from Kentucky U, and changed its name to "State College, Lexington, Kentucky" shortly thereafter, substituted "College" with "University" in 1908, and finally adopted the current name in 1918.[[/note]]\\
'''Conference Affiliations:''' Ind. (1881-95, 1905-11),[[note]]Did not play from 1882–91 but did play throughout both World Wars.[[/note]] SIAA (1896-1904, 1912-21), [=SoCon=] (1922-32), SEC (1933-)\\
'''Overall Win Record:''' 652-647-44 (.502)\\
'''Bowl Record:''' 12–11 (.522)\\
'''Colors:''' Blue & white\\
'''Stadium:''' Kroger Field (capacity 61,000)\\
'''Current Head Coach:''' Mark Stoops\\
'''Notable Historic Coaches:''' Bear Bryant, Blanton Collier, Hal Mumme, Rich Brooks\\
'''Notable Historic Players:''' Shipwreck Kelly, George Blanda, Babe Parilli, Howard Schnellenberger, Rick Norton, Jeff Van Note, Dermontti Dawson, Tim Couch, Dewayne Robertson, Jared Lorenzen\\
'''National Championships:''' 1 (1950)\\
'''Conference Championships:''' 2, both SEC (1950, 1976)
----
The '''University of Kentucky''' is the [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg Zoidberg]] of the SEC in that football isn't the sport that moves the needle. Instead, [[FanCommunityNicknames Big Blue Nation]] eats, drinks, breathes, sleeps, and lives basketball--when you share a campus with a men's basketball program that has won eight national titles, won more games[[note]]UK had lost this distinction to Kansas but got the lead back in 2023 after KU was forced to vacate 15 wins due to major NCAA rules violations.[[/note]] and appeared in more NCAA tournaments than any other D-I program, and won more SEC titles than all of the other conference programs ''combined'', it's kind of hard for football to gain a foothold.[[note]]Also not helping matters is that Kentucky's high school sports scene is arguably ''even more'' skewed toward basketball. As late as the 1980s, there were high schools with over 1,000 students (moderately large by Kentucky standards) that ''didn't have football teams''. Even now, Kentucky produces ''far'' less football talent than other states in the SEC footprint.[[/note]] In fact, the great Bear Bryant took Kentucky to its sole (retrospective) football championship in 1950 but left three years later when he learned that basketball coach Adolph Rupp would receive a contact extension--''after'' the university president had told Bryant that Rupp would be fired due to NCAA rules violations. In Bryant's view, this confirmed that UK football would [[AlwaysSecondBest always be second]] to basketball. The Cats haven't had a head coach leave Lexington with an overall winning record at UK since Bryant's successor Blanton Collier left for the NFL after 1961, enduring decades of mostly losing seasons at least partially due to numerous NCAA sanctions and penalties. After their sole post-Bryant SEC championship season in 1976, the Wildcats posted an even better record the next year but were disqualified from postseason play or a conference title for recuriting violations and collapsed afterwards due to sanctions. After those decades of struggles, Kentucky football is finally experiencing a modest revival under Mark Stoops, who has turned the program back into consistent contenders after his arrival in 2013 and has passed The Bear for most career wins at UK.\\\

One notable fact about UK is that it was the first SEC football team to desegregate, recruiting its first Black players in 1966 (probably not coincidentally the season after [[Film/GloryRoad the all-White Wildcat basketball team lost the NCAA championship]] to Texas Western's[[note]]now UTEP[[/note]] all-Black starting five), with defensive end Nat Northington being the first one to suit up the next year (making his overall debut in the season opener against Indiana and his conference debut the next week--ironically against Ole Miss, who would be the ''last'' SEC team to integrate, in 1971).[[note]]Northington wasn't the first Black athlete in the SEC--that distinction belongs to Stephen Martin, who walked on to the Tulane baseball team in 1966, right before that school left the SEC. Northington was actually one of two players who were meant to integrate UK football, but the other, Greg Page, was paralyzed in a preseason practice accident and died the day before Northington took the field against Ole Miss. Vanderbilt recruited two Black players for basketball in 1966, but one was injured as a freshman and transferred out. The other, Perry Wallace, integrated SEC basketball later in 1967.[[/note]]\\\

Outside of men's basketball, UK has enjoyed relatively little national success (at least in the NCAA). Its most successful non-basketball NCAA sport is the niche sport of rifle, with four team titles. The Cats also have single national titles in women's cross-country and women's volleyball. It's an SEC Zoidberg in another respect: it's the only current or future member that's never appeared in the Men's College World Series, the final phase of the D-I baseball championship. However, much like Minnesota, UK's most successful sports team competes outside the NCAA. The ''cheerleading squad'' has won ''24'' national championships,[[note]]College cheerleading has two separate governing bodies; UK has only competed in one of them.[[/note]] has its own page on The Other Wiki, and has even been the subject of a reality TV series. As with basketball, Kentucky's greatest and most competitive football rivalry is with Louisville, fueled mostly by "big brother/little brother" syndrome. There's not as much history to this rivalry as one might think: before the modern football rivalry began in 1994, the two schools hadn't played for ''70 years''.[[note]]As for men's basketball, before the modern rivalry began in 1983, the last regular-season game between the teams was in 1922.[[/note]]

!!!LSU Tigers
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lsu.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:Geaux Tigers!]]
->'''Location:''' Baton Rouge, LA\\
'''School Established:''' 1860[[note]]as "Seminary of Learning of the State of Louisiana"; renamed within weeks as "Louisiana State Seminary of Learning & Military Academy" and then as "Louisiana State University" in 1870. The current full name, [[OverlyLongName "Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College"]], was adopted in 1877, after the original LSU was merged with a land-grant institution that had been founded in 1874.[[/note]]\\
'''Conference Affiliations:''' Ind. (1893-95), SIAA (1896–1922),[[note]]Did not play in 1918.[[/note]] [=SoCon=] (1923–32), SEC (1933-)\\
'''Overall Win Record:''' 843-434-47 (.654)\\
'''Bowl Record:''' 30-24-1 (.555)\\
'''Colors:''' Purple and gold\\
'''Stadium:''' Tiger Stadium (capacity 102,321)\\
'''Current Head Coach:''' Brian Kelly\\
'''Notable Historic Coaches:''' Dana X. Bible, Gaynell Tinsley, Paul Dietzel, Jerry Stovall, Nick Saban, Les Miles, Ed Orgeron\\
'''Notable Historic Players:''' Gaynell Tinsley, Steve and Ebert Van Buren, Walter Barnes, Y. A. Tittle, Jim Taylor, Billy Cannon, Johnny Robinson, Jerry Stovall, Bert Jones, David Woodley, Ed Orgeron[[labelnote:*]]played one season before transferring to Northwestern State[[/labelnote]], Tommy Hodson, Kevin Mawae, Alan Faneca, Kevin Faulk, Booger [=McFarland=], Andrew Whitworth, Kyle Williams, [=JaMarcus=] Russell, Matt Flynn, Tyson Jackson, Patrick Peterson, Barkevious Mingo, Odell Beckham Jr., Morris Claiborne, Leonard Fournette, Derrius Guice[[labelnote:*]]Now [[UnPerson un-personed]] by the Tigers; see his entry in the "Notorious Figures" folder of the "Names to Know" page.[[/labelnote]], Tyrann Mathieu, Joe Burrow, Justin Jefferson, Ja'Marr Chase, Jayden Daniels\\
'''National Championships:''' 4 (1958, 2003, 2007, 2019)[[note]]5 unclaimed (1908, 1935-36, 1962, 2011)[[/note]]\\
'''Conference Championships:''' 16 (3 SIAA - 1896, 1902, 1908; 1 [=SoCon=] - 1932; 12 SEC - 1935-36, 1958, 1961, 1970, 1986, 1988, 2001, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2019)
----
'''Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College''' (''[[InsistentTerminology always]]'' abbreviated to LSU) has a proud football history; though the school does not claim it, their retroactively awarded 1908 national title was the first to be won by a Southern school. LSU was the undisputed crown jewel of Louisiana football for decades before the Saints came to town (and for decades after when they were the basement-dwellers of the NFL), and even today it is extremely popular in the state.[[note]]Though it is not the most decorated sport at LSU; that would be women's track and field, which has won 11 indoor and 14 outdoor national championships as of 2023.[[/note]] The love is returned in kind, with the school embracing the Cajun heritage of the state by officially spelling its chant (and anything else with a long 'o' sound) "[[SpellMyNameWithAnS Geaux]] Tigers!" The school's first ''claimed'' national title came from an undefeated 1958 campaign led by a gritty defense nicknamed [[ValuesDissonance "the Chinese Bandits"]] and star HB Billy Cannon, who won the Heisman the following year after his legendary "Halloween run" punt return TD against Ole Miss.\\\

Following some struggles in the '90s, the "Bayou Bengals" rose to regular national prominence in the 21st century, with three straight coaches (Nick Saban, Les Miles, and Ed Orgeron) each winning a national title and fostering a reputation for LSU as a factory for both wide receiver and defensive back talent. Their 2007 title, fitting that season's wild reputation, is the only one since the start of the BCS to be awarded to a two-loss team (both losses coming in triple overtime). In contrast, LSU's most recent championship came in an undefeated 2019 featuring a record-breaking passing performance from Heisman winner Joe Burrow; this Tiger squad's complete dominance of a historically difficult schedule (and the sheer amount of NFL talent it produced) has made many historians of the game rank the team as the greatest in college football history. However, the program notably slumped following the departure of the QB and his stacked roster of receivers, resulting in the school breaking a two-decade streak of winning seasons. Continued struggles the following year led admin to fire Orgeron. In a testament to LSU's pedigree, the school was able to lure away Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly and immediately bounced back to contention, winning its division in Kelly's first season and producing its third Heisman winner in QB Jayden Daniels in his second.\\\

LSU "stole" the nickname "Death Valley" from Clemson after beating them in the 1959 Sugar Bowl to claim their first national title, though their stadium is certainly just as intimidating. To differentiate, Tiger Stadium is sometimes called "Deaf Valley" due to being one of the loudest sporting environments in the world. Two of Tiger Stadium's earliest expansions were built using funds allocated for building student dormitories, meaning students literally lived under the stands; however, the dorms were decommissioned as housing in the 1980s and were demolished in the late 2010s to add additional concession stands and restrooms. Tiger Stadium has two other unusual features: the goalposts are H-shaped rather than the slingshot style used almost everywhere else[[note]]Florida State and Washington State are the only other FBS schools to use the H-style goalpost. When the Saints had to play 4 "home" games at LSU in 2005 due to Hurricane Katrina, they had to get special permission from the NFL to use LSU's standard.[[/note]], and the field is marked numerically in 5-yard increments rather than the usual 10-yard increments.

!!!Mississippi State Bulldogs
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mississippi_state.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:Hail State!]]
->'''Location:''' Mississippi State, MS[[note]]a "census-designated place" just outside the Starkville city limits; although a tiny part of the campus is in the city limits, the US Postal Service considers the entire campus to be in "Mississippi State"[[/note]]\\
'''School Established:''' 1878[[note]]as "[[OverlyLongName The Agricultural & Mechanical College of the State of Mississippi]]", or simply Mississippi A&M. Became "Mississippi State College" in 1932, becoming a "University" in 1961. The ''formal'' name, used in Mississippi state statutes but almost nowhere else (not even by the university itself), is "Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science". The "Bulldogs" nickname wasn't ''officially'' adopted until a few years after State became a "University", but was used interchangeably with "Aggies" for most of the A&M era and "Maroons" for all of the Mississippi State College era.[[/note]]\\
'''Conference Affiliations:''' Ind. (1895), SIAA (1896-1921)[[note]]Did not play from 1897–1900[[/note]], [=SoCon=] (1922-32), SEC (1933-)[[note]]Did not play in 1943.[[/note]]\\
'''Overall Win Record:''' 594-609-39 (.494)\\
'''Bowl Record:''' 15–11 (.577)\\
'''Colors:''' Maroon and white\\
'''Stadium:''' Davis Wade Stadium (capacity 60,311)\\
'''Current Head Coach:''' Jeff Lebby\\
'''Notable Historic Coaches:''' Allyn [=McKeen=], Murray Warmath, Darrell Royal, Emory Bellard, Jackie Sherrill, Sylvester Croom, Dan Mullen, Mike Leach\\
'''Notable Historic Players:''' Bobby Collins, Art Davis, Kent Hull, Michael Haddix, Darius Slay, Dak Prescott, Chris Jones, Will Rogers, Emmanuel Forbes\\
'''National Championships:''' 0\\
'''Conference Championships:''' 1 (SEC - 1941)
----
'''Mississippi State University''' (or just "State", as it's known to one and all in Mississippi) is a land-grant school with all the tropes that attach to it. The Bulldogs have long been known for sports teams with a bad case of EveryYearTheyFizzleOut, an incredibly bitter rivalry with Ole Miss whose football version is known as the "Egg Bowl",[[note]]named after its trophy, featuring a gold-plated old-time football that looks to modern eyes like a big egg[[/note]] and "More Cowbell"... literally. State fans have a decades-long tradition of bringing cowbells to games to use as noisemakers; the SEC tried to ban them, but State managed to keep them by getting fans to limit their use to specific times when they'd be less likely to interfere with game action. The hatred for Ole Miss has a SlobsVersusSnobs flavor (State fans being cast as the former) and is so bitter that State fans yell "Go to hell, Ole Miss!" at ''every'' opening kickoff, regardless of the opponent.\\\

While the football team has generally been in the middle of the SEC in recent years, it hasn't been able to take the next step; its only undefeated season and SEC title both came shortly before Pearl Harbor, during the tenure of Hall of Fame coach Allyn [=McKeen=]. The Bulldogs went winless immediately after he left Starkville, and the program languished for decades; even when it was able to put together some winning seasons in the '70s, the NCAA made them forfeit all their wins due to violations. Jackie Sherrill and Dan Mullen were able to string together some relative success in the 1990s and 2010s, but never enough to elevate the program to an elite tier.[[note]]Though the team ''was'' ranked #1 in the first ever CFP Poll in 2014; keep that in your pocket for bar trivia.[[/note]] Mike Leach brought his productive Air Raid offense to Starkville in the early 2020s and proved it could work in the SEC, but he died from a heart attack after the 2022 regular season.\\\

The team's stadium was built in 1914 and is one of the oldest still active in major college football. While men's basketball has enjoyed flashes of success and women's basketball has shown huge promise, State's flagship program, at least competitively, is baseball. It has the largest ballpark in college baseball, with 9 of the 10 largest on-campus crowds in NCAA history, and is a fixture in the NCAA tournament. However, like the rest of the school's teams, it couldn't finish the deal with an NCAA title... until 2021, when it won the Men's College World Series to ''finally'' claim State's first-ever NCAA title in a team sport (on its 12th MCWS appearance). Like the other SEC Bulldogs in Georgia, the school has a live mascot named Bully, who predates the formal adoption of the Bulldog nickname by 25 years (they used to just be "the Maroons").

!!!Missouri Tigers
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mizzou.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:M-I-Z! Z-O-U!]]
->'''Location:''' Columbia, MO\\
'''School Established:''' 1839[[note]]Classes started in 1840; briefly closed in 1862 for the Civil War. Technically the "University of Missouri–Columbia" since the university became a multi-campus system in 1963. However, the full name is used only on documents internal to the system.[[/note]]\\
'''Conference Affiliations:''' Ind. (1890-92, 1898-1906), WIUFA (1892-97), Big 8 (1907-95),[[note]]Did not play in 1918 due to UsefulNotes/{{the Spanish flu}}.[[/note]] Big 12 (1996-2011), SEC (2012-)\\
'''Overall Win Record:''' 713-588-52 (.546)\\
'''Bowl Record:''' 16–20 (.444)\\
'''Colors:''' Old gold and black\\
'''Stadium:''' Faurot Field (capacity 62,610)\\
'''Current Head Coach:''' Eliah Drinkwitz\\
'''Notable Historic Coaches:''' Pat O'Dea, Don Faurot, Frank Broyles, Dan Devine, Gary Pinkel\\
'''Notable Historic Players:''' Don Faurot, Bill [=McCartney=], Andy Russell, Lloyd Carr[[labelnote:*]]played three seasons before ending his college career at small-college (now D-II) Northern Michigan[[/labelnote]], Roger Wehrli, John Matuszak[[labelnote:*]]played one year before transferring to the now-defunct Tampa program[[/labelnote]], Steve Pisarkiewicz, Kellen Winslow (Sr.), James Wilder, Brad Smith, Chase Daniel, Blaine Gabbert, Aldon Smith, Michael Sam\\
'''National Championships:''' 0[[note]]2 unclaimed (1960, 2007)[[/note]]\\
'''Conference Championships:''' 15 (3 WIUFA – 1893–95; 12 MVIAA/Big Eight – 1909, 1913, 1919, 1924-25, 1927, 1939, 1941-42, 1945, 1960[[labelnote:*]]retroactively awarded after a loss to Kansas was reversed due to a player being ineligible[[/labelnote]], 1969)
----
The '''University of Missouri''' (almost always just called "Mizzou") is the first public university west of the Mississippi and is also home to the world's first journalism school (which remains among the country's most prestigious). It's likely best known in the football world for being the (disputed but most recognized) birthplace of the homecoming game, hosted in 1911 to encourage students and alumni to "come home" to view their rivalry game with Kansas; its massive success helped to ensure the tradition being adopted by almost every college and high school. While Mizzou is not an athletic power generally, the Tigers have been generally successful on the football field, peaking with an undefeated 1960 season under coach Dan Devine (1958-70). Soon after over a decade of losing seasons (1984-96), coach Gary Pinkel turned the Tigers back into a power, becoming the winningest coach in school history. After spending most of their history in the Big Eight/Big 12, Missouri made the jump to the SEC in 2012 to mixed results, disrupting their historic rivalries with Oklahoma and especially Kansas and becoming the ''third'' "Tigers" program in the conference.[[note]]Incidentally, this is the ''[[HistoryRepeats second time]]'' the SEC has had three sets of "Tigers"; charter member Sewanee, which left in 1940, also uses that nickname.[[/note]] Following Pinkel's retirement, the Tigers have regressed to a mid-tier team that has somewhat struggled to find its place in the conference.\\\

The Tigers' stadium is named after Don Faurot, who built the football program over a 40-year span as a player, coach, and AD from the 1920s to '60s. The venue is also known by the nickname "The Zou", and fans live up to that name, being infamous for partying hard and stealing goalposts after victories to take to the local bar.

!!!Oklahoma Sooners
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/oklahoma_7.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:Boomer Sooner!]]
->'''Location:''' Norman, OK\\
'''School Established:''' 1890[[note]]as "Norman Territorial University", with classes starting in 1892; took the current name upon statehood in 1907[[/note]]\\
'''Conference Affiliations:''' Ind. (1895–1914), SWC (1915–19), Big 8 (1920–95), Big 12 (1996–2023), SEC (2024–)\\
'''Overall Win Record:''' 944–341–53 (.725)\\
'''Bowl Record:''' 31–25–1 (.552)\\
'''Colors:''' Crimson and cream\\
'''Stadium:''' Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium (capacity 80,126)\\
'''Current Head Coach:''' Brent Venables\\
'''Notable Historic Coaches:''' Bennie Owen, Bud Wilkinson, Chuck Fairbanks, Barry Switzer, Howard Schnellenberger, Bob Stoops, Lincoln Riley\\
'''Notable Historic Players:''' Jim Owens, Darrell Royal, Billy Vessels, Jack Ging, Tommy [=McDonald=], [[Wrestling/ChiefWahooMcDaniel Wahoo McDaniel]], Bobby Boyd, Joe Don Looney, Lance Rentzel, Steve Owens, Greg Pruitt, The Selmon Brothers (Lucious, Dewey, and Lee Roy), Steve Davis, Joe Washington, Billy Sims, J.C. Watts, [[Wrestling/DrDeathSteveWilliams Steve Williams]][[labelnote:*]]Who also wrestled for OU, with noticeably more success. Not to be confused with another Steve Williams who played a few years later at North Texas, who's now known as Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin.[[/labelnote]], Marcus Dupree, Stanley Wilson, Rickey Dixon, Troy Aikman[[labelnote:*]]who transferred to UCLA, where he enjoyed much more success[[/labelnote]], Brian Bosworth, Jamelle Holieway, Charles Thompson, Cedric Jones, Josh Heupel, Jason White, Roy Williams (S), [[Wrestling/JackSwagger Jake Hager]][[labelnote:*]]played one football season for the Sooners while also wrestling for OU; he opted for wrestling full-time afterwards[[/labelnote]], Adrian Peterson, Sam Bradford, Trent Williams, [=DeMarco=] Murray, Ryan Broyles, Landry Jones, Lane Johnson, Joe Mixon, Samaje Perine, Baker Mayfield, Mark Andrews, Orlando Brown Jr., Kyler Murray, Austin Seibert, Jalen Hurts, [=CeeDee=] Lamb, Spencer Rattler, Caleb Williams[[labelnote:*]]played freshman football season for the Sooners before going to greater success at USC[[/labelnote]], Dillon Gabriel\\
'''National Championships:''' 7 (1950, 1955–56, 1974–75, 1985, 2000)[[note]]11 unclaimed (1915, 1949, 1953, 1957, 1967, 1973, 1978, 1980, 1986, 2003, 2008)[[/note]]\\
'''Conference Championships:''' 50 (2 SWC – 1915, 1918; 34 MVIAA/Big Eight – 1920, 1938, 1943–44, 1946–59, 1962, 1967–68, 1972-80, 1984–87; 14 Big 12 – 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006–08, 2010, 2012, 2015–20)
----
The '''University of Oklahoma''' (locally abbreviated "OU") has one of the most decorated athletics programs in the nation, with over 40 national titles across all sports, most notably gymnastics (18),[[note]]12 in men's (including 9 in the 21st century) and 6 in women's[[/note]] wrestling (7), and softball (7)[[note]]Which holds multiple records in the sport, including the longest win streak[[/note]]. However, its crown jewel has always been the football team, one of the true powers of college football for over a century. It has claimed more conference championships than any other program (50) and produced seven Heisman winners and a record four coaches with 100+ wins. Bennie Owen established the program as a winner during his long coaching tenure (1905–26) that included three undefeated seasons. Bud Wilkinson elevated it to even greater heights from 1947–63, during which the school claimed three national titles, produced its first Heisman winner (RB Billy Vessels), and posted the longest winning streak ever seen among any FBS program, with 47 straight wins and three unbeaten seasons from 1953–57. Chuck Fairbanks' short tenure (1967–71) produced another Heisman-winning back (Steve Owens) but ended amidst controversy and sanctions due to altered player transcripts. Barry Switzer's reign from 1973–88 saw the school produce a third Heisman winner (Billy Sims), win another three national titles, and, perhaps most importantly, take the lead in the landmark Supreme Court case that allowed schools and conferences to negotiate their own TV contracts. However, the program again became mired in controversy around the end of Switzer's tenure due to a lack of player discipline and the high-profile flameout of star RB Marcus Dupree.\\\

After a brief [[AudienceAlienatingEra slump]] in the late '90s, Bob Stoops revived the school's performance during his HC tenure (1998-2016), including leading them to an undefeated national title season in 2000. Heisman-winning [=QBs=] Jason White and Sam Bradford led the Sooners to three more BCS Championship Game appearances [[EveryYearTheyFizzleOut (and losses)]] in 2003–04 and 2008, respectively. Stoops' successor, Lincoln Riley, kept the Sooners the dominant power in the Big 12 and a regular playoff contender. He developed a reputation as a QB whisperer due to producing back-to-back Heisman winners in Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray, both transfers who rose to great success in Norman. However, the school has yet to return to a national championship game in the CFP era, and Riley (with future Heisman-winning QB Caleb Williams) left town after 2021 for USC after a down year by OU's high standards.\\\

The "Sooner" nickname refers to the non-native settlers who rushed to grab Oklahoma land in the late 19th century before they were legally allowed to. (The fact that their team is named after land thieves is something rival fans are happy to point out.) The team's mascot is an actual covered wagon, the Sooner Schooner, which is pulled across the field by horses Boomer and Sooner after every home and bowl score (it has only catastrophically wiped out twice). All of OU's Heisman winners are featured in statue form in the school's Heisman Park. Their stadium was renamed after a major donor in 2003, though most fans continue to refer to it as "Oklahoma Stadium" or "Owen Field"; it boasts the same distinctive "Cherokee Gothic" architecture featured in the rest of the campus. Oklahoma has heated rivalries with intrastate rival Oklahoma State and fellow "power school in small market" Nebraska, but it saves its greatest enmity for Texas.

!!!Ole Miss Rebels
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ole_miss.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:Hotty Toddy!]]
->'''Location:''' University, MS[[note]]a "census-designated place" just outside the Oxford city limits that consists of the campus[[/note]]\\
'''School Established:''' 1844\\
'''Conference Affiliations:''' Ind. (1893-1904),[[note]]Did not play in 1897...[[/note]] SIAA (1905-21), [=SoCon=] (1922–32), SEC (1933-)[[note]]...or 1943.[[/note]]\\
'''Overall Win Record:''' 676-547-35 (.551)\\
'''Bowl Record:''' 25-15 (.625)\\
'''Colors:''' Cardinal red and navy blue\\
'''Stadium:''' Vaught–Hemingway Stadium (capacity 64,038)\\
'''Current Head Coach:''' Lane Kiffin\\
'''Notable Historic Coaches:''' Johnny Vaught, David Cutcliffe, Tommy Tuberville, Ed Orgeron, Hugh Freeze\\
'''Notable Historic Players:''' Bruiser Kinard, Parker Hall, Charlie Conerly, Gene Hickerson, Jim Dunaway, Archie Manning, Deuce [=McAllister=], Eli Manning, Patrick Willis, [[Literature/TheBlindSide Michael Oher]], Greg Hardy, Chad Kelly, Laremy Tunsil, DK Metcalf, A.J. Brown\\
'''National Championships:''' 3 (1959-60, 1962)\\
'''Conference Championships:''' 6, all SEC (1947, 1954-55, 1960, 1962-63)
----
The '''University of Mississippi''', a.k.a. Ole Miss--''[[InsistentTerminology do not]]'' call them "Mississippi"; doing so immediately outs you as either a Yankee or a {{troll}}[[labelnote:*]]An example: During the head coaching tenure of Jackie Sherrill at State from 1991–2003, he made it a point to ''always'' call their arch-enemy "Mississippi".[[/labelnote]]--had one of the strongest teams in college football in the '50s and '60s under coach Johnny Vaught, claiming three national championships. The last great QB from this era, Archie Manning, is still treated as a near deity in Mississippi a half-century after his graduation to a fairly unspectacular career in the pros--the on-campus speed limit remains 18 mph in honor of his retired #18. Before and after Vaught's tenure, the school has been occasionally competitive but rarely dominant, with its greatest success being a division title in 2003 with Archie's son Eli under center. The program has run afoul of the NCAA numerous times; it was the last school to receive a TV ban (in 1995) and had many of its 2010s wins stripped due to numerous rule violations, from allowing academically ineligible players to compete to the head coach calling escorts from his university cell phone. The Rebels have persevered, and the program is currently back to competing in the SEC under Lane Kiffin (himself no stranger to NCAA sanctions).[[note]]This rise has been accompanied by the school finally winning its first recognized NCAA team championships in women's golf (2021) and baseball (2022).[[/note]]\\\

Besides being the [[RedOniBlueOni Blue Oni to State's Red]] in their rivalry (at least in color scheme), Ole Miss is also noted for its tailgating scene centered on "The Grove", a 10-acre (4 ha for metric folks) open field at the center of campus, with students and many older fans typically dressing up for the occasion.[[note]]Unlike most tailgating scenes, you won't see a car or truck at The Grove... vehicles are banned to minimize damage to the area. Vehicles are parked elsewhere, with all partying taking place in tent-like structures throughout the area.[[/note]] A popular saying among Ole Miss fans: "We may not win every game, but we've never lost a party." Another popular saying: "Hotty toddy", a combination greeting/cheer with no clear meaning. While the team continues to be called the "Rebels", the historic connections of the name with the Confederacy have led the school to experiment with other mascots in recent decades (first a bear and currently a "landshark"). No one has seriously attempted to revive the name they had ''before'' the Rebels: "the Flood", which was scrapped a few years after the state's Delta region was devastated by one of the nation's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Mississippi_Flood_of_1927 greatest natural disasters]].

!!!South Carolina Gamecocks
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/south_carolina.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:Spurs Up!]]
->'''Location:''' Columbia, SC\\
'''School Established:''' 1801[[note]]Founded as a "College" with classes starting in 1805. First called "University" in 1866 but wasn't permanent until 1906.[[/note]]\\
'''Conference Affiliations:''' Ind. (1892-1921, 1971-91),[[note]]Did not play in 1893 or 1906.[[/note]] [=SoCon=] (1922-52), ACC (1953-70), SEC (1992-)\\
'''Overall Win Record:''' 635-612-44 (.509)\\
'''Bowl Record:''' 10-15 (.400)\\
'''Colors:''' Garnet and black\\
'''Stadium:''' Williams–Brice Stadium (capacity 80,250)\\
'''Current Head Coach:''' Shane Beamer\\
'''Notable Historic Coaches:''' Paul Dietzel, Lou Holtz, Steve Spurrier\\
'''Notable Historic Players:''' Dan Reeves, Mark Dantonio, George Rogers, Sterling Sharpe, Troy Williamson, Ryan Succop, Marcus Lattimore, Jadeveon Clowney, Deebo Samuel, Spencer Rattler\\
'''National Championships:''' 0\\
'''Conference Championships:''' 1 (ACC - 1969)
----
The '''University of South Carolina''' is an emerging force in women's basketball but has typically underachieved in football. It was a founding member of the ACC but dipped when it felt like North Carolinian schools were being favored, joining the SEC in 1992 after years as an independent and struggling to assert itself in the tough league, bottoming out with a winless 1999 season. The school has had its moments, though: it produced a Heisman winner in RB George Rogers in 1980, had a solid run of success under Steve Spurrier from 2005-14 after his return from coaching in the pros, and has been somewhat competitive under current coach Shane Beamer (son of the Virginia Tech coaching legend).\\\

The school is ''most'' well known for its [[UnfortunateNames easily mockable name]], which is cringeworthy due to referencing the BeastlyBloodsports of cockfighting (oh, and the whole "cock" thing). Carolina is also almost as well-known for its music-related traditions, entering the field to ''StandardSnippet/AlsoSprachZarathustra'' and playing Music/{{Darude}}'s "Sandstorm" just before kickoff and as a crowd-riser. Their audience is known for being particularly energetic, to the point of making their stadium's upper decks sway from their movement (hence the popular saying "If it ain't swayin', we ain't playin'.") Despite no longer being an ACC member, South Carolina has rivalries with schools in that conference, particularly in-state rival Clemson (played almost annually in the "Palmetto Bowl" since 1896) and North Carolina (as the main representatives of their respective states) Within the SEC, South Carolina's main rival is Georgia, a rivalry partially boosted by the Florida-associated Spurrier.

!!!Tennessee Volunteers
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tennessee.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:Rocky Top!]]
->'''Location:''' Knoxville, TN\\
'''School Established:''' 1794[[note]]as "Blount College"; later "East Tennessee College" (1807), "East Tennessee University" (1840), and finally the current name (1879)[[/note]]\\
'''Conference Affiliations:''' Ind. (1891-95),[[note]]No official team in 1894–95...[[/note]] SIAA (1896-1920),[[note]]...or 1917–18, though documented games were played in each season. Did not play at all in 1898...[[/note]] [=SoCon=] (1921-32), SEC (1933-)[[note]]...or 1943.[[/note]]\\
'''Overall Win Record:''' 876-414-53 (.672)\\
'''Bowl Record:''' 31-25 (.554)\\
'''Colors:''' Orange and white\\
'''Stadium:''' Neyland Stadium (capacity 102,455)\\
'''Current Head Coach:''' Josh Heupel[[note]]pronounced HIGH-pul[[/note]]\\
'''Notable Historic Coaches:''' Robert Neyland, Bowden Wyatt, Doug Dickey, Johnny Majors, Phillip Fulmer\\
'''Notable Historic Players:''' Allyn [=McKeen=], Bobby Dodd, Gene [=McEver=], Beattie Feathers, Murray Warmath, Bowden Wyatt, George Cafego, Ray Graves, Doug Atkins, Johnny Majors, Bob Johnson, Phillip Fulmer, Stanley Morgan; Craig, Dustin, and Britton Colquitt; Reggie White, Clyde Duncan, Heath Shuler, Creator/PeytonManning, Tee Martin, Jamal Lewis, Travis Henry, Albert Haynesworth, Onterrio Smith[[labelnote:*]]Transferred to Oregon after being kicked off the Vols for failed drug tests.[[/labelnote]], Donté Stallworth, Jason Witten, Arian Foster, Eric Berry, Cordarrelle Patterson, Alvin Kamara\\
'''National Championships:''' 6 (1938, 1940, 1950-51, 1967, 1998)[[note]]8 unclaimed (1914, 1927-28, 1931, 1939, 1956, 1985, 1989)[[/note]]\\
'''Conference Championships:''' 16 (1 SIAA - 1914; 2 [=SoCon=] - 1927, 1932; 13 SEC - 1938-40, 1946, 1951, 1956, 1967, 1969, 1985, 1989-90, 1997-98)
----
The '''University of Tennessee, Knoxville''' (the oldest secular college west of the Appalachians) is well known for its eight-time national champion women's basketball program, but there's little question that football is the school's most popular attraction. The Volunteers are a traditional power in the SEC, with Brigadier General Robert Neyland leading the team to four national championships in the early 20th century during his quarter-century with the program (1926-34, 1936-40, 1946-52), including an undefeated 1938 season. Doug Dickey (1964-69) took them to another claimed title in the '60s, and Phillip Fulmer (1992-2008) guided them through their most recent run of success, producing the great Peyton Manning and posting an undefeated championship season the year after his departure for the NFL (and the first year of the BCS era). Unfortunately, the program seriously stalled in the 2010s after Fulmer's firing, with four straight losing seasons after not having had consecutive ones in nearly a century. It took until 2022 for the Vols to return to contention.\\\

The Vols' home in Neyland Stadium is one of the most distinctive venues in the world. Its original design was created by its namesake coach, and its orange and white checkerboard end zones designed by Dickey are some of the most recognizable iconography in college football. Lying on the banks of the Tennessee River, it's one of three FBS venues accessible by boat. For a brief time in the 1990s, it was also the largest non-motorsports stadium in the Western Hemisphere until Michigan expanded their stadium to reclaim the record. Speaking of motorsports, the Vols won The Battle at Bristol, a 2016 game against Virginia Tech (final score was 45-24) held at the [[UsefulNotes/{{NASCAR}} Bristol Motor Speedway]] that holds the all-time attendance record for an American football game on any level, which, depending on your preference, was either 156,990 spectators (the paid attendance, which the NCAA counts) or 130,045 (the number of tickets actually scanned at the venue on game night, the figure ''Literature/GuinnessWorldRecords'' cites). While the team is named the Volunteers, their mascot is a real coonhound named Smokey.

!!!Texas Longhorns
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/texas_6.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:Hook 'em!]]
->'''Location:''' Austin, TX\\
'''School Established:''' 1883[[note]]As "The University of Texas"; the phrase "at Austin" was appended in 1967 to reflect the growth of the UT system.[[/note]]\\
'''Conference Affiliations:''' Ind. (1893–95, 1905–12), SIAA (1896–1904), TIAA (1913–14), SWC (1915–95), Big 12 (1996–2023), SEC (2024–)\\
'''Overall Win Record:''' 948–392–33 (.702)\\
'''Bowl Record:''' 31–26–2 (.542)\\
'''Colors:''' Burnt orange and white\\
'''Stadium:''' Darrell K Royal – Texas Memorial Stadium (capacity 100,019)\\
'''Current Head Coach:''' Steve Sarkisian\\
'''Notable Historic Coaches:''' Jack Chevigny, Dana X. Bible, Darrell Royal, Mack Brown, Tom Herman\\
'''Notable Historic Players:''' Ox Emerson, Spec Sanders, Stan Mauldin, Bobby Layne, Tom Landry, Emory Bellard, Bobby Dillon, Tommy Nobis, Freddie Steinmark, Bill Bradley, James Street, Gary Keithley, Earl Campbell, Russell Erxleben, Johnny "Lam" Jones, Steve [=McMichael=], Kenneth Sims, Mossy Cade, Eric Metcalf, Bryant Westbrook, Ricky Williams, Priest Holmes, Phil Dawson, Kyle Shanahan, Chris Simms, Mike Williams (OT), Roy Williams (WR), Cedric Benson, Vince Young, Jamaal Charles, Brian Orakpo, Colt and Case [=McCoy=], Jordan and Jaxon Shipley, Earl Thomas, Justin Tucker, Nate Boyer, Johnathan Gray, Quinn Ewers, Arch Manning\\
'''National Championships:''' 4 (1963, 1969–70, 2005)[[note]]5 unclaimed (1914, 1941, 1968, 1977, 1981)[[/note]]\\
'''Conference Championships:''' 33 (2 TIAA – 1913–14; 27 SWC – 1916, 1918, 1920, 1928, 1930, 1942–43, 1945, 1950, 1952–53, 1959, 1961–63, 1968–73, 1975, 1977, 1983, 1990, 1994–95; 4 Big 12 – 1996, 2005, 2009, 2023)
----
The '''University of Texas at Austin''' is one of the most esteemed public universities in the nation, home to prestigious academic programs, its distinctive Main Building Tower (tragically associated with a deadly mass shooting in 1966), and the UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson Presidential Library. It just carries the name "Texas" for its athletic programs, and its football team truly carries the banner for America's most football-crazed state. While Texas' most decorated athletics program is swim (with 15 men's national championships, the most in D-I, and 7 women's, tied for second) and its most historically dominant is baseball (with the highest win percentage in D-I and six national titles), football is the school's biggest money-maker. And what a money-maker it is: The Longhorns are currently the most profitable program in ''all of college football'', and by a fairly solid margin at that.[[note]]A [[https://footballscoop.com/news/the-highest-grossing-football-programs-in-college-football-are 2020 estimate]] plugged its gross at $156 million, over $30 million ahead of the closest runner-up, Georgia.[[/note]] Through the 2023–24 school year, Creator/{{ESPN}} operates an entire 24-hour news network dedicated just to the school's athletic programs that was nationally available from 2011-16, a testament to the strength of the school's dedication to sports and to the Longhorns' massive popularity far beyond its state. (Said network will be folded into the SEC Network once UT joins that conference.)\\\

There's good reason for that fame, as the Longhorns have been dominant on the football field for most of their history. After spending the early 20th century as a regional power that occasionally rose to national title contention, their most famous era came under coach Darrell Royal, who became the namesake of Texas' massive stadium by claiming three national titles during his two-decade tenure (1957–76). The year after Royal's retirement, Texas produced its first Heisman winner in legendary RB Earl Campbell. Texas' most recent run of success came under HC Mack Brown in the 2000s, whose tenure kicked off to a strong start with another Heisman-winning RB in Ricky Williams and peaked with an undefeated 2005 national championship season led by superstar QB Vince Young. The team largely faltered in the 2010s, with its middling performance on the field not living up to the massive expectations of its huge fanbase; it took over a decade for the Horns to win a final Big 12 title and reach the CFP, ''right'' before they hopped to the SEC.\\\

The Longhorns' mascot is a real live steer named Bevo. Fans and players imitate Bevo's massive horns with the "Hook 'em Horns" hand gesture, a nationally recognized symbol of Texas; the school's biggest rivals (most notably Oklahoma and Texas A&M) will frequently flip the hand symbol upside down as an insult. Darrell K Royal Memorial Stadium is famous for living up to EverythingIsBigInTexas; besides being one of the largest stadiums in the world in terms of capacity, gamedays feature The World's Largest Texas Flag, the massive drum Big Bertha II[[labelnote:*]]the successor to the original Big Bertha, a smaller though still massive drum[[/labelnote]], and a staggering video screen nicknamed Franchise/{{Godzilla}}tron.

!!!Texas A&M Aggies
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/texas_a&m.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:Gig 'Em!]]
->'''Location:''' College Station, TX\\
'''School Established:''' 1871/1876[[note]]Chartered in 1871 as the "Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas"; classes started in 1876. The A&M seal depicts the latter date. Renamed Texas A&M University (''[[InsistentTerminology NOT]]'' "Agricultural & Mechanical") in 1963.[[/note]]\\
'''Conference Affiliations:''' Ind. (1894–1902, 1909–11),[[note]]Did not play in 1895.[[/note]] SIAA (1903–08, 1912–14), TIAA (1913–17), SWC (1915–96), Big 12 (1997–2011), SEC (2012–)\\
'''Overall Win Record:''' 778–504–48 (.603)\\
'''Bowl Record:''' 20–23 (.465)\\
'''Colors:''' Maroon and white\\
'''Stadium:''' Kyle Field (capacity 102,455)\\
'''Current Head Coach:''' Mike Elko\\
'''Notable Historic Coaches:''' Dana X. Bible, Homer Norton, Bear Bryant, Gene Stallings, Emory Bellard, Jackie Sherrill, R.C Slocum, Dennis Franchione, Kevin Sumlin, Jimbo Fisher\\
'''Notable Historic Players:''' Yale Lary, Jack Pardee, Gene Stallings, John David Crow, Mike Clark, Larry Stegent, Lester Hayes, Jacob Green, Tony Franklin, Ray Childress, Richmond Webb, Darren Lewis, Dat Nguyen, Dante Hall, Shane Lechler, Don Muhlbach, Jorvorskie Lane, Von Miller, Ryan Tannehill, Luke Joeckel, Johnny Manziel, Mike Evans, Myles Garrett, Kyler Murray[[labelnote:*]]Transferred to Oklahoma after one season, enjoying ''far'' more success there. His father Kevin had more success as an Aggie QB.[[/labelnote]], Kellen Mond\\
'''National Championships:''' 3 (1919, 1927, 1939)\\
'''Conference Championships:''' 18 (17 SWC – 1917, 1919, 1921, 1925, 1927, 1939–41, 1956, 1967, 1975, 1985–87, 1991–93; 1 Big 12 – 1998)
----
'''Texas A&M University''' takes the concept of "college" to a [[EverythingIsBigInTexas Texas-sized level]]; the public university and senior military college dominates the city of College Station (located square in the center of Dallas/Fort Worth, Austin/San Antonio, and Houston, in a region known as "Aggieland"), is home to the UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush Presidential Library, and has the largest single-campus student population of any FBS university at around 73,000.[[note]]At least, ''resident'' student population. Liberty (see the [[UsefulNotes/GroupOfFiveConferences Group of 5 page]]) has a noticeably larger total enrollment, but that's only because of its massive online operation. Big 12 member UCF is a little bit smaller than A&M but has more undergraduates. Arizona State has more on-campus students, but its enrollment is split between four Phoenix-area campuses.[[/note]] As one might expect from a school so steeped in tradition, football is a ''very'' big deal here, and the fans are rabid, so much so that they are collectively known as the "12th man", a concept that the school trademarked and leases out to other teams (most notably the NFL's Seattle Seahawks). While ''many'' college fanbases in the U.S. have the air of religious fanaticism, Aggie students take it to the next level, assembling for a "Midnight Yell" practice in the massive Kyle Field the night before every game to perfect their chants and get riled up for the day's battle.[[note]]Students also used to build record-breaking bonfires the night before games against Texas; this ceased to be endorsed by the school once 12 people died from one collapsing in 1999.[[/note]] In return, the program goes the extra mile to honor walk-ons, always involving at least one in their kickoffs. The "Yell Leaders", who lead "Yell Practice" and appear at all A&M football games and many other sports events, also have their own page on The Other Wiki and are unique in a couple of respects. First, they're elected by the student body, with Yell Leader elections sometimes turning out more than twice as many students as elections for student body president. Second, they're (for now) a rare modern-day example of an all-male cheerleading squad (though A&M also has a more traditional, coed cheerleading squad).[[note]]While women are eligible to be elected Yell Leaders, none have been to date.[[/note]]\\\

The Aggies were an early 20th century power, claiming three national championships under Dana X. Bible and Homer Norton. However, they largely fell away from relevance after WWII, only seeing success in the '50s during Bear Bryant's brief pre-Bama tenure (famous for his "Junction Boys" squad and the school's first Heisman winner, RB/TE John David Crow) and putting up just a single winning record in the 1960s. They bounced back in the '70s under wishbone pioneer Emory Bellard. R.C. Slocum became the school's winningest coach during his tenure (1989-2002), but their undefeated 10-0-1 1994 season went unseen by national audiences due to an NCAA TV ban for paying players. After somewhat struggling through the 2000s, the program made the jump from the Big 12 to the SEC in 2012, breaking up their longstanding rivalry with the Texas Longhorns. Rather than be swallowed up in college football's toughest conference as some had expected, they saw instant success thanks in part to Johnny Manziel, the first freshman QB to ever win the Heisman. Though they regressed from that dominance in subsequent seasons, the program has ''mostly'' managed to hang on and remain competitive in their extremely tough division. When NIL deals were legalized in 2021, Texas A&M immediately leaped Alabama to collect a historically strong #1 recruiting class, which everyone ''but'' the university itself identified as a sign that the school's wealthy boosters and alumni were finally free to pour their money into bidding for high school talent. The program notably failed to qualify for a bowl that year and later fired their head coach Jimbo Fisher with over $70 million left on his contract; it remains to be seen if this pay-to-win strategy will help return the school to national competition.

!!!Vanderbilt Commodores
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/vanderbilt.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:Anchor Down!]]
->'''Location:''' UsefulNotes/{{Nashville}}, TN\\
'''School Established:''' 1873[[note]]as "[[OverlyLongName The Central University of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South]]" (or Central University) but quickly renamed after railroad and shipping magnate "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the university with its original endowment (and also its nickname).[[/note]]\\
'''Conference Affiliations:''' Ind. (1890-94), SIAA (1895-1921), [=SoCon=] (1922-32), SEC (1933-)\\
'''Overall Win Record:''' 618-665-50 (.482)\\
'''Bowl Record:''' 4-4-1 (.500)\\
'''Colors:''' Black and gold\\
'''Stadium:''' [=FirstBank=] Stadium (capacity 34,000)[[note]]Approximate capacity upon completion of renovations in time for the 2024 season. Opened in 1922 as Dudley Field; became Vanderbilt Stadium from 1981–2021[[/note]]\\
'''Current Head Coach:''' Clark Lea\\
'''Notable Historic Coaches:''' Dan [=McGugin=], Red Sanders, Watson Brown, James Franklin\\
'''Notable Historic Players:''' Jess Neely, Red Sanders, Bill Wade, Mack Brown, Jay Cutler, Sarah Fuller\\
'''National Championships:''' 0[[note]]2 unclaimed (1921-22)[[/note]]\\
'''Conference Championships:''' 13 (11 SIAA - 1897, 1901, 1904-07, 1910-12, 1915, 1921; 2 [=SoCon=] - 1922-23)
----
'''Vanderbilt University''' (affectionately "Vandy") was one of three private schools among the SEC's charter members but is now the only one since Sewanee left in 1940 and Tulane in 1966. In the early days of college football, under coach Dan [=McGugin=] (1904-34), Vanderbilt was one of the South's powerhouses, becoming one of the first schools from that part of the country to attain success on a national level. They kept competitive for another decade after [=McGugin's=] retirement under Red Sanders[[note]]and technically had an undefeated season in 1943, though they only five games against small non-conference schools due to WWII[[/note]]. Unfortunately, since the mid 20th century, Vandy has been cemented as a football ButtMonkey and the worst football program in the conference it helped found, with just three winning seasons in the past forty years (two from James Franklin before his leap to Penn State). "Van-duh-bilt" or the "Commode Doors" (take your pick) made national headlines in 2020 for being the first Power Five program to field a woman player, soccer goalkeeper-turned-placekicker Sarah Fuller, after their entire kicking team was shut down by COVID-19; while she made two extra points, the team went completely winless that season.\\\

Vandy is an urban school located just outside downtown Nashville, and its stadium notably hosted the NFL's Tennessee Oilers for a year before they became the Titans and completed their own stadium. The Commodores have done much better in other sports, historically basketball and more recently baseball (two national titles), women's tennis (one), and the niche sport of bowling (women-only in the NCAA; three).

[[/folder]]

'''Notable Historic Players:''' Paul Duhart, Rick Casares, Doug Dickey, Steve Spurrier, Carlos Alvarez, Jack Youngblood, John Reaves, John James, Wes Chandler, Cris Collinsworth, Lomas Brown, Emmitt Smith, Errict Rhett, Huey Richardson, Danny Wuerffel, Javon Kearse, [[Wrestling/TitusONeil Thaddeus Bullard]], Jesse Palmer, Gerard Warren, Fred Taylor, Rex Grossman, Chris Leak, Tim Tebow, Percy Harvin, Aaron Hernandez, Carlos Dunlap, Vernon Hargreaves, C.J Henderson\\

'''Notable Historic Players:''' Chic Harley, Sid Gillman, Les Horvath, Bill Willis, Don [=McCafferty=], Lou Groza, Vic Janowicz, Howard Cassady, Dick [=LeBeau=], Jim Parker, Jim Marshall, Dick Schafrath, Paul Warfield, Jim Tyrer, Gary Moeller, Matt Snell, Jack Tatum, John Brockington, Randy Gradishar, John Hicks, Doug Plank, Archie Griffin, Pete Johnson, Tom Cousineau, Art Schlichter, Keith Byars, Cris Carter, Chris Spielman, Eric Kumerow, Tom Tupa, Kirk Herbstreit, Dan Wilkinson, Joey Galloway, Terry Glenn, Eddie George, Mike Vrabel, Luke Fickell, Orlando Pace, David Boston, Maurice Clarett, Michael Jenkins, A.J. Hawk, Nick Mangold, Troy Smith, Vernon Gholston, James Laurinaitis, Terrelle Pryor, Cam Heyward, Ryan Shazier, Braxton Miller, J.T. Barrett, Cardale Jones, Ezekiel Elliott, Michael Thomas, Nick and Joey Bosa, Eli Apple, Dwayne Haskins, Damon Arnette, Chase Young, Jeff Okudah, J.K. Dobbins, Justin Fields, Chris Olave, C.J. Stroud, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Marvin Harrison Jr.\\

The '''University of Houston''' is one of the largest public universities in Texas. It is most highly decorated in athletics for its golf program, which won an NCAA record ''16'' national titles from the 1950s-'80s[[labelnote:*]]and, for a season in the late '70s, featured future sportscasting icon Jim Nantz[[/labelnote]], and is also known for its successful basketball program, best known for its "Phi Slama Jama" teams of the early '80s that produced [[UsefulNotes/NotablePlayersOfTheNBA Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwon]], Hall of Famers who later brought their college town two NBA titles. The Cougar football program has quite the history of its own, being the point of origin for multiple innovative offenses that also generated multiple NCAA record-breaking quarterbacks. Coach Bill Yeoman used his innovative Veer offense to take the team from a middling independent to a powerhouse of the Southwest during his quarter-century as head coach (1962-86), including a record-setting 100-6 blowout of Tulsa in 1968, only to be fired from the program he helped build due to recruitment violations that essentially amounted to paying players.\\\

'''Notable Historic Players:''' Francis Schmidt, Guy Chamberlin, Link Lyman, Sam Francis, Mick Tinglehoff, Bob Brown, Monte Kiffin, Barry Alvarez, Jerry Tagge, Johnny Rodgers, Vince Ferragamo, Dave Rimington, Roger Craig, Turner Gill, Mike Rozier, Irving Fryar, Dean Steinkuhler, Bruce Pickens, Mike Croel, Will Shields, Tommie Frazier, Brook Berringer, Lawrence Phillips, Christian Peter, Trev Alberts, Scott Frost, Ahman Green, Eric Crouch, Richie Incognito, Sam Koch, Josh Brown, Ndamukong Suh, Lavonte David\\

'''Notable Historic Players:''' Allyn [=McKeen=], Bobby Dodd, Gene [=McEver=], Beattie Feathers, Murray Warmath, Bowden Wyatt, George Cafego, Ray Graves, Doug Atkins, Johnny Majors, Bob Johnson, Phillip Fulmer, Stanley Morgan, Reggie White, Clyde Duncan, Heath Shuler, Creator/PeytonManning, Tee Martin, Jamal Lewis, Travis Henry, Albert Haynesworth, Onterrio Smith[[labelnote:*]]Transferred to Oregon after being kicked off the Vols for failed drug tests.[[/labelnote]], Donté Stallworth, Jason Witten, Dustin Colquitt, Arian Foster, Eric Berry, Cordarrelle Patterson, Alvin Kamara\\

The program first rose to national prominence under coach Howard Jones, who led them to four national title claims during his tenure (1925-40). Said tenure fell in the middle of a streak of nine straight bowl wins over the span of two decades back when the only such "bowl" was the Rose Bowl (and a one-off "Christmas Festival" in '24); this stood as the longest bowl win streak for decades and is still tied for the second longest. The school became more of a regional power after Jones' tenure was cut short by his sudden death from a heart attack, but they entered a golden age in the '60s and '70s under coaches John [=McKay=] and John Robinson. USC claimed five national titles in this era, with their success being partially attributed to their embrace of African-American talent that helped them to steamroll segregated teams in the South. They regressed to regional status the '80s and '90s only to go on ''another'' run of national title wins in the 2000s under Pete Carroll, helping to fill the football void formed in Los Angeles after the departure of both of its NFL teams. In addition to the aforementioned Bush, the program also saw two of its [=QBs=], Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart, claim the Heisman. However, the school landed in hot water for allegedly paying players like Bush and faced numerous sanctions, including forcing Bush to return his Heisman and dissociate completely from his school.[[note]]Without this disqualification, USC would be tied with Notre Dame, Ohio State, and Oklahoma for most Heisman winners.[[/note]] The program has regressed back to being more of a local power since then, though their name still holds a great deal of clout, enough to poach HC Lincoln Riley and the school's future eighth Heisman winner, QB Caleb Williams, from Oklahoma in 2022. USC's history and name recognition made the more prestigious (and profitable) Big Ten come calling, and the departure of the program from the Pac-12 was the first domino to fall in that conference's demise.\\\

'''Stanford University''' is easily the most academically prestigious school to also host an FBS football program, regularly ranking in the top 10 universities in the nation. That's not to say that they are any slouches athletically; in fact, the situation is [[AcademicAthlete quite the opposite]]. Stanford's sports teams have collectively earned the school the "Directors' Cup" given to the D-I program for the [[BadassBookworm strongest overall athletics program]] ''nearly every year'' since the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics began awarding it in 1993 (the exceptions being 1993-94, 2020-21, and 2021–22, when they came in second place). This dominance is largely because the private university can afford to sponsor ''36'' sports teams. These teams have won the school ''135 NCAA championships'' as of April 2024, the most of any D-I school, with at least one every year since ''1976''.[[note]]Go to The Other Wiki for the full list; the most dominant programs with double-digit national titles include men's water polo (11), women's swimming (11), and tennis for both genders (17/20).[[/note]]\\\

'''Stanford University''' is easily the most academically prestigious school to also host an FBS football program, regularly ranking in the top 10 universities in the nation. That's not to say that they are any slouches athletically; in fact, the situation is [[AcademicAthlete quite the opposite]]. Stanford's sports teams have collectively earned the school the "Directors' Cup" given to the D-I program for the [[BadassBookworm strongest overall athletics program]] ''nearly every year'' since the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics began awarding it in 1993 (the exceptions being 1993-94, 2020-21, and 2021–22, when they came in second place). This dominance is largely because the private university can afford to sponsor ''36'' sports teams. These teams have won the school ''134 NCAA championships'' as of April 2024, the most of any D-I school, with at least one every year since ''1976''.[[note]]Go to The Other Wiki for the full list; the most dominant programs with double-digit national titles include men's water polo (11), women's swimming (11), and tennis for both genders (17/20).[[/note]]\\\

'''Notable Historic Players:''' Walter A. Gordon, Roy Riegels, John Ralston, Les Richter, Joe Kapp, Craig Morton, Isaac Curtis[[labelnote:*]]ended his college career at San Diego State[[/labelnote]], Herm Edwards[[labelnote:*]]also ended his college career at San Diego State[[/labelnote]], Vince Ferragamo[[labelnote:*]]ended his college career at Nebraska[[/labelnote]], Steve Bartkowski, Joe Roth, Chuck Muncie, Robert Rozier, Jim Breech, Rich Campbell, Ron Rivera, Hardy Nickerson, David Binn, Tony Gonzalez, Kyle Boller, Nnamdi Asomugha, Aaron Rodgers, Marshawn Lynch, L.P. Ladouceur, [=DeSean=] Jackson, Jahvid Best, Cam Jordan, Keenan Allen, Jared Goff\\

'''Notable Historic Players:''' Curley Byrd, Jack Scarbath, Stan Jones, Gary Collins, Randy White, Neil O'Donnell, Mike Tice, Frank Reich, Boomer Esiason, Kevin Plank, Vernon Davis, Darrius Heyward-Bey, Stefon Diggs, Jordan [=McNair=], Taulia Tagovailoa\\

'''Conference Affiliations:''' Ind. (1912-62[[note]]Did not play consistently year-to-year until 1946.[[/note]], 1975-95), MVC (1963-74), C-USA (1996-2004), Big East (2005-12), American (2013), ACC (2014-)\\

'''Conference Championships:''' 8 (2 MVC – 1970, 1972; 3 CUSA – 2000-01, 2004; 3 Big East – 2006, 2011-12)

The '''University of Louisville''' (or just "U of L") traces its history back to the late 1700s, though it took several starts and stops for it to take its current shape as a public state school. The Cards likewise had a rocky start to their football program, putting it on pause several times before Frank Camp revived it after World War II. Camp coached the independent program for over two decades, bringing them to a single bowl game. For decades, U of L was known pretty much only as where Johnny Unitas got his start, Lee Corso had his only real success as a head coach with two conference titles during the school's time in the Missouri Valley Conference, and Denny Crum coached a great basketball program. It gained more fame for football when Howard Schnellenberger tried to replicate his success in Miami by reviving his hometown school. He quit after the school joined CUSA in 1996, believing being in a weak conference would ensure they couldn't compete for a national title, but that decision ultimately helped make the Cards bowl contenders. Bobby Petrino took the team to national prominence, helping it make the leap to the Big East in 2005 and win the conference title the following year; he jumped ship to the pros, and the Cards to briefly collapsed in his wake. After other coaches rebuilt the program to strength in the collapsing Big East, the school entered the ACC, brought Petrino back, and welcomed its first Heisman winner, electric multi-threat QB Lamar Jackson. Petrino's team collapsed without Jackson, however, and the program has mostly regressed since (though it made the ACC title game in 2023).\\\

The '''University of UsefulNotes/{{Miami}}''' is a large private school that was a football (and baseball) powerhouse from the 1980s through the 2000s, having so much success that only the most diehard college fans need to emphasize that it's the FBS "Miami" from Florida rather than Ohio (though its location in the city probably helps with that). In fact, Miami was ''so'' dominant for a time that students and fans now just call it "The U"; all other universities need not apply.[[note]]Except in Utah; see the Utah Utes entry in the Big 12 folder.[[/note]] Its football program wasn't always so renowned, however, and in fact was on the verge of collapse or Division I-AA relegation after a fairly disastrous 1970s. Coach Howard Schnellenberger saved the program after his hiring in 1979, delivering on a promise to get the school a national championship in five years before immediately departing for a job opportunity in the pros. This set a precedent that was followed by both of his successors, Jimmy Johnson and Dennis Erickson, who both took the Canes to national titles (1987 and 1989/91, respectively) but left quickly for pro coaching gigs. The U likewise developed a reputation as an NFL talent factory and produced two Heisman-winning [=QBs=], Vinny Testaverde and Gino Toretta. For nearly a full decade (October 1985-September 1994), the Canes did not lose a single home game at the Orange Bowl, a 58-game streak that is the longest in NCAA history. After nearly half a century as an independent, they joined the Big East in 1991.\\\

'''National Championships:''' 3 (1935, 1981-82)[[note]]The '80s titles were both granted by a single selector due to the school being under probation for recruiting violations.[[/note]]\\

The private '''Syracuse University''' (affectionately "Cuse") in upstate New York is better known in athletics for its prestigious basketball program (with three national championships and an active streak of 52 straight winning seasons), dominant men's lacrosse program (with ''11'' NCAA championships[[note]]Technically "only" 10 since one was vacated due to player payment infractions... but that's still the record (plus they won five before the NCAA era; the Orange ''love'' their lacrosse).[[/note]]), and the most prolific school of sports journalism in the nation. Its football team has been something of an afterthought in recent years, but it wasn't always that way. In the early 20th century, their team was quite strong, helped by the progressive college being one of the first schools to racially integrate its athletic program. SU truly ascended under Ben Schwartzwalder, who coached the team for over two decades (1949-73), won a national title in 1959, and made Syracuse into an absolute factory for legendary running backs. Several of these players, most notably the legendary trio of Jim Brown, Ernie Davis, and Floyd Little, wore #44. The number's legend only grew when Davis became the first African-American player (and only Orangeman) to win the Heisman, only to tragically die of cancer shortly after being drafted #1 overall. The program faded in the '70s, but Dick [=MacPherson=] coached them back to bowl contention in the '80s (including going undefeated in '87). After decades as an independent, they joined the Big East in 1991 and performed well there, winning three straight conference titles with Donovan [=McNabb=] under center. Unfortunately, the team regressed in the mid-2000s and has never fully recovered, with NCAA sanctions from a pay-to-play scandal only adding to the team's troubles.\\\

The '''University of Virginia''', or simply UVA, is one of the most historic and esteemed institutions of learning in the United States, having been founded by UsefulNotes/ThomasJefferson himself as the first secular university in North America. The school also does well in many sports, most notably men's soccer and lacrosse (seven national titles apiece). Their football history has been much spottier. Virginia had a very solid early start as one of the South's first football powerhouses, helping found the SIAA, [=SoCon=], and the ACC and serving as regional power when the sport was first introduced. However, the Cavaliers (or the "Wahoos", as they are more widely known by fans) have been a fairly poor team since 1950, when the school chose to deemphasize football; they posted a then-record-tying 28 straight losses across two no-win seasons to round out the decade, a streak only since surpassed by Northwestern. UVA rose back to football prominence during the 19-year tenure of George Welsh in the '80s and '90s, though even then they were never a real force outside of their conference, and they're once again in the middle of the pack at best. In 2022, the college became the site of a deadly on-campus shooting carried out by a former player that claimed the lives of three current players and wounded a fourth.\\\

Now, about "Hokie": It's a nonsense celebratory word from the team's historic fight song and yet ''still'' is an improvement from other name the team used in its early year, the "Fighting Gobblers" (though their mascot remains a turkey). The team is also notable for its pregame entrance, which features cannon fire from "Skipper" (a callback to the school's military roots) and Music/{{Metallica}}'s "Enter Sandman". The band has taken part in the intro (via prerecorded video) a couple of times.

The school's very name is an ArtifactTitle. It was originally on a plantation in an area north of Raleigh known as the "Forest of Wake" (as in Wake County). A town eventually grew up around the school, taking the name of Wake Forest. The university moved to Winston-Salem in 1956 after the Reynolds family of tobacco fame made massive donations, including more than enough land for a new campus.[[note]]Wake Forest's medical school had already made the move to Winston-Salem in 1941. WFU had agreed to move to Winston-Salem in 1946; in the meantime, the state's Southern Baptist governing body established the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1950, holding classes at WFU. The university sold its original campus to the seminary.[[/note]] The unique "Demon Deacons" nickname traces back to its origins as a Baptist school for training clergy; a reporter stated that their team "played like Demons" after a 1923 game, and the name stuck. The Deacons attempt to keep up rivalries with the other North Carolina ACC programs on "Tobacco Road", but none of them are especially competitive. In fitting with their school's size and poor football reputation, Allegacy FCU Stadium is the smallest Power Five stadium.[[note]]Two other Power Five stadiums were smaller in recent years due to renovations--Oregon State's Reser Stadium in 2022 and Vanderbilt's [=FirstBank=] Stadium in 2023.[[/note]]

The Golden Gophers (a classed-up version of Minnesota's "Gopher State" nickname) currently play in one of the newer Big 10 venues. Their home for most of the team's glory years, old Memorial Stadium, was demolished in the early '80s when the Gophers moved into the Metrodome. This move was blamed by many as a major contributor to the program's decline, as the university played third-fiddle to the Twin Cities' NFL and MLB teams, lost a great deal of income for the athletic program, and diminished their home field advantage and football culture. The school built the current stadium in 2009 (ironically at a perfect time to host the Vikings for a time after the Metrodome collapsed). While most of the school's Big 10 rivalries have been relatively one-sided for several decades, Minnesota has the distinction of inventing the first rivalry trophy (the "Little Brown Jug", which has been fought over in games against Michigan since 1909) and is one half of the most played rivalry in FBS football (with Wisconsin). Currently, the school's most successful NCAA sport is ice hockey, with the men having won five national titles and the women seven.[[labelnote:*]]Not counting two claimed men's and one claimed women's title dating from before the NCAA sponsored a championship.[[/labelnote]] However, its most nationally successful team is the ''dance team'', which has won ''19'' national championships in jazz and pom in the 21st century; the dance team and cheerleading squad have a collective page on [[Website/{{Wikipedia}} The Other Wiki]]. (See the Kentucky Wildcats in the SEC folder for a similar phenomenon.)

'''Stadium:''' Martin Athletics Facility[[note]]Temporary stadium to be built on-campus, capacity TBA; see more below.[[/note]]\\

The Wildcats' most successful sport by far has been women's lacrosse, with eight national titles (2005-12, 2023).[[note]]The school's only other national team titles are one in fencing, a sport it no longer sponsors, and one in field hockey.[[/note]] This stretch marked the only time a school outside the Eastern time zone has won a D-I title in women's lacrosse, but the school's not ''that'' far off from lacrosse's base: "Northwestern" is a NonIndicativeName / ArtifactTitle, as the picturesque main campus is located in a Chicago suburb on the shores of Lake Michigan (i.e. the "Northwest" of the 19th century United States). Ryan Field (known as Dyche Stadium for most of its history), the Wildcats' home from 1926–2023, was notable as the only FBS stadium of the modern era that never installed permanent lighting. However, demolition began in 2024, with construction on a completely new (and fully lighted) 35,000-seat Ryan Field penciled in for a 2026 opening. In the meantime, NU will follow the lead of Hawaiʻi (see the Group of Five page) by putting up temporary bleachers on one of its practice fields on the shore of Lake Michigan and using that facility for most home games, with select games using other Chicago-area venues.

[[caption-width-right:300:[[labelnote:Click here for a map of the [=B12=] schools.]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/b12_map_2024.png[[/labelnote]]]]

The Wildcats' most successful sport by far has been women's lacrosse, with eight national titles (2005-12, 2023).[[note]]The school's only other national team titles are one in fencing, a sport it no longer sponsors, and one in field hockey.[[/note]] This stretch marked the only time a school outside the Eastern time zone has won a D-I title in women's lacrosse, but the school's not ''that'' far off from lacrosse's base: "Northwestern" is a NonIndicativeName / ArtifactTitle, as the picturesque main campus is located in a Chicago suburb on the shores of Lake Michigan (i.e. the "Northwest" of the 19th century United States). Ryan Field (known as Dyche Stadium for most of its history), the Wildcats' home from 1926–2023, was notable as the only FBS stadium of the modern era that never installed permanent lighting. However, demolition began in 2024, with construction on a completely new (and fully lighted) 35,000-seat Ryan Field penciled in for a 2026 opening. In the meantime, NU will follow the lead of Hawaiʻi (see the Group of Five page) by putting up temporary bleachers on one of its practice fields and using that facility for most home games, with select games using other Chicago-area venues.

'''Stadium:''' TBA\\

The Wildcats' most successful sport by far has been women's lacrosse, with eight national titles (2005-12, 2023).[[note]]The school's only other national team titles are one in fencing, a sport it no longer sponsors, and one in field hockey.[[/note]] This stretch marked the only time a school outside the Eastern time zone has won a D-I title in women's lacrosse, but the school's not ''that'' far off from lacrosse's base: "Northwestern" is a NonIndicativeName / ArtifactTitle, as the picturesque main campus is located in a Chicago suburb on the shores of Lake Michigan (i.e. the "Northwest" of the 19th century United States). Ryan Field (known as Dyche Stadium for most of its history), the Wildcats' home from 1926–2023, was notable as the only FBS stadium of the modern era that never installed permanent lighting. However, demolition began in 2024, with construction on a completely new (and fully lighted) 35,000-seat Ryan Field penciled in for a 2026 opening.

'''Conference Championships:''' 8 (2 MVC – 1970, 1972; 3 C-USA – 2000-01, 2004; 3 Big East – 2006, 2011-12)

The '''University of Louisville''' (or just "U of L") traces its history back to the late 1700s, though it took several starts and stops for it to take its current shape as a public state school. The Cards likewise had a rocky start to their football program, putting it on pause several times before Frank Camp revived it after World War II. Camp coached the independent program for over two decades, bringing them to a single bowl game. For decades, U of L was known pretty much only as where Johnny Unitas got his start, Lee Corso had his only real success as a head coach with two conference titles during the school's time in the Missouri Valley Conference, and Denny Crum coached a great basketball program. It gained more fame for football when Howard Schnellenberger tried to replicate his success in Miami by reviving his hometown school. He quit after the school joined C-USA in 1996, believing being in a weak conference would ensure they couldn't compete for a national title, but that decision ultimately helped make the Cards bowl contenders. Bobby Petrino took the team to national prominence, helping it make the leap to the Big East in 2005 and win the conference title the following year; he jumped ship to the pros, and the Cards to briefly collapsed in his wake. After other coaches rebuilt the program to strength in the collapsing Big East, the school entered the ACC, brought Petrino back, and welcomed its first Heisman winner, electric multi-threat QB Lamar Jackson. Petrino's team collapsed without Jackson, however, and the program has mostly regressed since (though it made the ACC title game in 2023).\\\

'''Current Head Coach:''' Nunzio Campanile (interim)\\

The Big 12 is also [[InsistentTerminology unusually insistent]] that their conference name not be written "Big Twelve" or "Big XII"... [[EpicFail despite the official logo consisting primarily of a large "XII"]]. Despite having a full round-robin regular season format and no divisions, they still hold a championship game for their top two seeded teams.

'''Mississippi State University''' (or just "State", as it's known to one and all in Mississippi) is a land-grant school with all the tropes that attach to it. The Bulldogs have long been known for sports teams with a bad case of EveryYearTheyFizzleOut, an incredibly bitter rivalry with Ole Miss whose football version is known as the "Egg Bowl",[[note]]named after its trophy, featuring a gold-plated old-time football that looks to modern eyes like a big egg[[/note]] and "More Cowbell"... literally. State fans have a decades-long tradition of bringing cowbells to games to use as noisemakers; the SEC tried to ban them, but State managed to keep them by getting fans to limit their use to specific times when they'd be less likely to interfere with game action. The hatred for Ole Miss has a SlobsVersusSnobs flavor (State fans being cast as the latter) and bitter enough that State fans yell "Go to hell, Ole Miss!" at ''every'' opening kickoff, regardless of the opponent.\\\

The '''University of South Carolina''' has typically underachieved in football. It was a founding member of the ACC but dipped when it felt like North Carolinian schools were being favored, joining the SEC in 1992 after years as an independent and struggling to assert itself in the tough league, bottoming out with a winless 1999 season. The school has had its moments, though: it produced a Heisman winner in RB George Rogers in 1980, had a solid run of success under Steve Spurrier from 2005-14 after his return from coaching in the pros, and has been somewhat competitive under current coach Shane Beamer (son of the Virginia Tech coaching legend).\\\

The '''University of Tennessee, Knoxville''' (the oldest secular college west of the Appalachians) is well known for its powerful women's basketball program (having won eight national titles), but there's little question that football is the school's most popular attraction. The Volunteers are a traditional power in the SEC, with Brigadier General Robert Neyland leading the team to four national championships in the early 20th century during his quarter-century with the program (1926-34, 1936-40, 1946-52), including an undefeated 1938 season. Doug Dickey (1964-69) took them to another claimed title in the '60s, and Phillip Fulmer (1992-2008) guided them through their most recent run of success, producing the great Peyton Manning and posting an undefeated championship season the year after his departure for the NFL (and the first year of the BCS era). Unfortunately, the program seriously stalled in the 2010s after Fulmer's firing, with four straight losing seasons after not having had consecutive ones in nearly a century and coming nowhere close to national contention until 2022.\\\

The Vols' home in Neyland Stadium is one of the most distinctive venues in the world. Its original design was created by its namesake coach, and its orange and white checkerboard end zones designed by Dickey are some of the most recognizable iconography in college football. Lying on the banks of the Tennessee River, it's the third of the three FBS venues accessible by boat. For a brief time in the 1990s, it was also the largest non-motorsports stadium in the Western Hemisphere until Michigan expanded their stadium to reclaim the record. Speaking of motorsports, the Vols won The Battle at Bristol, a 2016 game against Virginia Tech (final score was 45-24) held at the [[UsefulNotes/{{NASCAR}} Bristol Motor Speedway]] that holds the all-time attendance record for an American football game on any level, which, depending on your preference, was either 156,990 spectators (the paid attendance, which the NCAA counts) or 130,045 (the number of tickets actually scanned at the venue on game night, the figure ''Literature/GuinnessWorldRecords'' cites). While the team is named the Volunteers, their mascot is a real coonhound named Smokey.

There's good reason for that fame, as the Longhorns have been dominant on the football field for most of their history. After spending the early 20th century as a regional power that occasionally rose to national title contention, their most famous era came under coach Darrell Royal, who became the namesake of Texas' massive stadium by claiming three national titles during his two-decade tenure (1957–76). The year after Royal's retirement, Texas produced its first Heisman winner in legendary RB Earl Campbell. Texas' most recent run of success came under HC Mack Brown in the 2000s, whose tenure kicked off to a strong start with another Heisman-winning RB in Ricky Williams and peaked with an undefeated 2005 national championship season led by superstar QB Vince Young. Unfortunately, the team has largely faltered in the 2010s, with its middling performance on the field not living up to the massive expectations of its huge fanbase; it took over a decade for the Horns to win a final Big 12 title and reach the CFP, ''right'' before they hopped to the SEC.\\\

'''Texas A&M University''' takes the concept of "college" to a [[EverythingIsBigInTexas Texas-sized level]]; the public university and senior military college dominates the city of College Station (located square in the center of Dallas/Fort Worth, Austin/San Antonio, and Houston, in a region known as "Aggieland"), is home to the UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush Presidential Library, and has the largest single-campus student population of any FBS university at around 73,000.[[note]]At least, ''resident'' student population. Liberty (see the [[UsefulNotes/GroupOfFiveConferences Group of 5 page]]) has a noticeably larger total enrollment, but that's only because of its massive online operation. Big 12 member UCF is a little bit smaller than A&M but has more undergraduates. Arizona State has more on-campus students, but its enrollment is split between four Phoenix-area campuses.[[/note]] As one might expect from a school so steeped in tradition, football is a ''very'' big deal here, and the fans are rabid, so much so that they are collectively known as the "12th man", a concept that the school trademarked and leases out to other teams (most notably the NFL's Seattle Seahawks). While ''many'' college fanbases in the U.S. have the air of religious fanaticism, Aggie students take it to the next level, assembling for a "Midnight Yell" practice in the massive Kyle Field the night before every game to perfect their chants and get riled up for the day's battle.[[note]]Students also used to build record-breaking bonfires the night before games against Texas; this ceased to be endorsed by the school once 12 people died from one collapsing in 1999.[[/note]] In return, the program goes the extra mile to honor walk-ons, always involving at least one in their kickoffs. The "Yell Leaders", who lead "Yell Practice" and appear at all A&M football games and many other sports events, also have their own page on The Other Wiki, and are unique in a couple of respects. First, they're elected by the student body, with Yell Leader elections sometimes turning out more than twice as many students as elections for student body president. Second, they're (for now) a rare modern-day example of an all-male cheerleading squad (though A&M also has a more traditional, and coed, cheerleading squad).[[note]]While women are eligible to be elected Yell Leaders, none have been to date.[[/note]] Also, Yell Leaders are traditionally members of the school's Corps of Cadets, though "non-regs" (Aggie slang for non-cadets) have occasionally been elected.\\\

The Aggies were an early 20th century power, claiming three national championships under Dana X. Bible and Homer Norton. However, they largely fell away from relevance after WWII, only seeing success in the '50s during Bear Bryant's brief pre-Bama tenure (famous for his "Junction Boys" squad and the school's first Heisman winner, RB/TE John David Crow) and putting up just a single winning record in the 1960s. They bounced back in the '70s under wishbone pioneer Emory Bellard. R.C. Slocum became the school's winningest coach during his tenure (1989-2002), but their undefeated 10-0-1 1994 season went unseen by national audiences due to an NCAA TV ban for paying players. After somewhat struggling through the 2000s, the program made the jump from the Big 12 to the SEC in 2012, breaking up their longstanding rivalry with the Texas Longhorns. Rather than be swallowed up in college football's toughest conference as some had expected, they saw instant success thanks in part to Johnny Manziel, the first freshman QB to ever win the Heisman. Though they regressed from that dominance in subsequent seasons, the program has ''mostly'' managed to hang on and remain competitive in their extremely tough division. When NIL deals were legalized in 2021, Texas A&M immediately leaped Alabama to collect a historically strong #1 recruiting class, which everyone ''but'' the university itself identified as a sign that the school's wealthy boosters and alumni were finally free to pour their money into bidding for high school talent. The program notably failed to qualify for a bowl that year and later fired their head coach Jimbo Fisher with over $70 million left on his contract; it remains to be seen if this pay-to-win strategy will help return the school to competing for national titles.